Victorio C. Edades (1895-1985)Made National Artist in Painting in 1976, Victorio C. Edades was the pioneer in modernism in the Philippine art scene. In fact, he is known as the Father of Modern Philippine Painting. A lot of his paintings portrayed the hardships of the working class, using dark and somber colors and bold strokes.
Edades was born on December 23, 1895 in Dagupan, Pangasinan to Hilario Edades and Cecilia Edades. He obtained his early education in barrio schools and went to a high school in Lingayen. In 1919, he left for the United States to study Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Washington in Seattle. During the summer, he worked in the salmon canneries of Alaska. It was also during his stay in the U.S. that he married American Jean Garrott, with whom he had his only daughter, Joan.
He returned to the Philippines in 1928 and in the same year had his first one-man show at the Philippine Columbian Club. He also came up with two of his most well-known works in that year: The Sketch (also known as The Artist and His Model), and The Builders.
Edades joined the University of Santo Tomas in the 1930’s where he stayed on for three decades and became dean of its Department of Architecture. It was he who introduced the Liberal Arts program which led to a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, a first in the Philippines since art was only taught in vocational schools then. Edades later formed the Triumvirate of Modern Art with Carlos V. Francisco and Galo B. Ocampo, after they produced a mural for the lobby of the Capitol Theater on Escolta Street. This began the growth of mural painting in the Philippines.
However, it was also during this period that the infamous debate between the modernists and the conservatives, including Ariston Estrada, Ignacio Manlapaz and Fermin Sanchez, took place. This was interrupted by the second World War, but resumed in 1948, with sculptor Guillermo Tolentino and painter Fernando Amorsolo representing the conservatives.
In 1938, Edades, together with Ocampo and Diosdado Lorenzo, established the Atelier of Modern Art in Malate, Manila. This resulted in the formation of the Thirteen Moderns, considered the pioneers of modern art in the Philippines. This group was led by Edades and included Ocampo, Francisco, Lorenzo, Vicente S. Manansala, H. R. Ocampo, Demetrio Diego, Bonifacio Cristobal, Cesar F. Legaspi, Jose Pardo, Arsenio Capili, Ricarte Puruganan, and Anita Magsaysay-Ho.
Aside from this, Edades co-founded the Mindanao Ethnoculture Foundation, which focused on the indigenous culture and heritage of Mindanao. In his last fifty years, the subject of his paintings had also become indigenized.
Edades retired from the UST at the age of 70, and he was bestowed with the degree of Doctor in Fine Arts, Honoris Causa. He then settled in Davao after retirement.
On May 7, 1985, Victorio Edades passed away at the age of 89.
Edades’ major works include:
• 1928 – The Sketch, National Museum Collection
• 1928 – The Builders, Cultural Center of the Philippines Collection
• 1935 – Interaction, with Carlos V. Francisco and Galo B. Ocampo
• 1976 – Demoiselles D’avao
• 1979 – Kasaysayan, a mural for a Manila bank
Achievements:
• 1961 – Pro Patria Award, given during the Rizal Centennial Celebration
• 1964 – Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award, from the City of Manila.
Some Artworks of Victorio C. Edades
The Sketch
The Builders
Carlos V. Francisco (1914-1969)
In 1973, Carlos “Botong” Francisco was the second Filipino to receive the title of National Artist in Painting, after Fernando C. Amorsolo. Also known as the Poet of Angono, he single-handedly brought back the art of mural painting in the Philippines and was its most distinguished painter in his time. He was on the forefront of modernist art in the country, and with Victorio C. Edades and Galo B. Ocampo became part of “The Triumvirate” of modern art. His is best known for his historical epics, and one of his favorite subjects is fisherfolk. His images of women came from mythology, history, legend, customs and contemporary life.
On November 4, 1914, Francisco was born to Felipe Francisco and Maria Villaluz in Angono, Rizal. He went to college at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, and before the Second World War did illustrations for The Tribune and La Vanguardia. Although he came from the same school of arts as Amorsolo, he veered away from the style of the traditional artist and developed a modernist style. Together with Victorio Edades and Fermin Sanchez, he painted for the Manila Grand Opera House and the Clover Theater. He and Edades started mural-painting, and together they formed the Thirteen Moderns, a group of modernists, in 1938.
After the Second World War, he taught at the University of Santo Tomas School of Fine Arts at the same time that he was doing work in cinema with Manuel Conde. He worked as a scriptwriter for films such as “Genghis Khan,” “Putol na Kampilan,” and “Tatlong Labuyo.” In addition, he designed costumes for films such as “Romeo at Julieta,” “Prinsipe Tenoso,” “Ibong Adarna,” “Siete Infantes de Lara,” and the “Juan Tamad” series.
Francisco further enhanced his art in mural painting as he, together with Edades and Ocampo, was commissioned to do several murals for lobbies and private residences. They developed the Filipino imagery in their work, taking images from the customs and traditions of the people. Some of the murals they worked on as a triumvirate are Rising Philippines for the Capitol Theater, murals for the Golden Gate Exposition, the State Theater, and the private residences of President Manuel Quezon, Ernesto Rufino and Vicente Rufino. However, his major masterpiece is the mural he did for the Bulwagang Katipunan of the Manila City Hall.
After Francisco’s death on March 31, 1969, what came to be known as the Botong Francisco School of Painting grew, exemplifying lyricism and heroism.
His major works include:
• 1945 – Kaingin
• 1948 – Fiesta
• 1953 – 50 Years of Philippine History, his first important mural, for the International Fair held in Manila
• 1954 – Life and Miracles of St. Dominic, for Santo Domingo Church
• 1956 – Stations of the Cross, for the Far Eastern University
• 1956 – The Invasion of Limahong
• 1957 – Mangingisda
• 1958 – Muslim Wedding
• 1962 – Bayanihan
Achievements:
• 1948 – 1st Prize, First National Art Exhibition of the Art Association of the Philippines, for Kaingin
• 1964 – Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan, from the City of Manila.
