Historical Overview of

Philippine Art
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 Islamic Colonial
(13th century to the present)
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 Islamic Colonial (13th century to the present)
● In Islamic art ,the artists were influenced
by the doctrine of Tawhid or unity of God
● emphasizes the greatness of the divine
being
● all Islamic buildings are required to follow
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Tawhid and other Islamic beliefs.

● Some parts of the mosque like the niche or
mirhab must face the west, must be
oriented toward Mecca to show oneness
with other Islamic communities.
 Islamic Colonial (13th century to the present)
● Islamic arts are in upward orientation like the panolong in
torogan , the royal shelter of Maranao, with the regard for
heaven and in turning away from the “material earth.”
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Mihrab (Prayer Niche)

 Spanish Colonial Period
( 1521 – 1898)
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 Spanish Colonial Period( 1521 – 1898)
● Most of the art forms during this era
were religious arts for the purpose of
converting the Filipinos to Catholicism.
● Churches were a combination of both
native and European elements
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● Colonial baroque or Philippine baroque

● images of saints made out of wood or
ivory. They are displayed in decorative
altars called the retablo
 Spanish Colonial Period( 1521 – 1898)
● pasyon or pabasa which is the biblical narration of
Christ’s passion in an improvised melody.
● awit and corrido - secular musical forms
● kundiman and the balitao
● kundiman is a song where the lyrics talks about the love
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that is not reciprocated.

● resignation and fatalism i.e. Kundiman ni Abdon,

Bayan Ko
● balitao are sentimental love songs
 Spanish Colonial Period( 1521 – 1898)
• Baybayin written on a big stone that was discovered in Ticao,
Leyte was believed to be a prayer intended for a safe journey by
the sea.
• Mangyans etched Baybayin script on the smaller nodes of
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bamboo poles to write poems of courtship and emotional

concerns.
• zarzuela or sarsuwela, a popular form of musical theater an
operetta of singing and dancing together with prose dialogues
was introduced by the Spaniards.
 Spanish Colonial Period( 1521 – 1898)
● senakulo which was the biblical account of
Christ’s passion and death
● komedya de santo or religious komedya -
focuses on the life of Christ or any saint where
the actors with extravagant costumes
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choreographed the war scenes.

● secular komedya - moro-moro is an example ,
involving a love story between a Christian and
a Muslim resulting to the conversion and
baptism of the Muslim character ,then
wedding followed.
 American Colonial Period
(1898-1940)
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to the Postwar Republic

(1946-1969)
 American Colonial Period (1898-1940) to the
Postwar Republic (1946-1969)
● Since the Americans taught their language in the public
school, Filipinos wrote plays in English like the one written by
Lino Castillejo and Jesus Araullo in 1915 entitled A Modern
Filipina, the first ever play written in English.
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● Vaudeville that originated from France and became popular

in the Philippines and was locally called bodabil.
 American Colonial Period (1898-1940) to the
Postwar Republic (1946-1969)
● architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham was
commissioned by the American government to design
Baguio and Manila.
● Neoclassic architecture - decorative sculptural elements
Some Filipinos were trained in the US or in Europe to design
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●
buildings during this period. They were Tomas Mapua, Juan
Arellano, Andres Luna de San Pedro and Antonio Toledo.
 ● Oblation(1935 original/1958 bronze cast found at the Up
Oblation Plaza)
● Bonifacio Monument - life size figures in dynamic poses
demonstrating restraint, formality and elegance in a
historical tableau, 1933 in Caloocan
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● Both of these artworks were done by Guillermo Tolentino

● Fabian dela Rosa painted Planting Rice in 1921 and El
Kundiman in 1930.
 ● Fernando Amorsolo did a lot of portraits of prominent
individuals and was a graphic artist of the textbook series
The Philippine Readers
the logo design for Ginebra San Miguel where a saint
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●
trampled on a devil .
● This logo helped him study Fine Arts in Spain thru a grant
given by the company.
● National Artist Victorio Edades painted in 1928 The Builders
which presented distorted figures of labouring workers.
 Japanese Occupation
(1941 – 1945)
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 Japanese Occupation(1941 – 1945)
● reject the Western traditions.
● Art production was under the scrutiny of the Japanese
government
● Expressions which were subversive by nature or anti-
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Japanese would tantamount

