Contemporary Philippine visual arts

Contemporary art practice consists of:

*Living Traditions/Traditional Arts
-Refer to the crafting of material arts that are passed on from one generation to the next within the context of
daily life in the community
-There is an emphasis on collective cultural meaning and perfection of the craft
*Studio Arts
-Refer to the production of visual arts which consist of painting, sculpture, graphic and plastic arts
-Emphasis is on individual meaning, artistic originality, and uniqueness of expression
NCR- National capital region (NCR)
-Metropolitan Manila (often shortened to as Metro Manila; Filipino: Kalakhang Maynila), officially
the National Capital Region(NCR), is the seat of government and one of the three defined metropolitan areas of
the Philippines. It is composed of 16 cities namely: the City of Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Las
Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, San
Juan, Taguig, and Valenzuela, as well as the municipality of Pateros.
*NCR- Later on, Quezon City was eventually declared as the national capital in 1948. The title was re-
designated back to Manila in 1976 through Presidential Decree No. 940 owing to its historical significance as
the almost uninterrupted seat of government of the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period.
Neo-realism
-Neo-Realism in painting was a legacy of Victorio Edades. It was influenced by western cubism where
objects and subjects are analyzed and broken down into Geometric Structures and shapes viewed from a
multiplicity of angles .
-The neo-realist school developed in the fifties as distinct way of rendering characters in the aspects of
Philippine daily life such as fishermen , jeepneys, calesas, boats, church devotees, vendors and sshoppers in flat
shapes, patterns, or stylized form .
-National Artist Vicente Manansala and Cesar Legaspi brought neo-realism to its finest peak . Manansala
refined the method called transparent cubism. Legaspi imbued it with human tension and dynamic movement .

*Neo realism-Variations of neo

realism are found in the distinct style of Angelito Antonio (b. 1939) who distorts his figures into black and
white or monochromatic shapes with linear clarity, then blurring adjacent areas into washed-out tones.

*Neo realism- The styles of Antonio Austria (b. 1936) and Norma Belleza (b. 1939) use the boldest contrasts
of intense orange, green, red, and blue to imbue a festive mood to the stubby male and female forms that are
rendered in charming naiveté.

Photorealism or hyperrealism
-When painting is rendered in a meticulously realistic style with accurate details looking like
a photograph, it is called photorealism or hyperrealism .
Photorealism or hyperrealism
-Nestor Leynes , Ger Viterbo, Jaime Roque, Joselito Barcelona, and Agustine Goy are
the esteemed photorealist in the seventies, painting ordinary scenes of daily life faithful
accuracy.
Photorealism or hyperrealism
-Hyperrealism as a technique becomes a magical realism if unreal or imaginary elements are focused on their
physical presence in the actual material world.

Social realism
-Art critic Alice G. Guillermo uses the term “social realism” to refer to the painterly practice of activist-artists
beginning in the seventies led by Pablo Baen Santos, Orlando Castillo, Papo de Asis, Jose Cuaresma, Neil
Doloricon, Edgar Talusan Fernandez, Renato Habulan, Al Manrique, and Jose Tence Ruiz. They were part of
an ideological struggle against exploitative forces of US imperialism and its puppet agents in the Philippines .
-Social Realism emphasizes that the subject matter should show a ken awareness of conflict arising from the
oppressive conditions and events of the time.

Abstract art
-Abstract Art may be pure beauty; a reason for its own being. Abstract art can also be derived from a
recognizable subject, thus it can be expressive. Or it can be suggestive of an idea, and can be metaphor or
symbol

Conceptual art movement

-Roberto Chabet is recognized as the father of Philippine conceptual art. His work is all about playful, endless
experimentation. He said that “ art is all about the idea. Form, taking many shapes and sizes, only supports the
idea which is not confined to one specific explanation, but a wide horizon of possibilities”.
-Prefers materials for basic construction such as bricks, plywood, and tools such as calipers, compasses, rulers
measures, and gauges, creating installations of temporary but precise edifices of planes, triangles, slopes, stairs,
rungs, and angles.
-His works are metaphors of a new social and philosophical order felt as absent from his actual milieu.