The Future of Philippine Art amidst Struggles

National Commission for Culture and the Arts

(NCCA)

Icban, Monique Justine L.

HUMSS 2A

December 2020
Introduction
Arts in the Philippines have a wide range of forms, categories and even

subcategories that have developed throughout the years. Since the beginning of

civilization in the Philippines, different artworks have been discovered and accumulated

and these artworks have been showing the rich culture of this country. Philippine

Artworks mirror the peoples lives, behaviors, regularities, customs and culture.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts is the official government

agency for culture in the Philippines. It is responsible in the overall policy making body,

coordinating, and grants giving agency for the preservation, development and promotion

of Philippine arts and culture. The Filipino arts have been categorized into two;

traditional and non-traditional, and these categories also have their respective sub-

categories.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the possibilities of going beyond all of

the artistic productions known in the Philippines. This paper aims to raise awareness in

the chances that Philippine Arts can take in order to be more progressive and enhanced

amidst the struggles that it is facing.

This paper will also show the different issues that the arts in the Philippines is

facing and this will also provide recommendations on what Filipinos can do to improve

it. This paper will showcase the Philippines oldest and recent achievements and

compare those two to see how Philippine Art developed throughout the years. Starting

from the oldest civilization moving to the pre-conquest period and then to Spanish

period then Japanese period and up to the Contemporary period.

Review of the Literature
In the Pre-conquest Art or more known as the Pre-colonial art, the Negritos,

Indonesians and Malays are known to came around Philippines during the Paleolithic

Age. These natives are without a doubt a fan of music and arts. Each of the community

have different sets of their own musical instrument. They play varieties of instruments

such as cymbals, nose flutes, brass gong, water whistle and a lot more instruments.

Architecture in the Philippines have developed as Filipinos move and hunt. They have

different kinds of early houses in the Philippines such as Lean-to, Tausug houses

Torogan and a lot more kinds of houses.

Spaniard arrived in the Philippines in year 1521 and they have developed the

arts in the Philippines by using the tool of Catholic faith. Natives used to carve anitos all

the time but when Spaniards arrived, they began to make sculpture of saints and

angels. Carvings of anitos was also replaced by saints in the altars of the native’s home.

Religion, specifically Catholicism became the central point of the arts in the Philippines

in the Spanish Period.

The 1896 Philippine Revolution paved the way for the country’s independence

from the Spaniards. After being free from more than three centuries of the Spanish rule,

the Americans came. The Americans greatly influenced the Philippine Artforms:

sculptures, painting and architecture. Painters during that time started dabbling into

advertising and book design, new forms brought by the Americans. Artists started to go

beyond the aesthetic standard and they strove to develop new idioms in expressing

themselves.
 After the American period the Japanese came, their occupation in the Philippines

occurred between 1942 and 1945. Poetry was highly famous in the Japanese period

and its common themes are love of country, freedom, rural life and religion. At the time

of the Japanese era, instead of showing American films it became a venue for stage

shows wherein English plays are translated into Tagalog. Pottery was also booming in

the Japanese era, the finds at Ayub Cave in South Cotabato confirmed the great pottery

tradition of the Philippines.

The Japanese era ended on 1945 and then it was the start for the post-war

republic. New groups and artists breakaway from the established canon to the abstract,

expressionist, symbolist and other modes of creative expression characteristic of the art

of the modern world. In the early fifties, battles between academic art and the new

expressionism took place in the annual competitions

On the 1970’s is the mark of the contemporary period wherein Philippine art and

art publications flourished. Art became part of the nation’s development and instituted a

cultural policy based on ideals of the “goodness, truth, and beauty” of the Filipinos. The

Cultural Center of the Philippines, the iconic, modernist building—rising from reclaimed

land along the breakwaters of Manila Bay—served as the cornerstone of the Marcos’

larger cultural master plan of promoting Philippine art to both local and international

audiences. Many forms of new arts emerged in the Contemporary period such as

photography, installation, performance, and video art.

Philippine arts are now facing issues such as identity, globalization and

technology. Filipino artists often explore the characteristics that determine personal and

social identity. During this times Philippine artist struggles to construct a sense of who
we are as individuals, as a society, or as a nation. They have done radical approaches

such as Marxism, feminism and semiotics yet the essence and the spirit of the Filipino

culture is missing from their artworks. This was also caused by globalization wherein

artist shifted more in inclusion rather than diversity. It also caused some of the

unfavorable areas including educational methodologies, creativity in the arts, cultural

identity and languages.

Technology undoubtedly paved a way for the emergence of different art forms

but it also allowed contemporary artists to reduce time spent in the actual execution of

artwork. This rapid spread of array of options now available to artists through new

technologies and this causes artists to be overwhelmed. The artworks may become

increasingly repetitive and devoid of imagination or spirit. The flame of creativity dies out

and the tide of inspirational revelation recedes and the building blocks of imagination

freeze at the bottom of the artist’s psyche, as they gradually transform into a shallow

abstract translation of a constellation of enormous technological capabilities, devoid of

any creative substance.

Commissioner’s Opinion:

As I briefly described the history of art in the Philippines including the emergence

of different artforms and the gradual loss of essence in the art works. I would like to

point out that as we developed new types of art forms caused by technology

advancements, artist seems to loss the human touch and soul of the artworks. Digital

artworks are becoming identical of each other and artist depended on the digital pen

rather than wielding traditional art materials such as the brush, the pencil, charcoal or

pastels.

Back then artist is completely in control of the density of color, the degrees of the

different shades, the realism or abstraction of his work of art but now they can choose

colors in the digital palette. This also cause the artist to lose the identity of the artwork

and became just like any other artwork. This is because of the lack of intrinsic qualities

that audience wants to see in an artwork. There is no doubt that the human touch in the

classical school of painting had a major influence on the shape of the painting and the

effect of the tools, particularly when an artist used his or her human fingers to place the

special effects and touches on his or her work. 

On my opinion, artist needs to recall or to look back on how art started because

as new forms develop the essence of art is slowly vanishing. I think, if Philippine art

takes a step back or return to it’s heritage time, then arts in the Philippines would be

booming locally and internationally. There could be many reasons for why public

interest towards art can decline and I think the loss of soul and culture of the Philippines

in artwork is one of them.

 I think we need to bring back the art forms the we have done over the last years.

For example, the fashion industry is currently booming because the designs that have

been used in the 90’s is now being brough back and many people seems to love this. If

we could do the same approach and try to brink back hand paintings and any artworks

that includes artist’s physical touch then I think people would start to love Philippine Arts

again.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_in_the_Philippines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_for_Culture_and_the_Arts
https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/69480/manilart-2012-shows-past-present-and-future-of-
philippine-art/
https://www.slideshare.net/yazmin9457/pre-spanishcolonialartinthephilippines
https://aaa.org.hk/en/ideas/ideas/shortlist-art-periodicals-in-the-philippines-1970s-to-
2000s