National Artists of the Philippines

(Source: https://ncca.gov.ph)

The Order of National Artist The Order of the National Artists Award (Orden
ng Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining) is the highest national recognition
given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the
development of Philippine arts. The order is concurrent administered by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Cultural Center of the
Philippines (CCP) and conferred by the President of the Philippines upon
recommendation by both institutions. The award is one of the Honors conferred
by the Republic of the Philippines that represents the nation’s highest ideals in
the humanities and aesthetic expression through the recognizable
achievements of individual citizens. The said achievements are measured in
terms of their vision, unusual insight, creativity and imagination, technical
proficiency of the highest order in expressing Filipino culture and traditions,
history, way of life, and aspirations. Under the Proclamation No.1001 dated April
27, 1072 the Order of the National Artist Award (Orden ng Gawad Pambansang
Alagad ng Sining was established. It gives an appropriate recognition and
prestige to Filipinos who have acclaimed themselves and made a remarkable
contribution to Philippine arts and letters. The first award was given to Fernando
Amorsolo. On May 15, 1973 under the Proclamation No. 1144, CCP Board of
Trustees was named as the National Artist Awards Committee. The Presidential
Decree No.28 that was issued on June 7, 1973 reiterated the mandate of CCP to
administer the National Awards as well as the privileges and honors to National
Artist.

The following are the seven categories under which National Artists can be
recognized:

1. Literature – poetry, fiction, essay, playwriting, journalism and/or literary

criticism;

2. Film and Broadcasting / Broadcast Arts – direction, writing, production

design, cinematography, editing, camera work, and/or performance; and

3. Architecture, Design and Allied Arts– architecture design, interior design,

industrial arts design, landscape architecture and fashion design.
4. Music - singing, composition, direction, and/or performance;

5. Dance - choreography, direction and/or performance;

6. Theater – direction, performance and/or production design;

7. Visual Arts – painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation art,

mixed media works, illustration, graphic arts, performance art and/or imaging;

Qualifications for the National Artist Award The qualifications for a Filipino to be
nominated and selected are rigorous. Below are the qualifications for the
National Artist Award.
1. Living artists who are natural-born Filipino citizens.
2. The content and form of their work have procured in building a Filipino sense
of nationhood.
3. An artist who have developed a mode of creative expression or style and
living a legend on succeeding generations of artists.
4. An artist who manifest excellence in the practice of their art form
5. The artwork made has attained an international and national recognition

1. LEANDRO V. LOCSIN
National Artist for Architecture, 1990
(August 15, 1928 – November 15, 1994)

Leandro V. Locsin reshaped the urban landscape with a distinctive architecture

reflective of Philippine Art and Culture. He believes that the true Philippine
Architecture is “the product of two great streams of culture, the oriental and the
occidental… to produce a new object of profound harmony.” It is this synthesis
that underlies all his works, with his achievements in concrete reflecting his
mastery of space and scale. Every Locsin Building is an original, and identifiable
as a Locsin with themes of floating volume, the duality of light and heavy,
buoyant and massive running in his major works. From 1955 to 1994, Locsin has
produced 75 residences and 88 buildings, including 11 churches and chapels,
23 public buildings, 48 commercial buildings, six major hotels, and an airport
terminal building. (source: https://ncca.gov.ph/)

Locsin’s largest single work is the Istana Nurul Iman, the palace of the Sultan of
Brunei, which has a floor area of 2.2 million square feet. The CCP Complex itself
is a virtual Locsin Complex with all five buildings designed by him — the Cultural
Center of the Philippines, Folk Arts Theater, Philippine International Convention
Center, Philcite and The Westin Hotel (now Sofitel Philippine Plaza). (source:
https://ncca.gov.ph/)

2. JOSÉ MARÍA V. ZARAGOZA

National Artist for Architecture (2014)
(December 6, 1912 – November 26, 1994)

José María V. Zaragoza’s place in Philippine architecture history is defined by a

significant body of modern edifices that address spiritual and secular
requirements. Zaragoza’s name is synonymous to modern ecclesiastical
architecture. Notwithstanding his affinity to liturgical structures, he greatly
excelled in secular works: 36 office buildings, 4 hotels, 2, hospitals, 5 low-cost
and middle-income housing projects; and more than 270 residences – all
demonstrating his typological versatility and his mastery of modernist
architectural vocabulary.

