Carlos Botong Francisco

National Artist for Visual Arts Carlos “Botong” Francisco is considered one of the
Philippines’ most distinguished muralists. He created enormous canvasses that
chronicled the mythical world of the Filipino and its history, often seeking inspiration
from tradition, folklore, myths, legends, and customs.

Born in Angono, Rizal in 1912, Carlos “Botong” Francisco studied at the University of
the Philippines School of Fine Arts under the tutelage of portraitist and genre painter
Fabian de la Rosa. In his early adult life, he worked as a layout artist and illustrator, and
then as a collaborator with modern painters Galo Ocampo and Victorio Edades on
commissioned murals. In 1938, he pioneered as an instructor at the newly established
University of Santo Tomas School of Architecture and Fine Arts. In the 1940s, he
frequently worked with filmmaker Manuel Conde as a screenwriter, costume designer,
and set designer. Francisco passed away in 1969 at the age of 57, and was
posthumously declared National Artist for Visual Arts in 1973.

Also known as the Poet of Angono, Rizal he single-handedly brought back the art of
mural painting in Philippines. He was one of the of the modernist artists together with
Galo Ocampo and Victorio Edades known as " The Triumvirate" who broke away from
romanticism style of Fernando Amorsolo's Philippine Scenes. He went to School of Fine
Arts in University of the Philippines, although he came from the same school of arts as
Amorsolo, one of his technique was he did not follow the traditional style but developed
a modernist style.

MAJOR WORKS

- Portrait of Purita

- The Invasion of Limahong

- Serenade

- Muslim Betrothal

- Blood Compact

- The Martyrdom of Rizal

- Magpupukot

- Fiesta

- First Mass at Limasawa

- Bayanihan

- Bayanihan sa Bukid and Sandugo

Major Masterpiece is the Mural for Bulwagang Katipunan of the Manila City Hall

SAMPLE OF THEIR WORKS

Fiesta by Carlos Botong Francisco

First Mass in the Philippines

Magpupukot

Cesar Legaspi

Cesar Legaspi (April 2, 1917 – April 7, 1994) is a Filipino National Artist in painting. He
was also an art director prior to going full-time in his visual art practice in the 1960s. His
early (1940s-1960s) works are described as depictions of anguish and dehumanization
of beggars and laborers in the city. These include Man and Woman (alternatively known
as Beggars) and Gadgets’. Primarily because of this early period, critics have further
cited Legaspi’s having “reconstituted” in his paintings “cubism’s unfeeling, geometric
ordering of figures into a social expressionism rendered by interacting forms filled with
rhythmic movement”.

Legaspi made use of the geometric fragmentation technique, weaving social

comment and juxtaposing the mythical and modern into his overlapping, interacting
forms with disturbing power and intensity. His collaborative works with Ocampo, who
was posthumously awarded the National Artist distinction for visual arts on top of his
remarkable works in fiction and plays, depict anguish and dehumanisation of beggars
and labourers in the city.

MAJOR WORKS

- Man And Woman

- Gadgets

- Malakas at Maganda

- Mirror, Mirror

SAMPLE OF THEIR WORK

Mirror, Mirror

Malakas at Maganda

Gadgets

http://noypicollections.blogspot.com/2011/07/works-of-carlos-v-francisco.html

https://yuchengcomuseum.org/up-close-and-personal-botong-francisco-through-lenses-and-
letters/

https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/cesar-legaspi/