Portrait of Sabel
signed and dated 1976 (lower right)
etching 11/X (2/10)
14 1/2” x 11 1/2” (37 cm x 29 cm)

Benedicto Cabrera began to assert himself in the graphic art of his country, curiously enough, not in Manila but in London, where he and his English wife settled after the 1969 Biennial in Paris. One theme which invariably haunts expatriate artists like Bencab is that of a national or a cultural identity. It was from London that he started the Scavenger Series of etchings, whose imagery of city destitutes originated during the late sixties when he worked as an illustrator for the Manila Times.

Cropping has always been Bencab’s trademark from the very start. The intent is to focus on a specific area by holding up to the viewer some element which the eye tends to disregard ordinarily. By zooming in, he is able to obliterate the original image and achieve an abstract configuration. Bencab’s theatrical deployment of figures defines the basic structure of his compositions. This is the pivotal importance to the way he articulates space: a well-defined construction, often geometrized with squares and rectangles.