UNIT 1: Integrative Art as Applied to Philippine Contemporary Art

Art is everywhere. In a modern world driven by rapid technological advancement, art is

usually categorized simply as painting, sculptures, and other similar forms. Little do we
know that art comes in various forms which we can integrate. Social media, print
advertisement, radio programs, and even noon time television shows are results of integrated art.

Lesson 1: Integrative Arts

You might have heard of Nick Joaquin’s “ The Portrait of an Artist as a Filipino ”
from your literature classes. It is an important literary piece that has been adapted into a
musical and, in 2017, a screenplay entitled , “ Ang Larawan ” ( dir. Loy Arcenas). This is
an example of a creative adaptation as a result of integrative art.

Learn about It!

The word ART is quite difficult to define and its definition has been highly contested
throughout history. The word originated from the Latin word ars which means skill and
with the Greek word techne which means technology. A common definition of art is that
it is used to express ideas or feelings through creative processes and imagination. This is
often done through the various forms of art discussed below.

Visual Arts
Visual arts is an expression of artistic ideas through images, structures, and tactile work.
Painting, sculpture, and architecture are considered as examples of it. Some visual artworks
are integrated - which means it combines several medium to create a new and unique
artwork.

Literary Arts
Literary arts is an expression of ideas through writing. There are many types of literary
artworks, and this can be categorized into:

● Poetry - It is considered as one of the oldest forms of literature characterized by

its imaginative and figurative language. Some poetic forms are strict with rhymes
and syllabic counts, like the sonnet, while contemporary poetry pieces now go
beyond the limits of form and more and more writers dwell more into free verse.
● Prose - When an imaginative literary piece is not written in figurative language,
then it is considered as prose. Prose is usually written in complete and grammatical
narratives. Examples of prose are short stories and novels among others. Generally,
prose is a literary piece that is not poetry.
● Drama - When a text is written to be performed and not just read, then it is
considered as drama. Usually, people refer to dramas as plays.
Performing Arts
Performing arts is an expression of an artistic idea through written lyrics, text,
dramatization, and multimedia production. Performing arts usually require the musical
theatre, dance, and drama, a combination of different art forms, such as literary art for
the material and visual arts for stage design.

Different art forms are distinct from each other, but are not necessarily independent of
each other. This means that two or more disciplines of art can be used in the creation
of an integrated artwork.

This integration calls for a combined use of various disciplines to create an expressive
work. An example of a contemporary artwork is the spoken word poetry. It is when
poetry is written to be read on a stage, usually in intimate settings such as a coffee shop.

An integration of various art forms has become more and more evident in contemporary
arts. With people of different cultures having contact with each other, it is inevitable that
artists lift styles and techniques from different practices.

Lesson 2: The Elements and Principles of Art

The Elements of Art

1. Space
When we say space, it can vary depending on what art
discipline it pertains to. In visual arts, this may pertain to
emptiness which may either be positive space or negative
space.

Positive space refers to a part which is enclosed in a shape,

Negative space refers to the opposite part which the shape is enclosing.

In other forms of art like literature and music, space may pertain to pauses and interval between
lines or notes.

2. Line
In visual arts, a line is a series of points. It may come in two
characteristics:
● Form - curved, dotted, or broken
● Direction - vertical, horizontal, or diagonal
Different types of lines may convey different meanings. For example, a horizontal line
usually suggests calmness, as such is the case when viewing the horizon during sunset ,
vertical lines may convey loftiness, while diagonal lines may pertain dynamism.

In other disciplines like theater, this may pertain to the lines in the script. While in
dance, it is the routine of steps as executed by the dancer.

3. Shape and Form

a. Shape is formed by connecting both ends of a line. Shapes are two dimensional
figures with height and width. There are also different kinds of shapes as described below.

● Geometric shapes are enclosed figures such as triangle, squares, and other
structured figures
● Organic shapes are shapes found in nature. They do not have a structured form
as they are usually free flowing. Examples of these are the shape of a leaf or a cloud.
● Abstract shapes are like organic shapes for they lack definition, but they are not
necessarily found in nature. They are also asymmetrical and free flowing.

Similar to lines, shapes may contribute to meaning making

when used in an artwork. For example, a circle is usually
associated with love, harmony, and infinity such as the case
of an engagement ring. Triangles, when upright, are seen to
suggest stability because of its solid base, while it suggests
tension when upside down. Meanwhile, a square or a
rectangle suggests familiarity and equality.

b. Forms are three dimensional; it has the same dimensions as a shape except with
added volume. Unlike shapes, it has more depth and does not feel flat.