Zaragoza graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1936,

passing the licensure examinations in 1938 to become the 82nd architect of the
Philippines. With growing interest in specializing in religious architecture,
Zaragoza also studied at International Institute of Liturgical Art (IILA) in Rome in
the late 1950s, where he obtained a diploma in liturgical art and architecture.
His training in Rome resulted in innovative approaches, setting new standards
for the design of mid-century Catholic churches in the Philippines. His
prolificacy in designing religious edifices was reflected in his body of work that
was predominated by about 45 churches and religious centers, including the
Santo Domingo Church, Our Lady of Rosary in Tala, Don Bosco Church, the
Convent of the Pink Sisters, the San Beda Convent, Villa San Miguel, Pius XII
Center, the Union Church, and the controversial restoration of the Quiapo
Church, among others.

Zaragoza is a pillar of modern architecture in the Philippines buttressed by a

half-century career that produced ecclesiastical edifices and structures of
modernity in the service of God and humanity.

3. LEONOR OROSA GOQUINGCO

National Artist for Dance
(July 24, 1917 – July 15, 2005)

Dubbed the “Trailblazer”, “Mother of Philippine Theater Dance” and “Dean of

Filipino Performing Arts Critics”, Leonor Orosa Goquingco, pioneer Filipino
choreographer in balletic folkloric and Asian styles, produced for over 50 years
highly original, first-of-a-kind choreographies, mostly to her own storylines.
These include “TREND: Return to Native,” “In a Javanese Garden,” “Sports,”
“VINTA!,” “In a Concentration Camp,” “The Magic Garden,” “The Clowns,”
“Firebird,” “Noli Dance Suite,” “The Flagellant,” “The Creation…” Seen as her
most ambitious work is the dance epic “Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and
Lore.” With it, Orosa brought native folk dance, mirroring Philippine culture from
pagan to modern times, to its highest stage of development. (source:
https://ncca.gov.ph/)

4. RAMON OBUSAN
National Artist for Dance (2006)
(June 16, 1938 – December 21, 2006)

Ramon Obusan was a dancer, choreographer, stage designer, and artistic

director. He achieved phenomenal success in Philippine dance and cultural
work.* He was also acknowledged as a researcher, archivist and documentary
filmmaker who broadened and deepened the Filipino understanding of his own
cultural life and expressions. Through the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Grop
(ROFG), he had effected cultural and diplomatic exchanges using the
multifarious aspects and dimensions of the art of dance. (source:
https://ncca.gov.ph/)

Among the full-length productions he choreographed are the following:

“Vamos a Belen! Series” (1998-2004) Philippine Dances Tradition

“Noon Po sa Amin,” tableaux of Philippine History in song, drama and dance
“Obra Maestra,” a collection of Ramon Obusan’s dance masterpieces
“Unpublished Dances of the Philippines,” Series I-IV
“Water, Fire and Life, Philippine Dances and Music–A Celebration of Life
Saludo sa Sentenyal”
“Glimpses of ASEAN, Dances and Music of the ASEAN-Member Countries”
“Saplot (Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group): Philippines Costumes in Dance”

5. LINO BROCKA
National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts (1997)
(April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991)

Catalino “Lino” Ortiz Brocka, director for film and broadcast arts, espoused the
term “freedom of expression” in the Philippine Constitution. Brocka took his
social activist spirit to the screen leaving behind 66 films which breathed life and
hope for the marginalized sectors of society — slum-dwellers, prostitutes,
construction workers, etc. He also directed for theater with equal zeal and
served in organizations that offer alternative visions, like the Philippine
Educational Theater Association (PETA) and the Concerned Artists of the
Philippines (CAP). At the same time, he garnered awards and recognition from
institutions like the CCP, FAMAS, TOYM, and Cannes Film Festival. Lino Brocka
has left behind his masterpieces, bequeathing to our country a heritage of
cinematic harvest; a bounty of stunning images, memorable conversations that
speak volumes on love, betrayal and redemption, pestilence and plenty all
pointing towards the recovery and rediscovery of our nation.

To name a few, Brocka’s films include the following: “Santiago” (1970), “Wanted:
Perfect Mother” (1970), “Tubog sa Ginto” (1971), “Stardoom” (1971), “Tinimbang
Ka Ngunit Kulang” (1974), “Maynila: Sa Kuko ng Liwanag” (1975), “Insiang”
(1976), “Jaguar” (1979), “Bona” (1980), “Macho Dancer” (1989), “Orapronobis”
(1989), “Makiusap Ka sa Diyos” (1991).

