In a long-running career, Spanish-born painter Betsy Westendorp has captured the likeness of her many subjects, living or not, with pristine precision that is essential to her personal brand of realism.
After over 40 years of translating onto canvas her perception and memory of others, it is now the artist’s turn to be herself a subject and looked at with the same intensity that she has put into her work. “Betsy Westendorp: Portrait of an Artist” is that spotlight.
The exhibition is a culminating activity of sorts for Westendorp, who is widely known for her portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes. It will feature a well-rounded medley of works she has kept in her personal collection through the years.
Her newest compilation, a “skyscape” series fondly called “atmosferografias” (a Spanish word no longer in common use) by the artist and her friends, shows various depictions of the heavens, which Westendorp often admired from her former home that fronted the Manila Bay.
“The beauty of the Manila Bay sunset is incredible. For many years, it has taken my fancy,” Westendorp said.
It was when Westendorp started painting pictures that portrayed the everyday hustle and bustle by the bay, such as passing boats and working fishermen, when an art critic-friend of hers pointed out that majority of what she was actually capturing on canvas was a reflection of the sky unadulterated on the calm waters of Manila Bay.
Daily ritual
This particular series will always strike Westendorp more than others as it was started by a daily ritual she shared with her husband when they had first moved to the Philippines in the ’50s—driving along Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas) at sundown to bask in the ever-changing luminosities of the well-loved Philippine sunset.
Even when the Manila Bay reclamation projects pushed the sea farther and structures gradually obstructed the once-majestic view, the play of light, color, and overlapping figures never left the artist’s mind.
Now a resident of Makati, Westendorp recapitulates the raw emotions and states of mind that were inspired by the sunsets she had once so intimately enjoyed with her late spouse as makes her “personal journey into the sublime.”
Alongside atmosferografias is the artist’s collection of accomplished portraits, which includes her own. Just as how the sea once reflected Westendorp’s favorite skies, it is fitting that as she has just finished her self-portrait, the exhibit now mirrors her and her life as an artist as well.
Even as a child, Westendorp was already a portraitist. In fact, her first exhibit in Madrid in 1971 was an anthology of faces. The artist gained quite a reputation in portraiture after that and was eventually commissioned to do the pictures of many prominent individuals such as Princess Margaret Countess of Snowdon (Great Britain), the 18th Duchess of Alba de Torres (Spain), and Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, among others.
When it comes to portraiture, Westendorp is known for her lightness of hand and her fidelity to detail.
“There are portrait painters who make portraits that do resemble the person, but in a very distorted way,” she said. “Then this is when the viewers sometimes think that it is because of the distortion that they (the artists) have captured the soul. I don’t think souls are distorted.”
Accompanying the portraits are other unveiled still-life works and documentation of her portrait sessions with members of high society here and abroad.
Although Westendorp is lauded for her technique as a portrait artist, she admits that she does not miss doing portraits. But she does cherish the solid friendships that bloomed through her portraiture.
Freedom
At the moment, she is ecstatic to be able to paint her beloved skies and clouds, where her hands move freely and colors glide on canvas spontaneously.
“I was missing what I’m having now—freedom. In a portrait, although the relationship between sitter and painter is important, in a way, you don’t have the freedom to do what you want to because a portrait, for my idea, must look like the subject and that is slavery,” said Westendorp, with overflowing excitement for the breath of fresh air that is her atmospherics.
Westendorp’s constant evolution is even mimicked by the exhibit’s curation, a collaboration between Eva McGovern and architect Ramon Antonio.
McGovern explained how they created “a very special experience for viewers” as Antonio juxtaposes the usual museum-gallery display by partnering it with an area built to resemble a living room.
The living space, perhaps that of a collector’s or of Westendorp’s herself, will be where onlookers can get a sense of how people live with Westendorp’s obras maestras.
Visitors will even get the chance to interact with the artist, as she will be present through the duration of the show.
Angkor Wat
Reinvigorated by the outcome of this exhibition and her latest pieces, the octogenarian gushed about what she wants to work on next—the virgin ruins of Angkor Wat.
Westendorp fell in love with the Cambodian temple city during a very memorable trip with her husband, but was unable to stay longer and paint the scenery because they had to leave for business. She described the temples that made the biggest impression on her, which were then untouched and unkempt; breathtaking images that linger still in Westendorp’s memory. She intends to immortalize these, too.
When asked if she desires to travel there again to see how much Angkor Wat has changed since her last visit, Westendorp smiled and explained that for her art, she would only rely on memory, as she has all this time.
With a lighthearted amusement that may come with a seldom-found realization of one’s self and what one has already achieved, Westendorp said, “For my age, which is a lot, sometimes we have to live off memory. We have a long way to look back—very little to look forward to.”
“Betsy Westendorp: Portrait of an Artist” is presented by Manila Contemporary in collaboration with Galleria Duemila. Exhibit runs Jan. 17-Feb. 10 at the Manila Contemporary in Magallanes, Makati City.