A BRIEF HISTORY OF

PHILIPPINE ART
• At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
• Identify the major periods, artists and artworks
of Philippine art history;
• Build an initial vocabulary of major and basic art
terms in Philippine Art history;
• Define contemporary arts by situating these
within Philippine Art;
• Distinguish conservative modern and
contemporary styles in the visual arts and be
able to interpret these by creating a self-
portrait.
I. Pre- Conquest
- Refers to the art before the coming of the first
colonizers.
- In stylistics, this is referred to as “indigenous” to
emphasize the idea that our ancestors have been
making art before colonization.
- They did not distinguish forms into different
categories like music, theater, visual arts etc.
- Our ancestors were hunter gatherers just like all
others in the world.
Was there “art” before colonization?

- Prior to colonization, art of the ancient

Filipinos were woven into the fabric of
everyday life. They do not refer to “art” as
we do today.
- Everyday expressions were all integrated
within rituals that marked significant
moments in a community’s life.
- As hunters, they also imitate the movements of the animals
they hunt which marked the early beginnings of theater or
play acting.
- Many rituals are considered as the earliest forms of theater
are still alive in some regions.
- Pre colonial Filipinos also possessed a varied and vibrant
musical culture.
- This wealth of ethnic musical instruments is further
complimented by native dance forms whose movements of
animals, humans and elements of nature.
- Pre – colonial Filipinos have been making images before
colonization. This is exemplified by the country’s rich tradition
in carving. People of the Cordilleras carve the bulul, referred
as a granary god that plays an important role in rituals.
- On the other hand, Christianized communities in Laguna and
Pampanga are known for carving santos or sculptures of saints
as well as other wooden sculptures of secular or non- religious
orientation.
-
- Sensuous figures sometimes painted primary colors and follow
the basic designs of the mythical sarimanok , the Naga or
serpent, and the pako rabong or fern.
 Manunggul Jar
Some of the most ancient forms are made out of
terracotta. The Manuggul Jar, discovered at Manunggul Cave,
Lipuun Point, Palawan is dated to the late Neolithic period (890-
710 BC) It is a secondary burial vessel, where buried and
exhumed bones are placed.
- Another cherished living tradition is weaving. Textile weaving
has a long history. Filipino ethnoliguistic groups have a rich
textile weaving tradition. Textiles are not only functional, they
also impart knowledge about people’s belief systems: the
reverence for spirits and nature, criteria for the beautiful, and
their societies’ sociopolitical structures.
- The tendency toward ornamentation could also be seen in the
way early Filipinos adorned their bodies.

An upper class Tagalog couple was

portrayed wearing Gold jewelry while
the Visayans are shown fully covered
in tattoo, corroborating early
accounts that referred to the Visayas
as ‘Islas de los Pintados”
II. Islamic- Colonial (13th
century to the Present
• How did Islam influence art before the coming of Spanish
colonizers?
- Even before the coming of Spanish colonizers, Islam was
already well- entrenched in Southern Philippines where it
continues to be culturally dominant and strong.
• What are the main beliefs of Islam that influence the ways art
is made and interpreted?
- Filipino Muslims recognize that they belong to an ummah or
community of believers. Central to the Islamic faith is the
doctine of Tahwid or unity of God.
- How Philippine Muslims organize space in Architecture is also
telling of their adherence to the Tahwid and other Islamic
beliefs.
For example, parts of the mosque
like the mihrab or the niche and the
Qibla wall are all oriented toward
the west- may it be in Sultan
Kudarat or in Quiapo, Manila- in
order to fulfill the requirement that
all Islamic buildings must be
oriented toward Mecca as
expression of oneness with larger
Islamic community.
The Torogan, the royal house of the Maranao
III. Spanish Colonial Period
(1521- 1898)
• What kinds of art were developed during the Spanish
Colonization?
- While the South remained resistant to Spanish colonization,
the colonizers gained inroads in the central part of the islands
whose inhabitants we now refer to as “Lowland Christians”.
- Art that flourished during the Spanish colonial period
conformed to the demands of the church and the colonial
state.
- Designed according to the prescriptions of the Spanish crown,
the Church established its importance in people’s lives
through its imposing scale and overall visual appeal.