6. MANUEL CONDE
National Artist for Cinema (2009)
(October 9, 1915 – August 11, 1985)

Born on October 9, 1915 and christened Manuel Pabustan Urbano, Manuel

Conde grew up and studied in Daet, Camarines Norte. In the decades before
and after World War II when Philippine society was being inundated by American
popular culture, Conde invested local cinema with a distinct cultural history of
its own through movies that translated onto the silver screen the age-old stories
that Filipinos had told and retold from generation to generation for at least the
past one hundred years. Among the narratives that Conde directed and/or
produced for the screen were three of the most famous metrical romances in
Philippine lowland culture: Siete Infantes de Lara, Ibong Adarna, and Prinsipe
Tenoso.

Through the more than forty films he created from 1940 to 1963, Manuel Conde
contributed in no small measure to the indigenization of the cinema, specifically:
by assigning it a history and culture of its own; by revitalizing folk culture with
urgent issues, fresh themes and new techniques; by depicting and critiquing
Filipino customs, values and traditions according to the needs of the present; by
employing and at the same time innovating on the traditional cinematic genres of
his time; and by opening the local cinema to the world.
With a curious mind and restless spirit that could not be contained by what is,
Conde went beyond the usual narratives of the traditional genres and ventured
into subject matter that would have been deemed too monumental or quixotic by
the average producer. Conde dared to recreate on screen the grand narratives
of larger-than-life figures from world history and literature, like Genghis
Khan and Sigfredo. In doing films on these world figures, Conde had in effect
forced the Filipino moviegoer out of the parochial and predictable concerns of
the run-of-the-mill formulaic film and thrust him into a larger world where visions
and emotions were loftier and nobler and very very far from the pedestrian
whims and sentiments that constituted the Filipino moviegoer’s usual fare.

Major works: Ibong Adarna (1941), Si Juan Tamad (1947), Siete Infantes de
Lara (1950), Genghis Khan (1950), Ikaw Kasi! (1955) Juan Tamad Goes To
Congress (1959).

7. JOSE GARCIA VILLA

National Artist for Literature (1973)
(August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997)

“Art is a miraculous flirtation with Nothing!

Aiming for nothing, and landing on the Sun.”
― Doveglion: Collected Poems

Jose Garcia Villa is considered as one of the finest contemporary poets

regardless of race or language. Villa, who lived in Singalong, Manila, introduced
the reversed consonance rime scheme, including the comma poems that made
full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative, poetic way. The first of his
poems “Have Come, Am Here” received critical recognition when it appeared in
New York in 1942 that, soon enough, honors and fellowships were heaped on
him: Guggenheim, Bollingen, the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Awards. He used Doveglion (Dove, Eagle, Lion) as pen name, the very
characters he attributed to himself, and the same ones explored by e.e.
cummings in the poem he wrote for Villa (Doveglion, Adventures in Value). Villa
is also known for the tartness of his tongue.

Villa’s works have been collected into the following books: Footnote to
Youth,Many Voices, Poems by Doveglion, Poems 55, Poems in Praise of Love:
The Best Love Poems of Jose Garcia Villa as Chosen By Himself, Selected
Stories,The Portable Villa, The Essential Villa, Mir-i-nisa, Storymasters 3:
Selected Stories from Footnote to Youth, 55 Poems: Selected and Translated
into Tagalog by Hilario S. Francia.
 8. Resil B. Mojares
National Artist for Literature (2018)
Birthday: 4 September 1943

A teacher and scholar, essayist and fictionist, and cultural and literary historian,
Resil Mojares is acknowledged as a leading figure in the promotion of regional
literature and history. As founding director of the Cebuano Studies Center—an
important research institution which placed Cebu in the research and
documentation map—he pioneered Cebuano and national identity formation. As
a leading figure in cultural and literary history, he networked actively in many
organizations. For over 50 years, Mojares has published in diverse forms (fiction,
essay, journalism, scholarly articles, and books) across a wide range of discipline
(literature, history, biography, cultural studies, and others). To date, he has 17
published books (3 more in the press) and edited, co-edited, or co-authored 11
books, and written numerous articles for popular and scholarly publications.

Notable Works:

• Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Study of the Novel Until
1940
(Quezon City, UP Press, 1983; second ed. 1998)
• The Man Who Would Be President: Serging Osmeña and Philippine Politics
(Cebu: Maria Cacao, 1986)
• Waiting for Mariang Makiling: Essays on Philippine Cultural History
(Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2002)
• Theater in Society, Society in Theater: Social History of a Cebuano Village,
1840-1940 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1985)
• The War Against the Americans: Resistance and Collaboration in Cebu,
1899-1906 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999)
• House of Memory: Essays (Metro Manila: Anvil Publishing, 1997)
• Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo
de los Reyes and the Production of Modern Knowledge
(Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006)
• Isabelo’s Archive (Metro Manila: Anvil Publishing, 2013).

