ABOUT THE WORK

          
          With the searching truthfulness of his vision and the powerful directness of his brushwork, it would not be difficult to recognize the work of Benedicto Cabrera.
          The standing peddler like he is being pushed by the realities of survival. Bencab used this as a metaphor of the greater forces they were actually fighting against. The greater forces that he wanted to show that the subject is quietly trying to fight is poverty.
          As a painter, Bencab is one of the pioneers of realistic treatment  of subjects, which he treated with a point of view critical of class  distinctions.
          Cabrera acknowledged the female german artist Kathe Kollwitz as having had the greatest influence on his works, especially those dealing with the lower cases like beggars, scavengers, laborers, and the mother and child theme.
          Later, Cabrera became concerned with the Philippines’ colonial past. Based on old photographs, his later paintings took on the form of social commentaries on the influences of the American and Spanish colonizers.