San Agustin Church in Manila

- The Greek and Roman classical influence can be seen in the
proportion employed as well as the formality of expression
while the trace of the Baroque is evident in the expressive and
emotional characteristics of the santo.
- In colonial churches, santos are displayed in a decorative altar
niche called the retablo.
- The Spaniards also brought western musical instruments like
the pipe, organ, the violin, the guitar, and the piano, Philippine
musical forms also took on a very European flavor- with new
rhythms, melodies and musical forms that Filipinos proceeded
to adopt them and make their own.
- Among lowland Christian communities of Pampanga, Ilocos,
Bicol and Iloilo, secular forms such as the awit and the corrido
soon flourished.
- Local theater forms would develop earlier than literary fiction.
- During the 19th century, a popular form of musical theater was
imported from Spain. The zarzuela or sarsuwela was an
operetta which features singing and dancing.
The zarzuela
• The first senakulo or Passion play was written in 1704 by
Gaspar Aquino de Belen. Its narrative was culled entirely from
the biblical account of Christ’s passion and death.
- Centuries of the galleon trade between Mexico and the
Philippines also served as a means of Governance for Spain.
- The trade and the viceroyalty arrangement also brought
Mexican influences in Philippine folk music and dance. Folk
dances such as the cariñosa, pandanggo or fandanggo, polka,
dansa and the rigodon were brought to the country.

- The reprographic art of printmaking was introduced in the

Philippines as early as the 16th century. Applying the technique
of xylography or woodcut printing, Doctrina Christiana (The
Teachings of Christianity) was printed in 1593 in Spanish and
Tagalog by Dominican priests. The Doctrina is the first printed
book in the Philippines compiling song lyrics, commandments,
sacraments, and other catechetical material.
The rise of the elite would
manifest in town organization.
Mong those that occupied the
plaza complex were the bahay na
bato which housed rich and
prominent families. Simon
Flores’ painting Portrait of the
Quiazon Family (1800)
documents the family’s
affluence: the magnificent
interior of the family’s home, the
mother’s jewelry, the delicate
fabric and embroidery of their
clothing and their dignified
poses.
 Attention to detail in painting can
also be observed in Letras y Figuras.
- Aside from miniaturist painters, academic painters gained
ground as they received their art studies in local schools or
abroad as in the case of Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo.
- The Pampanga- born Simon Flores also produced genre
scenes. A distinct example is the painting, Primeras Letras,
1890, which features a woman teaching a child how to read.
-
In 1884, the expatriates
Juan Luna and Felix
Resurreccion Hidalgo won
medals in the Madrid
Exposition. Luna won gold
for Spolarium.
IV. American Colonial Period (1898-1940) to
the Postwar Republic (1946-1969)
MAJOR ART MOVEMENTS
- The independence that the Philippines gained after the
revolution of 1896 was cut short with the establishment of
the American colonial government.

- Beginning with the institution of government and

education systems, the new colonial government took
charge of initiating the natives into the American way of
life, creating a lasting influence on Filipino cuture.
What were the changes brought about by the American
colonization?How are they different from the religious forms of
the Spanish colonial period?
- With the coming of the Americans, Filipino playwrights who
had just undergone the Philippine revolution of 1898 against
Spain now found themselves confronted by censorship.
- The lingua franca on this period was English thus poems and
stories from books were dramatized in classrooms to
facilitate the teaching of the language.
- - In the beginning of the 20th century, a new urban pattern
responded to the secular goals of education, health and
governance was imposed.
- The new patrons of the arts included the Americans who
engaged in governance and education, business or tourism.
- The inclination toward genre, still life and portrait persisted.

De la Rosa, Planting Rice (1921)

- The artist/ painter, Fernando Amorsolo was one of the most
important figures in Philippine art. He was declared National
Artist in 1972. Guillermo Tolentino was his counterpart in
sculpture. He studied fine arts in Rome where he was
influence by its classical tradition.