4. Color
In visual arts, color is associated with the natural phenomenon in our environment.
Scientifically, when a light passes through a prism, it will produce different hues of
different wavelengths. These colors may pertain to lightness or darkness, coolness or
warmth. Also, colors may convey different meanings dependent to cultures and traditions of a
region.

5. Value
In visual arts, value is considered a property of a color which pertains to its lightness or
darkness.
In music, this may refer to the pitch. It is the highness or the lowness of the sound.
6. Texture
In visual arts, texture is the tactile or illusory surface of the piece. In music, texture is
the mood or quality of the composition.

Principles of Design

The elements of art may be organized in a way that it can create a more compelling
artwork. This organization of elements is called principles of design. Understanding the
elements and how they may go together will be of great help in improving, not just your
artistic skills, but also your capacity to understand art.

1. Scale and Proportion

Scale and proportion refer to the relationship of the elements, specifically its relative size
of parts of a whole. For example, when drawing a human standing beside a house, it is
important to ensure that the human is proportional to the house, which means ensuring
that the size of the element suggests what they are - a human standing beside a house,
as opposed to a human standing beside a doll house.

2. Harmony
In general, you can say an art piece is in harmony when the different parts produce an
overall positive impact or effect. In visual arts, harmony is the unity of the artwork,
specifically in reference to the arrangement of its parts, while in music, harmony refers to
the simultaneous sounding or playing of different notes to produce a sound.

3. Variety
In other terms, variety may be referred to as diversity. This means adding multiple,
different elements to break the monotony of an artwork and make it more interesting.

4. Movement
Movement is a basic principle of nature and is associated with the environment. All living
things, non-living things, and heavenly bodies move naturally. Movement serves as one of
the fundamental principles in dance and theater. In visual arts, an artwork has movement
when it incorporates the passage of time, even in an illusory manner.

5. Rhythm
This refers to the repetition of certain elements to produce a pattern. In visual arts,
repeated design elements may create a certain flow and may lead the viewer’s eyes. In
music, this refers to the even distribution of notes.

6. Balance
Balance refers to the even and equal distribution of elements. There are two types of
balance in visual arts:
 ● Informal balance, also called asymmetrical, is present when the designs are not
equally distributed on both sides.
● Formal balance, also called symmetrical, is present when the weight of the designs
is equally distributed.

7. Emphasis and subordination

Emphasis is a principle which may refer to the greater impact given on a certain
element. Subordination serves as the opposite of emphasis as it refers to how certain
elements only serve as a supplement to the emphasized element in a design.

Lesson 3: Art Forms in the Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago with more than 7,000 islands. These islands are the
home of people with different languages, beliefs, cultures, and distinct histories. The
country’s diverse ethnolinguistic groups is testament to its rich culture and traditions. This
diversity is observable in the country’s artworks. More than the geographic influences, art
in the Philippines is also influenced by a rich history of its people.

Pre-Colonial Art

Artistic production in the Philippines started even before the colonizers reached the
Philippine islands. Art was often used by the people in their daily living. Our ancestors
weaved fabrics for dresses, made weapons for battles, and chanted to bring good harvest.
Unlike today, indigenous art are not classified strictly into disciplines. Art, for them, had
social utility; indigenous people integrated art into their communal ceremonies. Planting and
harvesting, weddings, funerals, and rites of passage are examples of communal ceremonies.

Rituals played a significant role in the everyday life of Filipino ancestors. The
Kashawing ritual in lake Lanao, for example, acts as a prayer for abundance during
harvesting season. It involves a reenactment of a legendary pact between ancestors and
unseen spirits. A similar type of ritual for planting rice is performed by the Tagbanwas of
Palawan.

Filipino ancestors harvest and hunt for a living. Their hunting experience also served as an
inspiration to create drama, poetry, music, and dance by imitating the movements of an
animal. This is considered a ritual to prepare for hunting.

To accompany these rituals, the indigenous peoples also had their own musical
instruments. An example of this is the agung ensemble - Musical instruments, when
played, are usually complemented with dances that imitate the movements of animals.
Higaonon and B’laan have banog-banog, and the Bagobos have the man-manok dances
which imitate the movement of the birds. Meanwhile, courtship ritual in Ifugao is represented
through the talip .
Mostly, indigenous arts were inspired by animism - Indigenous peoples created statue and
symbols for their beliefs. The Ifugaos carved the bulul which they depict as their granary
god. Meanwhile, in the Southern Philippines, okir, a curvilinear decoration, is an evidence
of Indian and Islamic influences.