● to torture and even death.
● Felipe de Leon wrote Awit sa Paglikha ng Bagong Pilipinas ,
the anthem which spoke of the loyalty to the nation
 Japanese Occupation(1941 – 1945)
● paintings specially those expressing a neutral
relationship between the Filipinos and the Japanese
● preferred indigenous and pre-colonial traditions
● Crispin Lopez’ study of an Aeta, 1943 and
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Amorsolo’s bombing of the Intendencia, 1942 and

the Ruins of the Manila Cathedral, 1945.
● art that would expose the “true social conditions”
● artist-writer E. Aguilar Cruz who named the
movement Neo-Realism
 Japanese Occupation(1941 – 1945)

● folk themes and made commentaries on the urban

condition and the effects of war preferred
indigenous and pre-colonial traditions
● Manasala’s the Beggars, 1952 presents two thin
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women with sad faces against a dark background

indicating the dullness of poverty.
● Most of Manansala’s paintings are characterized by
transparent cubism, a style of soft fragmentation of
figures using transparent planes.
 Japanese Occupation(1941 – 1945)
● Legaspi’s Gadgets II, 1949 shows half-naked men
surrounded by machines depicting their hardship,
their expressionless faces as they function like
machines.
● Most of Legaspi’s artworks have distorted images by
stretching or making rotund forms in a well ordered
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● composition.
● Ocampo’s The Contrast, 1940 ,is a figurative artwork
that reveals human conditions amid the environment
of modernity. He is recognized with his combination
of geometric and biomorphic shapes with lively
colors.
 Japanese Occupation(1941 – 1945)
● churches of modern architectural structures
were constructed
● Church of the Holy Sacrifice, 1955 and the
Church of the Risen Lord that made use of
concrete material and tried on rounded or
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parabolic forms.
● It highlighted the relationship of color, line
and space or the flatness of the canvas
rather an illusion of three dimensionality.
 ● Arturo Luz’ Street Musicians, 1952 who used stark linear
elements and who trimmed down the figures into lines
and basic shapes.
● Fernando Zobel made use of used syringe in his paintings.
● Constancio Bernardo and Lee Aguinaldo were solid
geometric shapes and color fields.
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 70s to Contemporary
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 70s to Contemporary
● rebirth of a long lost civilization and
aspiration to modernization and
development.
● vision was to propagate and implement an
art and culture program that combined fine
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arts, architecture , interior design, tourism,

convention city building, engineering, urban
planning, health and among others.
 70s to Contemporary
● Composition of Bagong Pagsilang by Levi
Celerio and Felipe de Leon Padilla.
● National pride was instilled thru murals, folk
festivals and museums in charge of the
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collection and display of ethnographic

artifacts and natural specimen like in the
National Museum
 70s to Contemporary
● Cultural Center of the Philippines was the entity
in charge of the implementation of art
acquisition, exhibition making, workshops,
grants and awards.
● Leandro Locsin , chief architect of Imelda
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Marcos designed this modernist building as a

cross between the bahay kubo and art
minimalist structures.
Social Realism
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 Social Realism
● This is the period of the 70s and 80s in
which the art form was a protest art that
exposed the socio-political issues and
struggles at this time.
● focus was on the oppressed, marginalized
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and under represented people who

experienced inequality and forms of
repression.
● Painting, also posters and murals in the
streets.
 Social Realism
● Salingpusa, a group of UP students, who became
popular in the 80’s , made collaborative murals
where Social Realism could be felt
● group of political artist in Bacolod named Pamilya
Pintura
● Ang Kiukok’s dogfight paintings hinting of conflict
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and aggression
● Santiago Bose’s ethnicity, identity and alternative
historical narratives who drew insight from his
native Bagiuo