philippine contemporary arts

1. PREPARED BY: ALICE C. RIVERA

2. Philippine contemporary arts can be
described into visual arts, literary arts and
performing arts.
Visual art is an expression of artistic ideas
through images, structures, and tactile work.
Some visual artworks are integrated which
means it combines several mediums to
create new and unique artwork. Painting,
sculpture, architecture, and film are
examples of visual arts.

3. Painting
Painting the expression of ideas and emotions, with
the creation of certain aesthetic qualities, in a two-
dimensional visual language. The elements of this
language– its shapes, lines, colors, tones, and
textures – are used in various ways to produce
sensations of volume, space, movement, and light
on a flat surface. The first paintings here in the
Philippines are commissioned works during Spanish
colonization. Here are some paintings from Luzon,
Visayas and Mindanao.

4. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
The Sketch
by Victorio Edades
https://www.flickr.com/pho
tos/76723269@N07/8722
614256/i/photolist-
iDgnES-u6jAYuehMFjY/
Magellan’s Cross
by Raul Agas
Redraw by
Mr. Mervin Meude
Salaam
(Peace)
by
Rameer Tawasil

5. Sculpture
The sculpture is an art form in which hard
or plastic materials are worked into three-
dimensional art objects. Filipino sculptors
came to be known in the middle of the 19th
century. These are some of the sculptures
in the Philippines.

6. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
The Bonifacio Monument By
Guillermo Tolentino
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Pambansang_Bantayog_ni_And
res_Bonifacio_(Bonifacio_National_
Monument).jpg
Sandugo (Blood Compact)
By Napoleon Abueva
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eazy36
0/4239418527/in/photolist7sC8qT-
5E2z6L-8vXHFK-7sC5tM6cecQS-
9VKn6t-5npRCn
Six Ladies in Durian
By Kublai Millan
https://www.flickr.com/phot
os/bridex/2544317912/in/p
hotolist-4SQi5d-c5RbQC

7. Architecture
Architecture is the art and practice of designing and
constructing buildings (Cambridge Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus). In relation to
that, Philippine architecture was characterized as
simple, rational, and functional. In the 20th century,
the young Filipino who studied in American colleges
and institutes introduced the neoclassic style in
building structures. However, after World War II, real
estate development started to take place
(Sandagan & Sayseng, 2016). To illustrate these
architectural designs, these are some examples

8. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
Cultural Center of the
Philippines
By Leandro Locsin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/e
dgarjlaw/967063172/in/photoli
st-2tssbY-2kTpu6T
Saint Andrew the Apostle
Church
By Leandro Locsin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/c
annlvr/1759030713/in/photolist
-3FruxK-69Uqu7
Pearl Farm Beach Resort
By Francisco Manosa
https://www.flickr.com/photos/
66926550@N04/6098898267
/in/photolist-ahWrYp-dvtkUz

9. Film
Film is a form of visual art use to imitate
experiences that communicate ideas, stories, or
feelings with the use of moving images. It is also
called a movie or motion picture. Moreover, the art
form that is the result of the film is called cinema
(Faber & Walters, 2003). The film industry in the
Philippines started in 1897. In the contemporary
period, martyr wife, superhero, action, melodramas,
and comedies are some of the usual subjects and
themes in the Philippine films. Some films in the
Philippines are presented below.

10. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
Himala
By Ishmael Bernal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Himala#/media/File:Himala_
FilmPoster.jpeg
Muro-Ami
By Marilou Diaz-Abaya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muro-
Ami_(film)#/media/File:Muroami.jpg
Mindanao
By Brillante Mendoza
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Mindanao_(film)#/media/File
:Mindanao_2019_movie_po
ster.jpg

11. Apart from visual arts, there are Philippine
contemporary art forms that can be
described as literary arts. Literary arts are
an expression of ideas through writing.
Literary arts can be categorized as poetry,
prose, and drama. In the Philippines,
literary arts are greatly encountered in
literature.

12. Literature
According to Lombardi (2020), literature is a
term used to describe written and sometimes
spoken material. Derived from the Latin word
literature meaning "writing formed with letters,"
literature most commonly refers to works of the
creative imagination, including poetry, drama,
fiction, nonfiction, and in some instances,
journalism, and song. These are some examples
of Philippine literature.