Spanish Colonial Art

During the 16th century, upon the arrival of the Spaniards, indigenous art changed.
Spanish colonization brought Catholicism and imposed their Western culture. This conversion
caused the birth of the religious or Christian and folk arts. Towns or pueblos were
created in a structure of plaza complex, with the church at the center of each towns.
Churches and government offices were built, and the rise of Hispanic baroque structures
were built across the Islands.

With the rise of Catholicism, religious icons like the santos, retablos , and others became
essential for religious rituals. Paintings also focused on visually representing the writings of
the Bible, and therefore conveyed religious messages. Music, an essential part of worship,
thus focused on liturgical music. Apart from worship music, the pasyon or pabasa, a
narration of Christ’s passion portrayed during Lent season, were also observed in some
places. There was also a massive emergence of secular music in Iloilo, Pampanga, Ilocos,
and Bicol when the Spanish tradition of awit and korido became popularized. Spanish
colonization also marks the rise of the kundiman and the balitao. This development in
music also affected theatre arts, and soon the sarsuwela, senakulo, and the komedya were
born in the Philippines.

During then, Filipinos became enlightened of the continuous abuse by the colonial
government and the friars. This resulted in a rebellion. Thus, revolutionary and subversive
themes became prominent. A popular example of such artwork is Noli Me Tangere and
El Filibusterismo by Dr. Jose Rizal.

American and Japanese Colonial Art

Americans introduced the public education system in the Philippines. Their schools,
however, required students to learn English. This brought forth Philippine Literature in
English. Initially, these pieces are characterized by a poor use of language as the Filipinos
only mimicked their American teachers. Soon, in 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez published
the short story Dead Stars , marking the birth of modern Philippine Literature in English.

The Americans also popularized secularism, as evidenced by popular art forms of the
century such as the vaudeville or bodabil in theatre. School of Fine Arts, alongside the
establishment of the University of the Philippines (UP), was also founded thus giving birth
to Filipino artists educated in the Western ways. For example, Fernardo Amorsolo, known
for his craftsmanship in the use of light, was educated in UP’s School of Fine Arts and is
highly influenced by Western artists.
When the Japanese briefly occupied the Philippines during the 1940s, nationalism became
more pronounced. This is the effect of the war and repression on the Filipino people.

Contemporary Arts in the Philippines

When the late former president Ferdinand Marcos started his administration, the birth of
Contemporary Arts in the Philippines began. Culture and the arts were given focused in
his vision of the “New Society.” Cultural Center of the Philippines was then established
and urban planning and architecture were given more focused. However, the declaration of
Martial Law (1972 - 1981) gave birth to dictatorship and numerous human rights
violations. With that emerged social realism. Underground cultural circles and writers hiding
in pen names were popular as censorship was popular during that time. Literary arts,
visual arts, and performing arts were used to express dissent. An example of this is the
poem Prometheus Unbound written by Jose Lacaba under the pen name Ruben
Cuevas. The piece is an acrostic, which means the first letter of each line form a
message. The acrostic revealed a strong sentiment against the administration and became
a popular slogan against the regime as the piece was published, the editor unaware of its
hidden message, was published in Focus Magazine.

When Martial Law was lifted and the Marcos regime ended, democracy was reintroduced
to the Filipino people. This new found freedom paved the way for a more diverse and
more expressive Filipino artists. No longer did the Filipinos exclusively made art for or
against the government; now, art is a tool mainly used for self-expression. With the rapid
rise of technology and the popularity of social media, Filipinos find more platforms and
ways to express themselves, thereby continuously changing the art scene. Contemporary art
is distinct because of how it blurs the lines across artistic disciplines, and how it
integrates various elements and principles.
 UNIT 2: Classification of Various Art Forms in the Philippines

Performing arts involve a performer (usually a person) undertaking certain actions and
movements usually accompanied by sound in a particular space and time for an audience.
What sets performing arts apart from other art forms is how it uses the human body as
part of its medium and its dependency on time and space. Moreover, performing arts is
defined by its interdisciplinarity and how it integrates various art forms.

There are three kinds of performing art forms classified according to the material used.

1. Auditory for music, which has the following elements:

a. Rhythm - movement, fluctuation, or variation marked by the regular
recurrence or natural flow of related elements
b. Pitch - highness or lowness of sound
c. Melody - a rhythmic succession of single tones organized as an aesthetic whole
d. Musical Notations - the act, process, method, or an instance of representing
by a system or set of marks, signs, figures, or characters used in music
e. Harmony - the combination of simultaneous musical notes in a chord
f. Timbre - the perceived sound quality of a musical tone which sets it apart
from other tones. This may be described as soft, rough, hoarse, cold, and
other similar adjectives.

