RENOWNED Thomasian artist Edgar Doctor unveiled his never-before-seen drawings of the brutal realities of Martial Law during the 1970s in his exhibit “Alaala ng Martial Law” mounted at the Ateneo Art Gallery in Katipunan.
The exhibit, which was opened to the public on Sept. 15 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972, features Doctor’s pen and ink drawings from 1971 to 1974.
“Ang mga iginuhit na ito ay batay lamang sa aking nasaksihan, narinig, at naramdaman sa pulso ng publiko noong panahon ng Martial Law,” Doctor, a fine arts alumnus, explained in a short note about the exhibit.
Doctor’s style in this exhibition seemingly deviates from his usual landscape watercolor paintings as the black-and-white drawings portray pain, harassment, death, and the struggle to fight the Marcos dictatorship.
The drawings are also in contrast to the historical distortions proclaiming the 21-year rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. as the country’s “Golden Age.”
The earliest work, titled “Nagbabadya ng Pagkubkob,” was drawn in 1971. It features a group of armed soldiers glaring at a family, which depicts the strong military presence in the Philippines even before the declaration of Martial Law in 1972.
Below it, the 1972 drawing titled “Wala na” features skulls, showing how death immediately followed the Martial Law declaration.
In his next drawing, “Beauty Queen ’73,” Doctor vaguely documents Miss Universe 1973 Margie Moran’s win in the pageant as he drew a woman’s body with a sash that read “Miss Beautiful.”
“Beauty Queen ’73” was framed with “Masarap Ba?,” a drawing that features a man resembling Marcos Sr., munching peso bills in his mouth while holding more bills with his two hands.
Doctor also presented three series of drawings.
“Timping Alimpuyo,” which Doctor drew from 1971 to 1974, features nine works that illustrate the tempered struggle of Filipinos to fight the dictatorship, as shown in the artist’s controlled use of lines in the drawing.
Doctor gets rid of these controlled lines in “Alingawngaw sa Pagtutol,” a collection of seven works drawn from 1972 to 1973 that depict the Filipinos openly fighting the Marcos regime.
Doctor also shows the Marcoses’ tendency to favor their cronies in three drawings titled “Mga Pinagpala.”
The fine arts alumnus’s exhibit is presented alongside award-winning documentary photographer Rick Rocamora’s “Dark Memories: Torture, Incarceration, Disappearance, and Death During Martial Law.”
Rocamora’s exhibit narrates the experiences of Martial Law victims, survivors, and their families and friends through 49 black-and-white portraits and their firsthand accounts of their experiences under the Marcos dictatorship.
The exhibits will run until March 18.
