Carlos V.

Francisco
In 1973, Carlos Booting Francisco was the second Filipino to receive the title of National Artist in Painting, after Fernando C. Amor solo. Also known as the Poet of Angoon, 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 Victoria C. Evades and Gallo B. Acampo became part of The Triumvirate of modern art. His is best known for his historical epics, and one of his favorite subjects is fisher folk. 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 Villous in Angoon, 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 Vanguard. Although he came from the same school of arts as Amor solo, he veered away from the style of the traditional artist and developed a modernist style. Together with Victoria Evades and Fermi Sanchez, he painted for the Manila Grand Opera House and the Clover Theater. He and Evades started mural-painting, and together they formed the Thirteen Moderns, a group of modernists, in 1938.

No such visions came to me while I sat, my face tilted up to the hot sunlight that streamed in through the wide windows of the studio. I remembered the gold plaque, attached to the gate leading into the house, proclaiming Booting as National Artist. He was hailed as the "poet of Angoon" who, by evoking the past, also managed to make the Filipino present come alive.

Vicente Manansala
Manansala was born in MacAfee, Pampanga. From 1926 to 1930, he studied at the U.P. School of Fine Arts. In 1949, Manansala received a six-month grant by UNESCO to study at the Cole de Beaux Arts in Banff and Montreal, Canada. In 1950, he received a nine-month scholarship to study at the Cole de Beaux Arts in Paris by the French government. Manansala's canvases were described as masterpieces that brought the cultures of the barrio and the city together. His Madonna of the Slums is a portrayal of a mother and child from

the countryside who became urban shanty residents once in the city. In his Jeepers, Manansala combined the elements of provincial folk culture with the congestion issues of the city.