13. Luzon
• A Blade of Fern
by
Edith Ocampo
• I Saw the Fall
of the
Philippines by
Carlos
P. Romulo
Visayas
• Panhayhay hin
Bungtohanon by
Francisco
Alvarado
• An Higugma by
Iluminado
Lucente
Mindanao
• Dead Stars by
H.O.
Santos
• Indarapatra at
Sulayman by
Bartolome Del
Valle

14. Furthermore, there are also Philippine
contemporary art forms that can be
described as performance arts. A person
doing certain actions and movements in
front of an audience that go along with
sound in a space and time is called
Performing Arts.

15. Music and Theater
Music is a collection of coordinated sound or
sounds. According to Ramon P. Santos in his article
entitles Contemporary Music, Contemporary music
in the Philippines usually refers to compositions that
have adopted ideas and elements from twentieth-
century art music in the West, as well as the latest
trends and musical styles in the entertainment
industry. Filipino Music had already a rich and
unique musical tradition long before westerners set
foot on our native land.

16. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
Pastores Pinalangga Buyayang

17. Theatre
is a collaborative form of fine art that uses
live performers to present the experience of
a real or imagined event before a live
audience in a specific place. The
performers may communicate this
experience to the audience through
combinations of gesture, speech, song,
music, or dance. Some of the Theater Play
in the Philippines are the following.

18. Tanikalang Ginto
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nccaofficial/1
8253662218/in/photolist-CafXB-u3RAtb-
tP1MQ7
Luzon
Visayas

19. Dance
Dance, the movement of the body in a
rhythmic way, usually to music and within a
given space, for the purpose of expressing
an idea or emotion, releasing energy, or
simply taking delight in the movement itself.
Dances in the Philippines vary from Region
to Region and below are some dances of
the different regions.

20. Luzon Visayas Mindanao
Banga
https://www.flickr.com/photo
s/kostastrovas/5586665289/
in/photolist-9vF7Xkaqxtt6
Kuratsa
https://www.flickr.com/photos/
triggzbb/27002593764/in/pho
tolist-8Ct6ne-H98mns
Singkil
https://commons.wikime
dia.org/wiki/File:Singkil_
dance_post_card.jpg

21. A Modern era in the Philippine art began after
World War 2 and the granting of independence.
Writers and Artists posed the question of
national identity as the main theme of various
art forms. It is referred to as “traditional
compared to contemporary art. The styles of
modern art for example are now part of art and
curricula and have become academic.

22. The contemporary fine art trend in the Philippines
began from the postwar period. It is first used to
refer to a group of artists associated with the
Philippine Art Gallery (1951-1969) who began to
call themselves Neo-Realists in 1949. Realism in
this case refers to how these artists used their
subjective, internal vision of reality to create works
of art. Neo-Realism was formed as a reaction to the
perceived academic and sentimental status of art in
the previous generation.

23. Vicente Silva
Manansala (January
22, 1910 – August 22,
1981) was a Filipino
cubist painter and
illustrator.
1. Manansala – The Beggars
(1952), Tuba
Drinkers (1954),
2. Legaspi – Gadgets II
(1949),
Bad Girls (1947)
Cesar
Legaspi was a Filipino
painter known as one
of the 13 Moderns, a
group of emergent
artists whose work,
according to
artist-art educator
Victorio Edades, was
an alternative to the
classicism and
nostalgia-laced
realism.

24. 3. HR Ocampo – The Contrast
(1940),
Genesis (1968)
Hernando
Ocampo’s
masterpieces had
a
large contribution
to full
understanding and
awareness of
social
realities in the
Philippines.
4. Victor Oyteza Victor
OTEYZA (1913-1979)
is an artist born in
1913. The oldest
auction result ever
registered on the
website for an
artwork by this
artist is a painting
sold in 2017, at
Salcedo Auctions,
and the most
recent auction
result is a painting
sold in 2020.
Artprice.com's
price levels for this
artist are based on
2 auction results.
Especially:
painting.

25. 5. Romeo Tabuena
Romeo
Tabuena studied fine arts at the
University of the Philippines
(UP). He also studied at the Art
Student League in New York,
USA, in 1952 and at the
Academie de la Grande
Chaumiere in France in 1954.
Tabuena is best known for his
depictions of Philippine rural
landscapes such as farms,
carabao, nipa huts in oil and
watercolor media.

26. The main feature of abstract art is that it is a
non-representational practice, meaning that
art movements that embrace abstraction
depart from accurate representation – this
departure can be slight, partial, or complete. It
depends on what types of abstract art we are
talking about. In geometric abstraction and
lyrical abstraction, we can talk about total
abstraction.

