Roberto Chabet

Father of Conceptual Art

Roberto “Bobby” Chabet (b. 1937, d. 2013) was a renowned Filipino conceptual artist whose work played a fundamental role in the emergence of contemporary art in the Philippines. Widely acknowledged as the “most influential Filipino artist of the postwar generation,” Chabet’s diverse works sought for a more inclusive method to art. Escaping the inflexibility of the rigid structures brought by 1960s Modernism, he undertook a passionate quest for meaning not just in abstraction but also in the value of unadorned commonplace objects in everyday life.

Chabet graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Architecture in 1961. That same year, he held his first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery in Manila. A curator as well as a professor, he was the founding Museum Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) from 1967 to 1970, where he pioneered the prestigious ‘Thirteen Artists Award.’ Subsequently, he ignited the historic Shop 6 - composed of conceptual artists such as Joy Dayrit, Joe Bautista, and Rodolfo Gan during Martial Law. He taught at the UP Diliman College of Fine Arts for over thirty years, and was the recipient of a number of esteemed awards such as the JD Rockefeller III Fund Grant (1967-1968), the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1972), and the CCP Centennial Award of Honors for the Arts (1998), among others.

Visit the Ateneo Art Gallery!

Address

Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté
Ateneo de Manila University
Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights
Quezon City, Manila, Philippines 1108

Get Directions Navigate Using Waze

Contact

Telephone

+632 8426 6001 loc. 5392

Telephone

+632 8426 6488

Email

aag@ateneo.edu

Social Media

Facebook

@ateneoartgallery

Instagram

@ateneoartgallery

Twitter

@ateneogallery

Copyright 2024 Ateneo Art Gallery - Ateneo de Manila University.
Powered by Passion.