1.

The art of the Philippines is reflective of the diversity, richness and uniqueness of Filipino

culture. It began during the pre-historic era which is signified by the various paintings and

artworks found on the walls of the caves discovered throughout the region. However,

Filipino Art, as we know today, began with colonization of the region by Spain in the early

16th century. The Spanish introduced Christianity to Philippines and art of the period was

majorly influenced by religion. It thus reflects the religious propaganda through the

country. Art played a significant role in the spread of Catholicism in the Philippines. Traditional art is a
part of a culture of a certain group of people, with skills and knowledge

passed down through generations from masters to apprentices. It portrays the simple life

before the massive growth of a country.

2. During the first half of the 20th century, American influence made the
Philippines one of the most Westernized nations in Southeast Asia. The
cultural movements of Europe and the United States profoundly
influenced Filipino artists, even after independence in 1946. While
drawing on Western forms, however, the works of Filipino painters,
writers, and musicians are imbued with distinctly Philippine themes. By
expressing the cultural richness of the archipelago in all its diversity,
Filipino artists have helped to shape a sense of national identity. Many
Malay cultural traditions have survived despite centuries of foreign rule.

3. Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating

experiences across space and time. Research has shown art affects the fundamental
sense of self. Painting, sculpture, music, literature and the other arts are often
considered to be the repository of a society's collective memory. Every artist plays a
different and necessary part in contributing to the overall health, development,
and well-being of our society.
Creative thinkers and makers provide their communities with joy, interaction, and
inspiration, but they also give thoughtful critique to our political, economic and
social systems — pushing communities to engage thoughtfully and make steps
toward social progress. It’s a human urge to express emotion through the
medium of mark-making. We all carry with us memories of our past experiences.

An artist has the ability to ‘feel strongly’ to be ‘sensitive’ to things and express
this in the paint, gesture, or color. The artist ‘absorbs’ the atmosphere of a place
or the memory of a feeling. Sometimes, it’s a burden for the artist to carry all this
emotion – to be so sensitive.

4. Juan Luna, is regarded as one of the first internationally renowned Filipino

artist. Because of his most famous paintings, Spoliarium (1884). And because
this emphasized the violation of human rights towards the colonizers of Spain
and Juan Luna expressed his patriotism through it. Moreover, he created such a
harmonious relationships between different colors such as between the red color in
the center with the shade of green in the dark sides.

5. The National Artist Award is the highest national recognition given to

Filipinos who have made significant contributions to the development of

Philippine arts and letters. ... It recognizes excellence in the fields of music,

dance, theater, visual arts, literature, film and broadcast arts and architecture,

or allied arts. National Artist is an honorary title issued by some states as a

highest recognition of artists for their significant contributions to the cultural

heritage of the nation.And it has established good network with religional

artists and cultural workers of Country.

 1. Carlos V. Francisco (November 4, 1912 – March 31, 1969), popularly known as Botong, was a
muralist from Angono, Rizal. Francisco was a most distinguished practitioner of mural painting
for many decades and best known for his historical pieces. He was one of the first Filipino
modernists along with Galo Ocampo and Victorio C. Edades who broke away from Fernando
Amorsolo's romanticism of Philippine scenes. Botong is also known for discovering the Angono
Petroglyphs, which are considered the oldest prehistoric artwork. This paleolithic art consists of
127 human and animal figures that are estimated to date back to 3000 BC. Presidential Decree
260 was issued in 1996 and declared the petroglyphs a national cultural treasure. The National
Museum established a museum on its site. He was posthumously conferred the title National
Artist of the Philippines in Visual Arts in 1973. He died on March 31, 1969, leaving a rich legacy
and a new generation of followers. On November 4, 1975, the town of Angono, Rizal, held an
exhibit titled "Gunita Kay Botong." The event became an annual institution and was widely
followed to the point that Angono became the unofficial art capital of the Philippines.

--- The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to

achieve a particular objective. Bayanihan is taken from the
root word bayani meaning “hero”. Thus, bayanihan means being a hero to one
another.

2. Agnes Arellano (b. 21 November 1949, San Juan, Rizal) was born to a
life of ease in the quiet and genteel district of Pinaglabanan in San Juan
del Monte. She belonged to a prominent family of architects that
included her father Otilio (b. 1916), her grandfather Arcadio, and grand-
uncle Juan. Agnes also acknowledges the influence of Chabet (Roberto
Chabet Rodriguez) in the spirit of conceptual art, the semiotic use of
materials, the shedding of artistic inhibitions, the witty and mischievous
aspects of art, the spirit of freedom in exploring ideas, and the use of a
wide range of cultural sources. Equipped with the necessary training,
approaches, and inspirations, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine
Arts in 1983.

