The Contemporary Arts

• Contemporary Art


  The art that springs out of the present-day events and passions of the society. It is the newest form of art, amusing people from the middle to the late 20th century up to this time
• Contemporary Art


  A statement that an artist makes about life, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and many other things that define human life
• Characteristics of Contemporary Art

  • Not confined in the museum
  • Practices a different way of selling art works
  • Many contemporary artists are self-taught and did not have formal education
  • Has a variety of materials or medium to choose from
  • Artists sometimes employ the help of fabricators, carpenters, electricians, or welders in "constructing" artworks
  • Originality is not an issue
  • The process, rather than sale, is essential
• Subject Matter


  Any person, animal, thing, or issue that is described or represented in a work
• Subject matter is not confined to representation of human figures and landscapes
• If an artwork is an experiment on technique, the subject matter is the technique itself
• In conceptual arts, the viewer has to engage thinking and exploring the meaning of the art work
• Techniques in Contemporary Arts

  • Collage
  • Decalcomania
  • Decoupage
  • Frottage
  • Montage
  • Trapunto
  • Digital applications
• Order of the National Artists

  Highest national recognition given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts
• Order of the National Artists

  • Established under Proclamation No. 1001, s. 1972
  • Administered by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)
  • The president of the Philippines grants this award to a person that is recommended by both institutions every three (3) years
• National Artists


  • Architecture: Pablo S. Antonio, Juan F. Nakpil, Ildefonso P. Santos, Jose Maria V. Zaragoza, Leandro V. Locsin
  • Visual Arts: Fernando Amorsolo, Cesar Legaspi, Hernando Ocampo, Arturo Luz, Jose T. Joya, Benedicto Cabrera, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, Francisco Coching, Victorio Edades, Guillermo Tolentino, Vicente Manansala
• Edades' colors


  • Dark and somber
  • Favorite subject matter are laborers, factory workers or the simple fold in all their dirt, sweat and grime
• Guillermo Tolentino


  Hailed as the "Father of Philippine Arts"
• Guillermo Tolentino's famous works

  • Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan
  • UP Oblation in Diliman, Quezon City
• Other works by Guillermo Tolentino


  • Designed the gold and bronze medals for the Ramon Magsaysay Award
  • Did the seal of the Republic of the Philippines
• Vicente Manansala


  • Cubist painter and illustrator from Macabebe, Pampanga
  • His paintings are described as "visions of reality teetering on the edge of abstraction"
• Manansala's view on art

  The beauty of art is in the process, in the moment of doing a particular painting, closely associating it with the act of making love. "The climax is just when it's really finished."
• Folk Architecture


  • Simple structures built of local materials and available tools to provide shelter for its inhabitants
• Folk Architecture


  • Bahay Kubo or Nipa Hut
  • Bale or Ifugao House
  • Ivatan House in Batanes
  • Torogan or Maranao House
  • Badjao's Stilt Houses and Houseboats
• Manansala's works


  • A Cluster of Nipa Hut
  • San Francisco Del Monte
  • Banaklaot
  • I Believe in God
  • Market Venders
  • Madonna of the Slums
  • Still Life with Green Guitar
  • Via Crucis
  • Whirr
  • Nude
• Carlos "Botong" Francisco


  A poet from Angono who single-handedly revived the forgotten art of mural and was best known for his historical pieces
• Bahay Kubo or Nipa Hut


  An icon to Filipino lowland and rural culture, a stilt house with walls usually made up of bamboo rods and bamboo mats or sawali, and a thatched roof made up of anahaw or nipa
• Bale or Ifugao House


  A one-room house with an attic for storage, located at the contour of the rice terraces, the exterior looks like a pyramid resting on four posts, the interior is enclosed by slanting walls and ceiling that appears to be spherical that are formed by the loft
• J. Elizalde Navarro


  A versatile artist, being both a proficient painter and sculptor, devotion to the visual arts spans 40 years of drawing, printmaking, graphic designing, painting, and sculpting
• J. Elizalde Navarro's major mixed media works

  • I'm Sorry Jesus, I Can't Attend Christmas This Year (1965)
  • Homage to Dodjie Laurel (1969: Ateneo Art Gallery collection)
  • A Flying Contraption for Mr. Icarus (1984: Lopez Museum)
• Napoleon Abueva


  • The "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture"
  • Adept in either academic representational style or modern abstract
  • Utilized almost all kinds of materials from hard wood to adobe, metal, stainless steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron, alabaster, coral and brass
• Ivatan House in Batanes

  Built with limestone walls, and cogon roofs, strong enough to withstand the typhoons and earthquakes, has narrow doors and windows with wooden shutters and often secured by wooden bars
• Napoleon Abueva's major works

  • 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
  • Bronze figure of Teodoro M. Kalaw in front of National Library
  • Murals in marble at the National Heroes Shrine, Mt. Samat, Bataan
• Torogan or Maranao House


  A stately house for the elite members of the Maranao tribe, a symbol of status and leadership, also serves as a courthouse, hall for community meetings, and its courtyard as ritual areas for weddings
• Ang Kiukok


  • A painter from Davao City who fused influences from cubism, surrealism, and expressionism in his style
  • Favored subjects such as fighting cocks, rabid dogs, and people enraptured by rage
  • Also painted multiple depictions of the crucified Christ
• Ang Kiukok's works


  • Geometric Landscape (1969)
  • Pieta, which won for him the bronze medal in the 1st International Art Exhibition held in Saigon (1962)
  • Seated Figure (1979), auctioned at Sotheby's in Singapore
• Abdulmari Asia Imao


  • A native of Sulu, he is a sculptor, painter, photographer, ceramist, documentary film maker, cultural researcher, writer, and articulator of Philippine Muslim art and culture
  • Through his works, the indigenous ukkil, sarimanok and naga motifs have been popularized and instilled in the consciousness of the Filipino nation and other peoples as original Filipino creations
• Badjao's Stilt Houses and Houseboats

  Badjao, the sea gypsies, cruise along the islands of Sulu, their unique ecological setting and fishing economy compel them to adjust to the limited space of their lepa or floating homes, strong platforms are made on both ends of the boat for the fish, kitchen utensils and fishing gadgets with the kitchen area usually found at the back, some Badjaos prefer to live in stilt houses built out of driftwood and debris from the coastal cities
• Abdulmari Asia Imao's works

  • Industry Brass Mural
  • Mural Relief in Filmmaking
  • Industrial Mural
  • Sulu Warriors
• Ramon Valera


  A fashion designer from Abra who made seminal innovations on the Philippine terno
• Maritime Transports


  • Simple marine vessels made for the transport of goods and people by sea and other waterways in the surrounding regions
• Jose Garcia Villa


  • Considered as one of the finest contemporary poets
  • Introduced reversed consonance rhyme scheme, including the comma poems that made full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative, poetic way
• Jose Garcia Villa's published works


  • 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
• Nick Joaquin


  • Considered as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English writing
  • Critics have coined "Joaquinesque" to describe his baroque Spanish-flavored English or his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms
• Maritime Transports


  • Wooden Banca
  • Vinta