SUNDAY MORNING, GOING TO TOWN
Fernando Amorsolo (1958)
One of his most iconic motifs, Amorsolo paints a romanticized scene of Filipino rural life. A
family sets out together, leaving their hut for a place beyond the viewer’s eye. Light cascades
on them from the rising morning sun, and they are left to cover themselves with either the
natural shade or, in the case of the woman in the center, a pink parasol. Even the cocks take
shade from the beating sun, finding refuge behind a pile of hay in the corner. The journey
ahead is not without its strains, the men carry makeshift sacks on their backs, enlisting the
help of a carabao to carry the season’s yield. The artist does not shy away from the humble
reality of the peripheries. The morning sun brings illumination - shining upon the verdant
path ahead, the parasol’s striking hue breaks the cacophony of greens and yellows.
MADONNA OF THE SLUMS
Vivente Manansala (1950)
This image was tightly focus on the two subjects. As what you can see in the picture is a
mother hugging her sibling with her two hands, as well as the child holding her mother’s
face. There is also a background which is the houses. The color composes of brown and a
little darkness. This painting is not about the happiness but more on sadness of the story the
painting. I do believe that the real artist has more deep meaning behind this image. And as a
viewer I will interpret this image based on what my own eyes perceive that may change the
understanding.
THE DISROBING OF CHRIST
El Greco 1577-1579
The Disrobing of Christ, which was painted for a room used to house religious relics in
Toledo cathedral, depicts the moment when Christ has ascended to Calvary and is stripped of
his clothes before being nailed to the cross. In this highly original composition, based on a
range of both literary and visual sources, the traditional space has been compressed in order
to convey Christ’s physical and mental suffering to the viewer. The intense expressiveness of
the heads, intended to offer a complete repertoire of pictorial solutions, reveals the level of
artistic mastery achieved by El Greco at this period.
THE CARD PLAYERS
Paul Cezanne 1890-1895
The painting depicts about Provençal peasants daily life as they were smoking their pipes and
playing cards. The subjects were all male and were displayed as they were playing cards.
Their eyes were casted downward as they were playing the game at hand. Cezanne's portraits
lacked the drama, narrative and how to characterize figures. It is assumed that people paying
cards often drinks a lot but there was only an unused wine bottle in one of painting of the two
player versions whereas in others there was an absence of drink and money. A painting was
hung in an Aix-en-Provence museum near Cezanne home, it also depicts card players and
also it was widely cited as an inspiration for the works by Cézanne. The inspiration was from
the painting by one of the Le Nain brothers.
WOMAN WITH A HAT (FEMME AU CHAPEAU)
Henri Matisse 1905
Femme au chapeau marked a stylistic change from the regulated brushstrokes of Matisse's
earlier work to a more expressive individual style. His use of non-naturalistic colors and
loose brushwork, which contributed to a sketchy or "unfinished" quality, seemed shocking to
the viewers of the day.
BICYCLE WHEEL
Marcel Duchamp 1913
Bicycle Wheel is Duchamp’s first readymade, a class of objects he invented to challenge
assumptions about what constitutes a work of art. Duchamp combined two mass-produced
parts—a bicycle wheel and fork and a kitchen stool—to create a type of nonfunctional
machine. By simply selecting prefabricated items and calling them art, he subverted
established notions of the artist’s craft and the viewer’s aesthetic experience. The 1913
Bicycle Wheel was lost, but nearly four decades later Duchamp assembled a replacement
from newly found prefabricated parts and affirmed that the later version is as valid as the
original.
Benjamin Mendoza y Amor Flores
Pencil drawing on a paper (1963)
A man laying on his back holding a large fish on top of him and between his legs, the fish has
his mouth open revealing shark’s teeth and has the man’s head within his bite. Mendoza was
known for his dream/nightmare drawings, juxtaposing good and evil in unconventional
forms. Signed in pencil in the lower right hand corner “Benjamin Mendoza Tokyo, Japan
1963”.
WHITE CRUCIFIXION
Marc Chagall 1938
Painted in 1938, White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall shows the suffering of Jews and Jesus.
Violent conflicts are depicted such as the setting on fire of synagogues. In the center of the
picture Jesus is displayed, crucified and symbolized as being Jewish adorned in a prayer
shawl. The original painting is currently being exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio
Abadeja: Ang Ating Sinderela (1977)
A puppet play based on a Visayan folktale about the Cinderella-like Abadeja. It was
performed in cooperation with DULAANG UP and UP Repertory Company. After the
December shows at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, members of the cast continued to
meet and visit Professor Bonifacio in her Faculty Center office. Moved by the enthusiasm
and spurred by her own long-standing dream of forming a children’s theater group, Professor
Bonifacio founded TEATRONG MULAT NG PILIPINAS (1977).