9. LEVI CELERIO
National Artist for Literature / Music (1997)
(April 30, 1910 – April 2, 2002)
Levi Celerio is a prolific lyricist and composer for decades. He effortlessly
translated/wrote anew the lyrics to traditional melodies: “O Maliwanag Na Buwan”
(Iloko), “Ako ay May Singsing” (Pampango), “Alibangbang” (Visaya) among
others.

Born in Tondo, Celerio received his scholarship at the Academy of Music in Manila
that made it possible for him to join the Manila Symphony Orchestra, becoming its
youngest member. He made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the only
person able to make music using just a leaf.

A great number of his songs have been written for the local movies, which earned
for him the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines.
Levi Celerio, more importantly, has enriched the Philippine music for no less than
two generations with a treasury of more than 4,000 songs in an idiom that has
proven to appeal to all social classes.

10. Ryan Cayabyab

National Artist for Music (2018)
Birthday: 4 May 1954

Mr. C is the most accomplished composer, arranger, and musical director in the
Philippine music industry since this bloomed beginning 1970s. His learned,
skillful, and versatile musical style spans a wide range of genres: from
conservatory or art compositions such as concert religious music, symphonic
work, art song, opera, and concerto to mainstream popular idioms in the music
industry and in live contemporary multimedia shows (musical theater, dance, and
film). Being very visible in the national media (once a TV host of a long-running
arts and culture series and recently a judge in reality TV singing competitions),
Cayabyab is a household name. His compositions reflect a perspective of music
that extols the exuberance of life and human happiness, thus capturing the very
essence of our Filipino soul.

Notable Works:

• Rama-Hari (Two-act musical ballet, 1980)

• Katy! The Musical (Two-act musical, 1988)
• Smokey Mountain (Pop CD album, 1990)
• One Christmas (Christmas Album, 1993)
• Noli Me Tangere (Tele-sine musical, 1995)
• Spoliarium (Three-act opera, 2003)
• Ignacio Of Loyola (Film Score, 2016)
• Larawan: The Musical (Full-length musical film, 2017)
• Da Coconut Nut
• Kay Ganda Ng Ating Musika
 • Nais Ko
• Paraiso
• Kahit Ika’y Panaginip Lang
• Kailan
• Tuwing Umuulan at Kapiling Ka

11. DAISY H. AVELLANA

National Artist for Theater (1999)
(January 26, 1917 – May 12, 2013)

Daisy H. Avellana, is an actor, director and writer. Born in Roxas City, Capiz on
January 26, 1917, she elevated legitimate theater and dramatic arts to a new
level of excellence by staging and performing in breakthrough productions of
classic Filipino and foreign plays and by encouraging the establishment of
performing groups and the professionalization of Filipino theater. Together with
her husband, National Artist Lamberto Avellana and other artists, she co-
founded the Barangay Theatre Guild in 1939 which paved the way for the
popularization of theatre and dramatic arts in the country, utilizing radio and
television.

She starred in plays like Othello (1953), Macbeth in Black (1959), Casa de Bernarda
Alba (1967), Tatarin. She is best remembered for her portrayal of Candida Marasigan in
the stage and film versions of Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino. Her
directorial credits include Diego Silang (1968), and Walang Sugat (1971). Among her
screenplays were Sakay (1939) and Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1955).

12. FERNANDO POE, JR.

National Artist for Cinema (2006)
(August 20, 1939 – December 14, 2004)

Ronald Allan K. Poe, popularly known as Fernando Poe, Jr., was a cultural icon
of tremendous audience impact and cinema artist and craftsman–as actor,
director, writer and producer.*

The image of the underdog was projected in his films such as Apollo
Robles(1961), Batang Maynila (1962), Mga Alabok sa Lupa (1967), Batang
Matador and Batang Estibador (1969), Ako ang Katarungan (1974), Tatak ng
Alipin(1975), Totoy Bato (1977), Asedillo (1981), Partida (1985), and Ang
Probisyano (1996), among many others. The mythical hero, on the other hand,
was highlighted in Ang Alamat (1972), Ang Pagbabalik ng Lawin (1975) including
his Panday series (1980, 1981, 1982, 1984) and the action adventure films
adapted from komiks materials such as Ang Kampana sa Santa
Quiteria(1971), Santo Domingo (1972), and Alupihang Dagat (1975), among
others.

