CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE ARTS

FROM THE REGIONS

 Historical Overview
FORM Pre- Spanish American Japanese Post-War Contemporary
Conquest
1521-1898 1898-1940 1941-1945 1946-1969 1970’s – present

Painting Pottery, Religious Landscape, Wartime Modern,  Figurative, non

Body Portraiture portrait, still life Scenes conservative, figurative, art for
Adornment   abstract, art sake ,multi-
and Propaganda experimental, media, mixed
Ornament   public art media and
Indigenizing transmedia
Sculpture Pottery, Religious figures Free Standing, and
wood and and carving relief, public Orientalizing
metal works
carving

Architectur Dwellings Church, plaza, City planning,  Public works Real Estate, safe
e and houses Civic building, public works, housing,
(Bahay fortress, road and structures and condominiums,
kubo) lighthouse infrastructures subdivisions,
construction villages, malls,
commercial/busines
s/convention
buildings
Philippine
Art
History
 Pre-Colonial Arts
(ETHNIC Arts)

In Pre-colonial
Philippines, arts
are for ritual
purposes or for
everyday use.
In this period, they do not refer to “art” as we do
today, that is an expression of an individual. They
did not distinguish forms into different categories
like music, theater, visual arts, etc. Everyday
expressions were all integrated within rituals that
marked significant moments in a community’s life
like planting and harvesting, weddings, and etc.

Aside from the communal functionality of

indigenous art, creative forms such as pottery,
weaving, carving, and jewelry, some ritual values
that exist in various forms at present.
 Our ancestors during those times were hunter gatherers. The
pre-colonial Filipino hunted food and game that were shared
among members of a community in a gathering where they told
stories about the hunt. In this simple activity alone evolved
ritual, music, dance, theater, and even literature.
LITERATURE – when they told stories about the hunt , this form of
oral story telling marked the beginnings of literature. In time, they
would learn to devise an alphabet and write these stories down.

THEATER OR PLAY ACTING- when they imitated the movements of

the animals that they hunted

MUSIC AND DANCE- When they learned to add drum beating and
attach a rhythm to their movements.
 Long before the coming of Spaniards, the
pre-colonial peoples of the Philippines
already possessed a varied and vibrant
musical culture. The country’s indigenous
cultures through the existence of ethnic
musical instruments such as pipes, flutes,
zithers, drums, various string instruments
like the kudyapi a three stringed guitar, the
kulintang- an array of bossed gongs.
Traditionally, tongatongs are
used by the people of Kalinga
to communicate with spirits,
particularly as part of
healing rituals. In modern
times, they are also played
recreationally as part of an
ensemble and to communicate
with spirits during house
blessings.
 This wealth of ethnic musical instruments
is further complimented by native dance
forms whose movements often imitated the
movements of animals, humans, and
elements from nature
EXAMPLE: Tinikling, a popular Tagalog folk
dance often showcased for tourist, balancing
itself on stilt-like legs or flitting away from
the clutches of bamboo traps.
 In traditional weaving, the fibers are gathered from
plants like cotton, abaca, and pineapple leaves.
 SPANISH
ERA
Art became a
handmaiden of religion,
serving to propagate
the Catholic faith and
thus support the
colonial order at the
same time.
 Religious orders, were dispatched to convert the natives
to Catholicism as part of the larger project of
colonization. The art forms from that period are referred
to stylistically and culturally as religious art, lowland
Christian art, or folk art.
 In keeping with the prevailing design of Hispanic
churches, the baroque style was predominantly employed
(San Agustin Church in Manila, Paoay church in Ilocos
Norte).
 Images of saints ang interpretations of biblical
narratives were considered essential to worship and
images were produced through painting, sculpting, and
engraving.
(Via Crusis- a series of 14 paintings or sculpture
depicting Christ crucifixion and resurrection;
images of the holy family, the Virgin Mary in the
ceilings and walls of the church)

 Spaniards also brought 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 form e.g. pasyon or
pagbasa – the biblical narration of Christ passion
chanted in an improvised melody.
Another secular music forms that developed:
- Awit and Corrido ( musical forms that chanted stories based on European literature and
history and were popular even among the peasantry who learned the verses purely by
rote.
- Kundiman and Balitao ( spoke of resignation and fatalism, for all intents and purposes,
the lyrics were that of unrequited love, except that the love object was the Philippines
who would be cleverly concealed as beautiful woman.

 Local theater forms would developed earlier than literary fiction. The earliest forms of
theater were replaced by the pomp and pageantry of religious processions that were
introduced by the Spanish colonizers, containing religious tableaus of Catholic saints
and scenes from the bible.
- Sarsuwela ( a popular form of musical theater imported from Spain. This features singing
and dancing interspersed with prose dialogue which allowed the story to be carried out in
song.