LESSON

4 Visual Arts
1st Quarter

Most Essential Learning Competency

➢ Defines contemporary arts in the Philippines

➢ Time Allotment: 2 hours

References
➢ Contemporary Phillipine Arts from the Region by Ayesha H. Sayseng and
Luzuiminda D. Sandagan
➢ Sining Rehiyon (Contemporary Phillipine Arts from the Region) for Senior High
School by: Gerard Lico, Glecy Cruz Atienza, Imelda Endaya, J Pilapil Jacobo and
Ramon P. Santos

Let’s Explore

This lesson will discuss different modern and contemporary art form and practices from the regions and
in the country in general. This will also tackle the characteristics of the various art form as they developed from
the American Colonial period up to the present.

Learning Experience

Contemporary Art Forms and Practices from the Regions

The Philippine contemporary art is divided into 7 major art forms:

1. Visual arts 4. Theater

2. Literature 5. Dance
3. Music 6. Architecture

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 Characteristics of the various art forms as they developed from the American Colonial Period up to the
present.

VISUAL ARTS

The arts created primarily for visual perception, as drawing, graphics, painting, sculpture
and the decorative arts.

The Philippine visual arts encompass a range of forms developed by Filipinos in the Ethnic, Spanish,
American, and Contemporary traditions.

❖ In ethnic communities, pottery, weaving, carving, and metalcraft are made for ritual purposes or for
everyday use.

❖ During the Spanish colonization, painting and sculpture were introduced whose subject matter was
religious and secular.

❖ During the American period, there was a conflict between conservatism and modernism, with the latter
gaining ground in the end, both in painting and in sculpture.

❖ After World War II, artists explored a variety of Western and Eastern styles, media, and philosophies.
Some are consciously going back to ethnic roots to express themselves as individuals and as Filipinos.

The Philippine Artist

Fernando Amorsolo

(1892 -1972) was a portraitist and painter of rural landscapes. He is best known
for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. The country had its first
National Artist in Fernando C. Amorsolo. The official title “Grand Old Man of
Philippine Art” was bestowed on Amorsolo when the Manila Hilton
inaugurated its art center on January 23, 1969 with an exhibit of a selection of
his works.

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 Philippine Art as Filipino

• Benesa describes Amorsolo works as the

“most expressive of the ethos of the race and the predominantly

agricultural countryside”

• Men and women are portrayed as hardworking with smiles on

their faces.

• Landscape in Amorsolo’s paintings are rural lands in the

Philippines, vegetation and nature.

The Famous works of Fernando Amorsolo

Dalagang Bukid by Fernando Amorsolo

Fernando Amorsolo, the first National Artist, is

celebrated for having created in the collective psyche an
idyllic and idealized vision of the Philippines.
Amorsolo's bright and colorful pastoral
representations are unmistakable for being suffused with a
golden glow, reflecting the sweet disposition, charm, and
wholesome beauty of the dalagang bukid, or Philippine
provincial lass - widely recognized to be the maestros
most iconic subject matter. Surrounded by verdant foliage
dappled with sunlight, she is the picture of a longed-for,
bygone era - the epitome of everything that is good about
the motherland.
The banga or clay jar that the young lady carries, a
vessel for carrying water, is seen as a symbol of fragility
and innocence, and is a reference to the song made
famous by National Artist Atang de la Rama in the 1919
sarswela Dalagang Bukid.

Palay Maiden by Fernando Amorsolo

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 Renowned as the First Contemporary
Filipino Artist, Amorsolo painted the Philippine
landscape in sunny and colorful depictions that
idealized both nature and native beauty. Using
techniques of natural outdoor lighting and taking
from the Impressionists of Europe, he mastered
the skill of natural lighting in his paintings, and
this trademark was later called his mastery of the
"Philippine Sun."

Palay is Tagalog for grain, which is symbolic of

the Philippines’ most staple crop. Maiden bears
significance to Amorsolo’s preference for beauty.
Throughout his pieces showing women, Amorsolo
does not conform to a Western standard of beauty;
rather, he portrayed them to have a rounded face,
not of the oval type often presented to us in
newspapers and magazine illustrations. The eyes
should be exceptionally lively, not the dreamy,
sleepy type that characterizes the Mongolian. The
nose should be of the blunt form but firm and
strongly marked. So the ideal Filipina beauty should not necessarily be white complexioned, nor of the dark
brown color of the typical Malayan, but of the clear skin or fresh colored type which we often witness when we
met a blushing girl.

In the American period. There were Filipinos who studied abroad and influenced the art making in the
country. Here are the 3 Filipinos studied abroad and influenced the art making on the country. these three artist
went back and introduced the concept of modern art in the country.

Juan Arellano Diosdado Lorenzo Victorio Edades

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 Upon his arrival, Victorio Edades introduced visual art
through his art exhibition which shocked many Filipino audiences due
to his different style in painting. Instead of using bright and happy
colors, he used dull and dark hues in his works.

Edades work by using he used dull and dark hues.

The subject of Victorio Edades works are the Life of the Laborers, Workers and Lower sector of the society.

Example of Victorio Edades work

The Builders

Mora Girl

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After the Triumvirate had introduced art modernism, thirteen artist called “The Thirteen Modern “followed their
path. Victorio Edades, Juan Arellano, Diosdado Lorenzo, Arsenio Capili, Bonifacio Cristobal, Demetrio Diego,
Carlos Francisco, Cesar Legazpi, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Galo Ocampo, Hernando R. Ocampo, Jose Pardo and
Ricarte Purungganan

During the American period, the subjects of artworks shifted

From Rural to Urban

After World War II Artist started creating proletarian art which depicts the life after the war, social
issues and economic problems.

Modernism garnered a larger influence since there institutions created like, The Art Association of the
Philippines by: Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, Philippine Art Gallery by: Lydia Villanueva-Arguilla. Through the
year’s different artists carrying different styles in making arts became popular and various visual art trend
emerged.

There were stylistics arts and drawings and thematic artworks reflecting Historical, social, economic and
political themes.

It was also during this period Paris Cubism took scene. It is kind of cubism showing fragmented figures
in larger planes, color harmonies and texture.

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 Cubism

Cubism - a style of painting and sculpture developed in the early 20th century, characterized chiefly by
an emphasis on formal structure, the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents, and the
organization of the planes of a represented object independently of representational requirements.

An early 20th-century style and movement in art, especially in painting, in which perspective with a
single viewpoint was abandoned. Simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage are being
used.

A movement in modern art that emphasized the geometrical depiction of natural forms.

Cubist - Artist who paints several different views of a person or object in a single painting usually
using straight lines.

Three Cubist during the Modern Period:

1. Vicente Manansala,

2. Romeo Tabuena

3. Cesar Legaspi

Works of Vicente Manansala Works of Romeo Tabuena

Title: Carola Title: Untitled

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 Abstraction was also employed during the modern

Abstract - Abstraction literally means the distancing of an idea from objective referents. That means, in
the visual arts, pulling a depiction away from any literal, representational reference points. You can also call
abstract art nonrepresentational art.

Abstractionist- a person who produces abstract works of art.

Abstractionist during the modern period: H.R. Ocampo Constantino Bernardo, Frederico Aguilar Alcuaz,
Arturo Luz, Jose Joya.

Abstractionism - the principles and practice of abstract art. The presentation of ideas in abstract terms.
It representational of abandoned.

Example of abstract art:

Hills of Nikko by Jose Joya Palitana – White Temple by Arturo Luz

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