Poe was born in Manila on August 20, 1939. After the death of his father, he
dropped out of the University of the East in his sophomore year to support his
family. He was the second of six siblings. He married actress Susan Roces in a
civil ceremony in December 1968. He died on December 14, 2004

13. SEVERINO MONTANO

National Artist for Theater (2001)
(January 3, 1915 – December 12, 1980)

Playwright, director, actor, and theater organizer, Severino Montano is the

forerunner in institutionalizing “legitimate theater” in the Philippines. Taking up
courses and graduate degrees abroad, he honed and shared his expertise with
his countrymates.

As Dean of Instruction of the Philippine Normal College, Montano organized the

Arena Theater to bring drama to the masses. He trained and directed the new
generations of dramatists including Rolando S. Tinio, Emmanuel Borlaza,
Joonee Gamboa, and Behn Cervantes.

He established a graduate program at the Philippine Normal College for the

training of playwrights, directors, technicians, actors, and designers. He also
established the Arena Theater Playwriting Contest that led to the discovery of
Wilfrido Nolledo, Jesus T. Peralta, and Estrella Alfon.

Among his awards and recognitions is the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award from
the City of Manila (1968), Presidential Award for Merit in Drama and Theater
(1961), and the Rockefeller Foundation Grant to travel to 98 cities abroad (1950,
1952, 1962, and 1963).

14. FERNANDO AMORSOLO

National Artist for Visual Arts
(May 30, 1892 – April 24, 1972)
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. Returning from his studies abroad in the 1920s, Amorsolo developed
the backlighting technique that became his trademark were figures, a cluster of
leaves, a spill of hair, the swell of breast, are seen aglow on canvas. This light,
Nick Joaquin opines, is the rapture of a sensualist utterly in love with the earth,
with the Philippine sun, and is an accurate expression of Amorsolo’s own
exuberance. His citation underscores all his years of creative activity which have
“defined and perpetuated a distinct element of the nation’s artistic and cultural
heritage”.

Among others, his major works include the following: Maiden in a Stream(1921)-
GSIS collection; El Ciego (1928)-Central Bank of the Philippines
collection; Dalagang Bukid (1936) – Club Filipino collection; The Mestiza (1943) –
National Museum of the Philippines collection; Planting Rice (1946)-UCPB
collection; Sunday Morning Going to Town (1958)-Ayala Museum Collection.

15. NAPOLEON ABUEVA

National Artist for Sculpture (1976)
(January 26, 1930 – February 16, 2018)

At 46 then, Napoleon V. Abueva, a native of Bohol, was the youngest National

Artist awardee. Considered as the Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture,
Abueva helped shape the local sculpture scene to what it is now. Being adept in
either academic representational style or modern abstract, he has utilized
almost all kinds of materials from hardwood (molave, acacia, langka wood, ipil,
kamagong, palm wood and bamboo) to adobe, metal, stainless steel, cement,
marble, bronze, iron, alabaster, coral and brass. Among the early innovations,
Abueva introduced in 1951 was what he referred to as “buoyant sculpture” —
sculpture meant to be appreciated from the surface of a placid pool. In the ’80s,
Abueva put up a one-man show at the Philippine Center, New York. His works
have been installed in different museums here and abroad, such as The
Sculpture at the United Nations headquarters in New York

Nine Muses of the Arts (Ramon Velasquez via Wikimedia Commons)

Some of his major works include Kaganapan (1953), Kiss of Judas (1955),Thirty
Pieces of Silver, The Transfiguration (1979), Eternal Garden Memorial Park, UP
Gateway (1967), Nine Muses (1994), UP Faculty Center, Sunburst (1994)-
Peninsula Manila Hotel, the bronze figure of Teodoro M. Kalaw in front of
National Library, and murals in marble at the National Heroes Shrine, Mt. Samat,
Bataan.

16. GUILLERMO TOLENTINO

National Artist for Sculpture (1973)
(July 24, 1890 – July 12, 1976)

Guillermo Estrella Tolentino is a product of the Revival period in Philippine art.

Returning from Europe (where he was enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts,
Rome) in 1925, he was appointed as professor at the UP School of Fine Arts where
the idea also of executing a monument for national heroes struck him. The result
was the UP Oblation that became the symbol of freedom at the campus.
Acknowledged as his masterpiece and completed in 1933, The Bonifacio
Monument in Caloocan stands as an enduring symbol of the Filipinos’ cry for
freedom.