Oblation, (1935)
Bonifacio Monument, (1933)
 MODERN ART AND ITS CHALLENGE TO ACADEMIC ART

What is Modern Art?

- In lesson 1, we learned that Modern Art is different from
Contemporary Art in history and style.

Ocampo, Brown Madonna , 1938)

Arellano, Metropolitan Theater, (1935)
Japanese Occupation (1941-1945)
- With the coming of the Japanese, the Modern Art would slow
in pace.
- Early moderns and conservatives alike continued to produce
art and even participated in KALIBAPI (Kapisanan sa
Paglilingkod ng Bagong Pilipinas).
- Expressions deemed subversive or Anti- Japanese led to
torturous consequences, even death.
Publications during the Japanese period include Liwayway
and Tribune
- Genre paintings were mostly produced particularly those that
presented a neutral relationship between the Japanese and
Filipinos and showed normality of daily living.
- The colonizers also preferred works that showed indigenous
and pre- colonial traditions.
- Although scenes fro the war were also made, the imagery
remained neutral focusing rather on the aesthetic qualities of
ruin and disaster.
Amorsolo, Ruins of the Manila
Cathedral, 1945
Amorsolo, Bombing of the
Intendencia, 1942
Neo- Realism, Abstraction, and Other Modern
Art Styles
What is Neo- Realism?
- An art technique, a new kind of modernism and a movement
where artists explore folk themes and also crafted
commentaries on the urban condition and the effects of war.
Manansala’s The Beggars, 1952,
consists of two women with emaciated
bodies, their faces set against a dark
background capturing the dreariness of
poverty.
Legaspi’s Gadgets II, 1949
depicts half- naked men almost
engulfed in the presence of
machines. Their elongated limbs
and exaggerated muscles
indicate the hardship of their
labor; their expressionless faces
and repetitive actions rob them
of their humanity as they
function like machines.
- The 1950’s also saw the construction of modern architectural
structures, particularly churches that modified or veered away
from traditional cruciform designs.

Church of the
Holy Sacrifice,
1955, UP
Diliman
The Angry Christ by Alfonso
Ossorio delivers pictorial
overload, filling up the walls
and ceiling of the altar
space. Distinct from most
Christ- figures, there is
expressive use of color, the
jagged angularity of the
rendering and the use of
flame-like motifs.
- Another strand of Modern Art that emerged more definitively
during the period was abstraction. This generally consists of
simplified forms which avoided mimetic (exact copy)
representation.

Arturo Luz’s Street

Musicians, 1952
V. 70’s to Contemporary
• How was the “modern” interpreted in the 70’s? How did
contemporary artists rework it influences of the modern?
- Under the helm of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos,
beginning in 1965, many cultural projects ensued amid the
backdrop of poverty and volatile social conditions.
- Along the declaration of Martial Law, was the vision of
working toward the rebirth of a long lost civilization.
- National pride was instilled by invoking the pre- modern
through murals, folk festivals, and museums devoted to
collecting and displaying ethnograhic artifacts and natural
specimens.
The CCP as Shrine for the Arts
- At the center of this arts and culture program was the Cultural
Center of the Philippines (CCP), the premier entity through which art
acquisition, exhibition making , workshops, grants and awards were
implemented.
Social Realism (SR)
- A significant strand that emerged during the intense political
ferment of the 70’s and the 80’s.
- A form of protest art that exposed the sociopolitical issues and
struggles of the times.

Antipas Delotavo’s Itak

sa Puso ni Mang Juan
Edgar Fernandez, Kinupot
(1978)

The format of protest art is

not just confined to painting
on canvas but also extends
to other more accessible and
popular forms like posters
and illustrations; or street art
as in collaborative murals in
public spaces.
- Varied forms of expression can be observed from the period
which spilled over from the previous decades.

Brenda Fajardo
foreground the
histories of ethnic
communities
through her tarot
card series.
- In other words, the native or the folk, the self the
environment, the nation, the past and the various variations of
the Modern continue to be revisited by artists as sources of
inspiration in contemporary art.