National Artists

Napoleon Galamiton Abueva

A. Background of the Artist

Who is the artist?
Napoleon "Billy" Veloso Abueva
● was born on January 26, 1930 (January 26, 1930 – February 16, 2018)
● was born in Tagbilaran, Bohol
● was known as the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture" Through Proclamation No. 1539.
● He was proclaimed National Artist for Sculpture in 1976
● He was 46 when he received the award making him the youngest recipient of the award to
date.
● He was the first Filipino artist to mount a one-man exhibit at the Philippine Center in New
York in 1980.
● One of the foremost modern artists in the Philippines, passed away on February 16 at the
age of 88.

What are their experiences on how they started as an artist?

● When Abueva was a schoolboy, he first noticed the sculptural quality of clay and began to
mold it into the shape of carabao, or water buffalo common in the Philippines. These first
experiments with clay soon turned into a fully fledged dedication to the visual arts as Abueva
began to collect various scholarships that enabled him to study at the University of the
Philippines College of Fine Arts in Manila—where he was mentored by a National Artist,
Guillermo Tolentino—and, briefly, at Harvard University in the United States.
● Abueva helped shape the local sculpture scene to what it is now.
● He was the first Filipino artist to mount a one-man exhibit at the Philippine Center in New
York in 1980.
● Abueva first made waves in the Philippine and international art scenes with his minimalist
sculptures in the 1950s, and remained a trailblazer throughout his long career, working with
a diverse range of materials that included wood, granite, bronze, steel and marble that retain
their spirit of authenticity because of the artist’s fundamental belief that “a good piece of art
transcends any period and has perpetual value.” The medium, style and technique matter
little, compared to an underlying sense of beauty or goodness.

Artworks:
● Nine Muses (1994), formerly in front of the now demolished Diliman Faculty Center of the
University of the Philippines.
- is a tribute to the arts, from the traditional media of painting and music to new media:
cinema and computer art.
● The Transfiguration (1979) in the Eternal Gardens Memorial Park.
● Sunburst (1994) above the Peninsula Manila lobby.
● Blood Compact in his birthplace, Bohol.
- Abueva sculpted Blood Compact as tribute to the friendship between Spanish
explorer Miguel López de Legazpi and Bohol chieftain Datu Sikatuna, which was
 sealed by blood in 1565, celebrating harmony between two races, religions, cultures
and civilizations.

References:
Zubek, E. (2016). Napoleon Abueva: Modern Filipino Sculptor. Culture Trip.
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/napoleon-abueva-the-artist-who-created-
modern-filipino-sculpture/
Wang, E. (2018).Obituary: Napoleon Abueva (1930 - 2018). ArtAsia Pacific.
http://artasiapacific.com/News/ObituaryNapoleonAbueva

GAMABA Awardees (National Living Artist Awardees)

Eduardo Mutuc

A. Background of the Artist

Who is the artist?

● Kapampangan master craftsman of religious and secular art in plated silver.
● He was conferred the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan or the National Living Treasures Award
in 2004.
● He dedicated his life to creating religious and secular art in silver, bronze, and wood
when he decided to supplement his income from farming for the relatively more
secure job of woodcarving.
● His intricately detailed retablos, mirrors, altars, and carosas are in churches and private
collections. A number of these works are quite large, some exceeding forty feet, while
some are very small and feature very fine and delicate craftsmanship.
● He is a known practitioner of the craft of pinukpuk which involved the stamping of
embellishments on metal sheets.
● Mutuc is a Kapampangan from Apalit, Pampanga.
● He was born on October 12, 1949.

What are their experiences on how they started as an artist?

● At the age of 29, Eduardo Mutuc started his journey in sculpting as a woodcarver.
● In his sixth year, he learned silver plating or locally known pinukpuk from a colleague and left
the furniture shop where he was working to be an independent craftsman with another friend.
● He spent his first year as an apprentice to carvers of household furniture. It was difficult
at the beginning, but thanks to his mentors, he was able to develop valuable skills that
would serve him in good stead later on.
● At first he became an expert in copying available patterns but as years progressed he
became more adept in introducing designs of his own. His favorite designs these days
include the so-called callado which depicts intertwined leaves and flowers embossed on
silver-plated yellow brass.
 ● The hardest challenge for him was learning a profession that he had no prior knowledge
about, but poverty was a powerful motivation.

Artworks:
● One of his first clients as an independent craftsman was Monsignor Fidelis Limcauco who
commissioned him to create a tabernacle for a parish church in Fairview, Quezon City. He
went on to create other religious works many of which are based on Spanish colonial
designs although Mutuc also incorporates his own ideas. He also did works of secular
nature, although even in this case relied on religious influence to create such works.

References:
Tobias, M.J.(n,d.). GAMABA: Eduardo Mutuc. National Living Treasures: Eduardo Mutuc.
Republic of the Philippines National Commision for Culture and the
arts.https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/gamaba/national-living-treasures-
eduardo-mutuc/
Pangilinan, C. (2015). Pangilinan: Eduardo Mutuc: Living Treasure in our Midst. SunStar
Philippines Publishing Inc. https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/393092/Lifestyle/Pangilinan-
Eduardo-Mutuc-Living-Treasure-in-our-Midst