LESSON 2 CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS

Contemporary Visual Arts

1. Fine Arts
2. Decorative Arts and Crafts
3. Contemporary Art Forms
✔ Still life

Paz Paterno
Fine Arts
- Paintings and Illustrations
o In the Philippines most of the artist fall in the
category of fine arts
o The majority of work in the Philippine arts are
paintings, sculpture, and drawings. ✔ Landscapes
- Paintings defined as two-dimensional forms of art that
showcase artistic expression created in the flat Martino Abellana
surface.

Painting Themes
✔ Religious themes

“Hapag ng Pag-asa” by Joey Velasco

✔ Nude

“Dalagang Bukid” by Fernando Amorsolo

✔ Historical themes

“Blood Compact” by Carlos “Botong” Francisco

✔ Genres

Fiesta Inspired Paintings by Mauro Malang Santos

✔ Portraiture paintings

“Pedro Calungsod” by Rafael Del casal

 Carving
- The art of manipulating and creating objects by
subtracting solid material such as wood and stone.

- Filipinos are excellent carvers.

- This is perhaps of our long history with the art.

LESSON 2.2 DECORATIVE ARTS & CRAFTS
- Many traditional arts and crafts in the country are
products of carving.
Decorative Arts and Crafts
- the “applied arts”

- Decorative arts and crafts are any of those arts that

are concerned with the design and decoration of
objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather
than for their purely aesthetic qualities; whose object
is the design and manufacture of works that are both
beautiful and functional.
Bulul

Pottery - Rice gods or bulul are represented through carved

wood and are used as a decorative element
- The art and craft of making pots and other wares
throughout daily wares.
using clay or mud.
- These are used as decorations in houses, boats,
- In our culture, these are created for formal and
instruments, containers, weapons and utensils.
ritualistic purposes as burial jars or as figurative
mementos.
- Originated from Ifugao
- Now, it is used as containers for a variety of things like
water, salt, wine, etc.

- 5 Places to Visit
o Clay Avenue Pottery Studio (Zambales)

o Abueva-Fernardo Pottery (Antipolo)

o Pettyjohn Pottery (Calamba, Laguna)

o Stoneware Pottery (Cagayan de oro) Weaving

o Ugu Bigyan’s Potter’s Garden (Tiaong, Quezon) - The art of interlacing threads or fibers to create textile,
fabric or other similar products.

- Philippine textiles are often made from indigenous

plants such as pina, abaca, maguey, and cotton.

- Traditional weaving methods:

o Binakol or pinilian (blankets); ikat (dyeing and

pattern making process); basket weaving; mats
(made of pandan, swamp grass, bamboo and palm
leaf)

Metalwork
- The art of creating and manipulating metal to create
various items such as jewelry, weapons, etc.
- Based on archaeological records and recovered
artifacts.
- Filipinos are skilled metalworkers.
- Many amazing jewelries and ornaments discovered
from different sites prove the early Filipino’s talent.
Collection of Precolonial Gold - Ayala Museum
- The most remarkable of the finds is the collection of
pre colonial gold jewelry that consists of ornaments,
earrings, necklaces, gold-woven belts and sashes.
- Although many have been lost, the remaining ones
are displayed at the Ayala Museum to show the
mastery and technical skills of the early Filipino
metalsmiths.
“Voltes V and Martial Law” by Toym Imao
On this pedestal is an assemblage of figures that contributed
greatly to Marcos’ rise to power. It features an effigy of the
dictator’s head with the Malacañang Palace atop it, and the
Batasang Pambansa and Bataan Nuclear Power Plant along
the sides. Also on top of the former president’s head is San
Miguel, protected by the Voltes V armor, brandishing a sword to
show the effects of Martial Law through the lines of riot police
below.
Along the bottom of the carroza are images of Voltes V’s
villains, characters from Planet Boazania that tried to conquer
Earth. It is symbolic of how the military tried to control the
freedom of Filipinos in the past. Finally, the Latin words
“Nunquam Rursus” are written at the top of the installation, to
mean “Never Again.”
As iconic as Voltes V may have been during his time, Imao
recognizes the fact that today’s generation may not be too
familiar with the ‘70s Japanese animated series, and in the
same vein, what took place during Martial Law. He also
lamented revisionist statements on Facebook where the
younger generation is made to believe that the Marcos’
dictatorship had actually been “the golden age of Philippine
history.”
Nevertheless, it is Imao’s hope that his installation will “generate
questions” among the youth that will compel them to uncover
the truth behind the darkest period of the Marcos regime.
“That martial law is a machine that invades our normal lives,” he
concluded.
 Jonathan Benitez

LESSON 2.3 CONTEMPORARY ART FORMS

Assemblage
- A series of artworks made from paper collages, wood
Contemporary Art Forms scraps, and other found objects

- Cannot be easily classified and categorized following
the traditional definitions because some are products
of new technological advancements, and some blur
the distinctions between the disciplines and genres
- Refers to art made and produced by “artists” living
today.
Types
- Assemblage is an artistic form usually created on a
defined substrate that consists of three-dimensional
elements projecting out of or from the substrate.
- It is similar to collage, a two-dimensional medium.
“The Altar of the Dark Side of Spain”
by Roberto Feleo

Collage
- Method of combining printed images with other flat
media and pasted on a canvas board

- Collage (from the French: coller, "to glue“) is a

technique of an art production, primarily used in the
visual arts, where the artwork is made from an
assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new
whole.

“Viewers and the Mosaic Vase” by Dina Gadia

Mobile
- Sculptural work suspended from a ceiling or a
protruding base.

- "kinetic art", describing sculptural works in which

motion is needed
Jeff Huntington
- “interaction with the wind”
Formal Aesthetics
“Mobile Archive” by Jan R. Carson - A set of principles concerned with nature and
appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

- The branch of philosophy that deals with the principles

of beauty and artistic taste.

Industrial Art
Alexander Calder
- It is changing of raw materials into some significant
product for human consumption or use

o Shell craft
o Bamboo craft
o leather craft
o shoe making
Performance Art
o pottery making
- A mix of visual arts and performance arts o metalwork
o home appliances
- An art form that combines visual art with dramatic etc
performance.

Installation Art
- Involves the arrangement of objects in a given space

“Liwanag” by Aze Ong

Utilitarian or Practical Art

- Utilitarian art would be art that prioritizes function over
other values