An exhibition on the life, love, and legacy of Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino – now at the Yuchengco Museum, Makati.

On view at the Yuchengco Museum through July 11, Pasts Revisited offers a rare chance to encounter historians Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino as they have never been seen before — not as icons in a textbook, but as two Filipinos bound together by love, scholarship, and a shared mission to decolonize Philippine history.

The exhibition showcases letters, never-before-seen book manuscripts, and other rare artifacts. Revealed to the public for the first time are works of art given to the couple by National Artist Vicente Manansala and celebrated painters Malang and Araceli Dans — alongside photos with friends such as Sen. Claro M. Recto and Sen. Lorenzo Tañada, and handwritten notes from historians William Henry Scott, Doreen Fernandez, and Edilberto Alegre.

The exhibit also features new contemporary art by 350 Pilipinas volunteers — expressions of a usable history, the concept advanced by the Constantinos to encourage Filipinos to use lessons from the past to shape a sustainable and fair future.

Pasts Revisited is a partnership between the Constantino Foundation and the Yuchengco Museum, created to house the art collection of Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco.

 

In design, perhaps the most difficult pursuit is honesty—honesty in the use of line, shape, and color; honesty in the orchestration of balance, harmony, and movement; and, above all, honesty in service of the subject itself, revealing its essence without obscuring it beneath ornamentation or borloloy.

When the opportunity arose to tell the story of Renato and Letizia—their enduring legacy, their life’s work, and the profound imprint they have left on all of us—and to mount this exhibition at the Yuchengco Museum, no less, I was filled with both awe and anxiety. The circular space was in itself a challenge! But more importantly, how does one begin to contain the breadth of two lives so richly lived, or do justice to the depth of their contributions?

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