2. Kinesthetic for dance, which has the following elements:

a. Human body - the body is the center of the performance activity. It
performs the actions and movements necessary to the piece. With that, it is
considered to be the main medium in performing arts.
b. Arrangement or pattern - the movements and steps which enable the
performers to perform in an organized manner.
c. Time and space - performing arts depend highly on time and space. The
other elements must all come together to complement the available and
selected time and space.

3. Dramatics for theatre, which has the following elements:

a. Stage direction - instructions indicating movement, blockings or positions, and
other nuances in the performers’ speaking, movement, and acting
b. Narratology - the narrative structure of the piece
 c. Scenic design - the artistic design that creates the background or scene to
complement the performances

In the Philippines, performing arts is shaped by the country’s long history of colonization
and characterized by the diverse cultural practices within the nation. In general, Philippine
performing arts have its roots in the indigenous practice of rituals. It is believed that the
rituals of early Filipino ancestors is the very origins of theatre arts in the country. After
all, it fulfills all the necessary materials needed in theatre. The shamans or babaylans
perform a ritual that involve going through a trance; its choreography usually involves the
partaking of an animal sacrifice. This is accompanied by the chanting of the crowd or
even rhythmic playing of indigenous musical instruments. Further, it is done usually in
front of an audience or the entire community.

As you learned in the previous unit, art in the Philippines is influenced by the various
colonizers that came and went to the country. These elements prevail until today. For
example, the pasyon is still performed especially in rural areas, and the elements of
bodabil manifests in the various noon time television shows.

Lesson 2: Visual Arts in the Philippines

Some works of art are considered visual in nature. In order to understand and appreciate
the nature of visual art, it is important to distinguish the different forms of visual art.
Mainly, there are three types of visual arts categorized according to their materials and
approaches used.

1. Two-Dimensional Expression - It is mainly flat because it only has length and

width as its dimensions. There are several techniques that utilize this, namely:
a. Alla Prima - also known as wet-on-wet or when you paint over a layer of wet paint
b. Encaustic - also known as hot wax painting or when you add pigment to
beeswax and use it to paint
c. Tempera Painting - adding pigment to water-soluble binder medium such as
egg yolk
d. Fresco - a mural painting technique that involves painting over fresh plaster
e. Water Color - when pigments are suspended in a water-based solution
f. Oil on Canvas - adding pigments to drying oil for binder
g. Mosaic - when small pieces are assembled together (such as glass, stone,
seeds, etc) to form an image
h. Stained Glass - when an artwork is made with coloured glass
i. Tapestry - textile art woven on a vertical loom
 j. Drawing - using a writing material (pen, pencil, marker, etc) to mark a two-
dimensional canvas such as paper and form an image
k. Printing - when an image is formed using a master template
l. Photography - creating images with light

2. Three-Dimensional Expression - Apart from length and width, three-dimensional

objects also has volume. There are several techniques under this category, namely:
a. Molding - reshaping a three-dimensional object such as marble or plaster to
create a new form
b. Carving - scraping off parts of a material (often wood) to create a new form
c. Etching - using a strong acid on a surface to create a design
d. Installing - a site-specific artwork designed to transform and include space in
its message

3. Multi-Dimensional Expression - Multi-dimensional expression uses length, width,

mass, time and space as its dimensions and it uses various techniques. The
techniques are as follows:
a. Lashed construction
b. Truss Construction
c. Post and lintel construction
d. Cantilever
e. Arches

In the Philippines, visual arts is characterized by the manifestations of a wide array of

cultural influence to the country. Specifically, it is marked by ethnic, Spanish, American,
and contemporary traditions.

As you learned in Unit 1, early artworks by the indigenous peoples of the Philippines
usually had a social and communal function. As early as then, they were involved in
sculpting, pottery, weaving, and other practices. Apart from social utility, their visual
artworks also usually had a spiritual significance. For example, the patterns in their textiles
suggested their religious beliefs.

As for the colonizers, their influence in the Philippine visual arts is significant and it
remains prominent until today. The Spaniards added a religious dimension to painting and
sculpting by making saints and Biblical events the focus of its subjects, while the
Americans saw a push and pull between liberated and conservative beliefs as it saw the rise of
more secular themes.

Today, contemporary visual art is marked by how it rebels against the rules of form; with
the rise of new media and advanced technological tools, more people are becoming open
to experimentation and the mixing of forms.
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