Untitled

• Philippine art


  Reflects a society with diverse cultural influences and traditions
• Malayan peoples


  • Had early contact with traders who introduced Chinese and Indian influences
  • Islamic traditions were first introduced to the Malays of the southern Philippine Islands in the 14th century
• Most modern aspects of Philippine cultural life


  • Evolved under the foreign rule of Spain
  • Evolved under the foreign rule of the United States
• Spanish rule


  • Imposed a foreign culture based in Catholicism
  • Lowland peoples were acculturated through religious conversion
  • Muslims and some upland tribal groups maintained cultural independence
  • An educated elite began to establish a modern Filipino literary tradition
• American influence


  • Made the Philippines one of the most Westernized nations in Southeast Asia
  • Profoundly influenced Filipino artists, even after independence in 1946
• Filipino artists


  • Draw on Western forms
  • Imbue their works with distinctly Philippine themes
  • Express the cultural richness of the archipelago in all its diversity
  • Have helped to shape a sense of national identity
• Many Malay cultural traditions have survived despite centuries of foreign rule
• Muslims and upland tribal groups maintain distinct traditions in music, dance, and sculpture
• Many Filipino artists incorporate indigenous folk motifs into modern forms
• The Spanish ruled the Philippines in the 16th century
• The American influence started in the 20th century
• The cultural movements of Europe and the United States profoundly influenced Filipino artists, even after independence in 1946
• While drawing on Western forms, the works of Filipino painters, writers, and musicians are imbued with distinctly Philippine themes
• By expressing the cultural richness of the archipelago in all its diversity, Filipino artists have helped to shape a sense of national identity
• Many Malay cultural traditions have survived despite centuries of foreign rule
• Muslims and upland tribal groups maintain distinct traditions in music, dance, and sculpture
• Many Filipino artists incorporate indigenous folk motifs into modern forms
• Pre-Colonization Period


  • Local communities are being established
  • Art starts to go beyond mere craft, i.e. stone weapons or jewelry starts to have decorative elements, meaning and context
• Shells fashioned into


  • Tools
  • Ornaments
• Oldest known ornaments made from cone shells found in the grave of an adult male in Duyong Cave in Palawan


  Early 1960's
• Shell ornaments found


  • Shell disc with a hole in the center next to his right ear
  • Disk with a hole by the edge on his chest
• Shell ornaments dated


  4854 B.C.
• Angono Petroglyphs


  Oldest known work of art in the Philippines located in the province of Rizal
• Pre-colonial traditional art


  • Have religious symbols
  • Depict everyday activity such as fishing, farming, etc.
  • Have a specific decorative art pattern to the community
  • Have the influence of local religion (animistic) or Islamic based
  • Exchange of art aesthetics and art processes with the Chinese and other Asian countries who are frequent traders with our indigenous groups
• Spanish Colonization Period

  • Introduced formal Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
  • Inspired by the Byzantine, Gothic, Baroque and Rococo art styles
  • Most art works are Religious (Catholic) based
• Formation of the elite Filipinos class, the Ilustrado

  1. Rich locals studied abroad

  2. More "academic" and "western" approach has been learned
• Filipino Classicism

  Borrows the Neo-Classicism, Romanticism and even a hint of Impressionism
• Two Filipino Art Styles develop during the Spanish Period


  • Miniaturismo, art styles that pays attention to details and textures of the costume
  • Letras y Figuras, art style that fuses letters with figures in every day activity amidst a common background
  • Usually used in painting a patron's full name
• American Colonization Period The American brought in Education and Value Formation with both following the "American way of life" (Alice Guillermo, Sining Biswal, 1994, p. 4).
• Art Illustration, Advertising and Commercial Design gained popularity and incorporated in Fine Arts.
• Painting themes still largely favored Genre Paintings, Landscapes and Still Life during the American Colonization Period
• During the American Colonization, Portraits are reserved for high ranking officials with a more academic approach to make the subiect more formal.
• Philippine modern art is in 1946-1970
• Philippine Contemporary Art Period


  The study of determining what this period is, is still being determined since the word has been loosely used even during the American Colonial Period
• Some Philippine art historians/critics has always been a follower of the Western Art Style and its trends at that point and thus, suggested that this was actually the point where Philippine Modern Art Period started but went only full swing only after the war
• Art Association of the Philippines (AAP)

  • It has a strong leaning with the Modernist than the Conservatives (the traditional art also termed as the Amorsolo School)
• The on-set of the sudden rise of personal computers and new technology


  Created a new art medium for the arts and human expression
• There were also countless revivals of old styles being done
• This started a new direction for the arts thus, setting the name, momentarily, the Philippine Contemporary Period