Some Artworks of Carlos V. Francisco
Kaingin
Fiesta
Arturo R. Luz
Arturo R. Luz, painter, sculptor and designer, received the title of National Artist in Visual Arts in 1997. Member of the Neo-Realists and the Thirteen Moderns, a group of modern artists established in 1938 and led by Victorio C. Edades, he described himself as “semi-representational, semi-abstracted.” He is best known for his linear art and his series on street musicians, vendors, cyclists and carnival performers, but also sculpted using wood, concrete and metal. His works are characterized by sophisticated simplicity and exemplify sublime austerity in their expression and form.
Luz was born in Manila on November 20, 1926. He began his lessons in painting under painter Pablo Amorsolo, brother of National Artist Fernando Amorsolo. He went to the University of Santo Tomas School of Fine Arts, then received a scholarship at the California College of Arts and Craft in Oakland for a 3-year diploma in art program. He continued his education at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York in 1950, and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris in 1951.
He began with figurative artworks, but went on to develop abstraction. It was in Paris that he had his first one-man exhibit of drawings at the Galerie Raymond Duncan in 1951. He held his second solo exhibition at the Manila Hotel when he returned to the Philippines in the same year. In 1960, he put up the Luz Gallery, wherein many contemporary works were showcased. He had the following objectives when he founded the gallery: to display paintings that deserve to be exhibited, to give approval and recognition to genuine talent, and to develop taste with a degree of critical judgment.
Among his achievements are three first prize awards at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Competition from the 1950’s to the 1960’s. In addition, he received several foreign scholarship grants, including those from Spain in 1953, Italy in 1963, and the United States in 1963. He also joined various exhibitions abroad, including the Philippine Cultural Exhibition held in New York in 1953, Arte de America y España in 1963, the 11th Sao Paolo Biennale in 1971, the Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1974, and the 8th British International Print Biennale in 1984. Another distinction is a one-man exhibit he held at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City in 1981.
Luz’s major works include:
• 1946 – Lavandera
• 1953 – Awit
• 1959 – City
• 1960 – Anito Sculpture
• 1979 – Painted Steel
• 1997 – Bagong Taon
• 1997 – Man with Guitar
Achievements:
• 1962 – 1st Prize, First International Art Salon in Saigon, Vietnam
• 1966 – Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Painting
• 1978 – Order of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, by the French government (title was promoted to “Officiel” in 1987)
• 1981 – Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award, from the City of Manila
• 1989 – Gawad CCP para sa Sining, from the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Some Artworks of Arturo R. Luz
Awit
City
Vicente S. Manansala (1910-1981)
Honored as National Artist in Painting in 1981, Vicente S. Manansala is considered the country’s pioneer in Cubism. He was one of the Thirteen Moderns led by Victorio C. Edades, and was one of the Big Three in the modernist movement, along with Cesar Legaspi and H. R. Ocampo. In addition, he formed the group of Neo-Realists together with Romeo Tabuena and Anita Magsaysay-Ho. Manansala developed transparent cubism and his works were done mostly in the figurative mode, reflecting the society and the local environment. He favored the styles of Picasso and Cezanne, and believed that the true beauty of art lay in the process of creating it.
Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga on January 22, 1910. He was the second of the eight children of Perfecto Q. Manansala and Engracia Silva. At the age of 15, he studied under painter Ramon Peralta while doing work painting movie posters at a shop in Manila. He entered the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts in 1926 and graduated in 1930. He continued his studies under a UNESCO grant at the École de Beaux Arts in Banff and Montreal, Canada in 1949, and under a French government scholarship at the École de Beaux Arts in Paris in 1950. His training did not end there. In 1960, he received a grant from the United States to study stained glass techniques in New York. He also trained at the Otis Art Institute in 1967, and received another grant in 1970, this time from Germany, to study in Zurich.
Manansala worked as an illustrator for the Philippines Herald and Liwayway and as a layout artist for Photonews and Saturday Evening News Magazine in the 1930’s. He held his first one-man show at the Manila Hotel in 1951, and then went on to work as a professor at the University of Santo Tomas School of Fine Arts from 1951 to 1958.
Vicente C. Manansala died in Makati in 1981.
His major works include:
• 1940 – Bangkusay Seascape
• 1948 – Banaklaot
• 1950 – Madonna of the Slums
• 1951 – Jeepneys
• 1967 – Reclining Mother and Child
He also painted several historical murals including:
• Stations of the Cross for UP Diliman Chapel
• Mural for Philippine Heart Center
• Fresco mural for the National Press Club
Achievements:
• 1941 – 1st Prize, National Art Exhibition, UST, for Pounding Rice
• 1950 – 1st Prize, Manila Grand Opera House Exhibition, for Barong-Barong #1
• 1950 – 1st Prize, Art Association of the Philippines First Annual Art Competition, for Banaklaot
• 1953 – 2nd Prize, Art Association of the Philippines, for Kahig (Scratch)
• 1955 – 2nd Prize, Art Association of the Philippines, for Fish Vendors
• 1955 – 3rd Prize, Art Association of the Philippines, for Best-Served, Well-Gained
• 1957 – Outstanding UP Alumnus
• 1962 – 2nd Prize, Art Association of the Philippines, for Give Us This Day
• 1962 – Best in Show, Art Association of the Philippines, for Give Us This Day
• 1963 – Republic Cultural Heritage Award
• 1970 – Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award, from the City of Manila.
Some Artworks of Vicente S. Manansala
Madonna of the Slums
Reclining Mother and Child