-- Dea, 1996

A walk through the exhibit assails one's senses: the female form in all its nakedness,
full pendulous breasts, vulvas and vaginas, a womb filled with life, skulls in a row,
and more. The male element is not forgotten, in phalluses and giant bronze-coated
bullets, its penile form gleaming under the tropical sun.
 3. Ronald Ventura is born in 1973 in the city of Manila, Philippines. He
graduated Painting at the University of Santo Tomas in 1993, where he
worked after the graduation as an Art instructor for a while. For the first time in
2000, he had his two solo painting shows. Ronald Ventura is a contemporary
Filipino artist known for his dynamic melding of realism, cartoons, and graffiti.
Portraying scenes of chaotic disarray, Ventura culls from science fiction, Western
history, Asian mythology, Catholicism, and popular comic book characters, in
producing his work. 

BIRD MAN 2018

“I will paint and update a painting until I am satisfied. It’s like a film director who is shooting a
scene—at certain points he will feel like he needs more extras or more light,” he said of his
working method. “This is the closest analogy to my painting process that I can think of. It is
like a process of addition and subtraction.

4. Mark Justiniani (b. 1966. Bacolod, Philippines) studied painting at the

University of the Philippines in 1982, later joining various protest
art movements associated with socio-political issues. The critally
acclaimed artist was awarded the much-coveted Thirteen Artists
Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1994. He has
represented the Philippines in various international conferences,
workshops and exhibitions in Japan, Denmark, Australia and the
USA. Justiniani's work was included in the Asian Art Museum of
San Francisco's exhibition "At Home & Abroad, 20 Contemporary
Filipino Artists.
5. Victorio Candido Edades (December 23, 1895 – March 7, 1985) was a Filipino painter. He
led the revolutionary Thirteen Moderns, who engaged their classical compatriots in heated
debate over the nature and function of art. He was named a National Artist in 1976.

The Builders is an oil on wood artwork by Victorio Edades now in the Cultural Center of the
Philippines collection. Victorio Edades, known as the “Pambansang Alagad ng Sining ng
Pilipinas” painted the artwork in 1928.

6. Félix Resurrección Hidalgo y Padilla (February 21, 1855 – March 13, 1913) was
a Filipino artist. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest Filipino painters of the late
19th century, and is significant in Philippine history for having been an acquaintance and
 inspiration for members of the Philippine reform movement which included José
Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Mariano Ponce and Graciano López Jaena, although he neither
involved himself directly in that movement, nor later associate himself with the First
Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo.

Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho or The Christian Virgins Exposed to the
Populace is a famous 1884 history painting by Filipino painter, reformist, and propagandist Félix
Resurrección Hidalgo. 

7. Eduardo Masferré (April 18, 1909 – June 24, 1995) was a Filipino-Catalan

photographer who made important documentary reports about the lifestyle of
native people in the region of the Cordillera in the Philippines at the middle of
20th century. He is regarded as the Father of Philippine photography.

Mountain view, 1950. Sale Date: November 13, 2007.

8. Cesar Torrente Legaspi (April 2, 1917 – April 7, 1994) was a Filipino National Artist in

painting. He was also an art director prior to going full-time in his visual art practice in the
1960s. His early (1940s–1960s) works, alongside those of peer, Hernando Ocampo are
described as depictions of anguish and dehumanization of beggars and laborers in the
city. These include Man and Woman (alternatively known as Beggars) and Gadgets.

His early paintings, from the period immediately before and after the war,
reflect his personal reaction to the national trauma. “Man and Woman” (also
entitled Beggars), 1945, in an expressionist idiom involving distortion, shows
a couple in rags amidst the skeletons of buildings which we broken like
surrealist sculpture.

9. Roberto "Bobby" Rodríguez Chabet (March 29, 1937 - April 30, 2013) was an artist
from the Philippines and widely acknowledged as the father of Philippine conceptual art.

The Ceiling, China Collage series

10.Mauro Malang Santos (January 20, 1928 – June 10, 2017), commonly known

by the mononym Malang, was a Filipino and award-winning cartoonist,
illustrator, and fine arts painter.

Women
 , 1997