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THE artist in her studio in Aravaca, Madrid MANNY MIÑANA
Homage of Life, one of the paintings featured in the Retrospective at the MET MANNY MIÑANA
The Artist’s Studio in Makati MANNY MIÑANA
IT IS believed that we are a sum of our surroundings. Judging from portraits of her by other artists (including one by Fernando Amorsolo), Betsy Westendorp, one of the grandes dames of Philippine art, had been and continues to be a beautiful woman at the age of 93. She was surrounded by beautiful people and beautiful things, and in such a setting, nothing else but beauty is expected. The rarefied world that Ms. Westendorp lived in seemed to be a set path: to paint society portraits; then paint something beautiful; then see those hung on either the homes or the offices of the powerful she painted. Her works then serve as a salve, and an escape from this world, and an exercise in the purpose of beauty.