27. 1. Constancio Benardo
Constancio Bernardo(1913 – 2013) is a
pioneering Filipino. A stractionist known
for his geometric and color-field
paintings. He returned to the Philippines
in the early 50s after graduating from
Yale University where he studied under
Josef Albers and pursued a
lifelong commitment to painting and
teaching at the University of the
Philippines College of Fine Arts. This
monograph accompanies the centennial
retrospective held at Ayala Museum in
Manila in November 2013 and provides
the first opportunity to view the full range
of Bernardo’s works, from his critically-
acclaimed abstract works to his lesser-
known classical drawings and figurative
paintings.

28. 2. Lee Aguinaldo Lee
Aguinaldo’s iconic “Linear
No. 98” and “Linear No.
99,” which were the
Philippines’ representative
pieces to the 10h Sao
Paolo Biennale in 1971,
are among the highlights
of León Gallery’s
Magnificent September
Auction 2020, on Sept. 19,
at 2 p.m.

29. National artist Jose Joya was
a pioneer modern and
abstract artist who was active
as a painter, printmaker,
mixed media artist and
ceramicist. It has been said
that it was Joya who
spearheaded the birth, growth
and flowering of abstract
expressionism” in the
Philippines.
3. Jose Joya

30. 4. Fernando Zobel Zóbel
was born in Ermita, Manila in the Philippines to Enrique
Zóbel de Ayala (1877–1943) and Fermina Montojo y
Torrontegui and was a member of the prominent Zóbel de
Ayala family. He was a brother of Jacobo Zóbel (father of
Enrique J. Zóbel), Alfonso (father of Jaime Zóbel de
Ayala) and Mercedes Zóbel McMicking, all children of his
father from his first wife, Consuelo Róxas de Ayala (who
died in September 25, 1907 at the age of 30). He was a
nephew and namesake of Fernando Antonio Zóbel de
Ayala, the eldest brother of his father. His father was a
patron of Fernando Amorsolo. In gratitude, Amorsolo
would teach the young Fernando on the rudiments of art.

31. 5. Arturo Luz
– Street Musicians (1952) Arturo Luz is a Filipino
printmaker,
sculptor, designer, and founding member of the
modern NeoRealist school in Philippine art.
Influenced by Modernist painters such as Paul Klee,
he has worked in a variety of styles and techniques
in varying degrees of abstraction to create playful
geometric figures and forms. He was born on
November 20, 1926 in Manila, Republic of the
Philippines and went on to study at the School of
Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila,
the Art School of the Brooklyn Museum in New York,
and at the Académie Grade Chaumière in Paris.

32. 6. Nena Saguil
- Cargadores (1951) Nena Saguil
(September 19, 1914 – February, 1994)
was a Filipina artist of modernist and
abstract paintings and ink drawings. She
was most known for her cosmic, organic,
and spiritual abstract works depicting
internal landscapes of feeling and
imagination. For these, Saguil is
considered a pioneer of Filipino abstract
art.

33. Using modernists figuration, many of the artists
explored folk themes and also crafted
commentaries on the urban condition and the
effects of the war. Modern artists do not aim to
copy and idealize reality; instead, they change the
colors to flatten the picture instead of creating
illusions of depth, nearness and farness. They
depict what might be thought of as “ugly “and
unpleasant instead of beautiful and pastoral.

34. 1. Church of Holy Sacrifice (1955)
Years before the construction of
the present Church of the Holy
Sacrifice was finished on December
20, 1955, there stood an old sawali-
bamboo building on its grounds, a
chapel of the U.S. Army detachment,
later turned into a stable. Fr. John
Patrick Delaney, S.J., then already
U.P. The chaplain when the old
campus moved from Manila to
Diliman in 1949, saw its possibilities
and with the help of
volunteers, had the crumbling facility
repaired and converted into a little
brown chapel. To the U.P. Diliman
Catholics, it was their house of God
and place of worship.

35. 2. Church of the Risen Lord
The Church of the Risen Lord is a
Protestant church located at the
University of the Philippines
campus in Diliman, Quezon City,
Philippines. It arose about years
ago through a Protestant student
group named the Christian Youth
Movement (CYM).

36. 3. Chapel of Saint Joseph the worker
The St. Joseph the Worker Chapel,
commonly known as
the Angry Christ Church, is a Roman Catholic
chapel located inside the Victorias Milling
Company residential
complex in Victorias City, Negros Occidental,
Philippines. It is considered as the first
example of modern sacred architecture in the
Philippines. It is dedicated to St. Joseph the
Worker. The church was designed by the
Czech architect Antonín Raymond, himself
already recognized as the founder of modern
architecture in Japan. Raymond designed the
church to be earthquake-proof since the
Philippines is in the earthquake belt.