Victorio Edades

Victorio Candido Edades (December 23,

1895 – March 7, 1985) was a Filipino
painter. He led the revolutionary Thirteen
Moderns, who engaged their classical
compatriots in heated debate over the
nature and function of art. He was named
a National Artist in 1976. The history
names Victorio Edades as “the father of
Modern Philippine art". Schooled in the US
upon his return he introduced an entirely
new way of thinking about art. He argued
that art can be more than representation
of reality, it can be representation of reality
as seen through the mind and emotions of
the artist.

Biography
Victorio Edades was born on December
23, 1895, to Hilario and Cecilia Edades. He
was the youngest of ten children (six of
whom died of smallpox). He grew up in
Barrio Bolosan in Dagupan, Pangasinan.
His artistic ability surfaced during his early
years. By seventh grade, his teachers were
so impressed with him that he was
dubbed "apprentice teacher" in his art
class. He was also
Victorio Edades
an achiever from the
very beginning,
having won awards
in school debates
and writing
Born Victorio
competitions.
Candido

Later career Edades

December
After high school, 23, 1895
Edades and his Dagupan,
friends traveled to Pangasinan,
the United States. Captaincy
Before enrolling in General of
the
Seattle, Edades
Philippines
incidentally made a
detour to Alaska Died March 7,
and experienced 1985
working in a couple (aged 89)

of factories. Davao City,

Philippines
Nonetheless, he
moved on to Seattle Nationality
Philippin
and enrolled at the
University of Education University

Washington where Washingto

Fondation
he took up
Des Ecoles
architecture and
D'Art
later earned a
Americain
Master of Fine Arts De
in Painting. The Fontaineb
significant event
Known for Painting
that stirred Edades,
and made him as Notable work "The Sk
what he is known "The B
now, was his "Interac

encounter with the "Fontai

August
traveling exhibition
"The M
from the New York
and Th
Armory Hall. This art
Movement Modernis
show presented
modern European Awards Order of
National
artists such as
Artists of
Cézanne, Gauguin,
the
Matisse, Picasso
Philippines
and the Surrealists.
His growing
appreciation to what he saw veered him
away from the conservative academic art
and Realistic schools and thus he began to
paint in the modern manner. The two
former schools of thought were inclined
more towards idyllic subject matter, and
require a mastery of refined detailing.
What attracted Edades to the modernist
movement was its principle to go beyond
the idealistic exteriors propagated by
Impressionism and Realism. Modernist
thought encourages experimentation in
artistic expression and allows the artist to
present reality as he sees it in his own
way.

During his journey to America, he

participated in art competitions, one of
which was the Annual Exhibition of North
American Artists. His entry The Sketch
(1927) won second prize. When he
returned to the Philippines in 1928, he saw
that the state of art was "practically dead."
Paintings he saw dealt with similar themes
and were done in a limited technique that
mostly followed the works of Fernando
Amorsolo, the first Philippine national
artist and the most popular painter of the
time. He recognized that there was no
creativity whatsoever, and that the artists
of that time were merely "copying" each
other. So in December, Edades bravely
mounted a one-man show at the Philippine
Columbia Club in Ermita to introduce to
the masses what his modern art was all
about. He showed thirty paintings,
including those that won acclaim in
America. It was a distinguished exhibit, for
the Filipino art circle was suddenly shaken
by what this young man from Pangasinan
had learned from his studies abroad.
Viewers and critics were apparently
shocked and not one painting was sold.

Edades helped organized the University of

Santo Tomas (UST) Department of
Architecture in 1930 and was its acting
head. In 1935, he was appointed as
Director of the UST College of Architecture
and Fine Arts, which he organized under
the wing of Architecture. He was guided by
the existing American curricula when he
made the Fi Painting. On February 12,
1977, UST conferred on Edades the degree
of Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa.

Retirement
Edades retired to Davao City with his
family. There he taught for a time at the
Philippine Women's College and resumed
his career as an artist.

Death
He died on March 7, 1985, in Davao City,
Philippines.
Artistic development
Early styles after his stint in architecture
already show his inclination towards the
impressionism technique. In The Market
and The Picnic, his choice of subject
matter do not take flight from pleasant
daily scenery; yet his brush strokes and
observance of non-proportionality in the
figures made his teachers consider him
"very ambitious." His earlier works already
showed his affinity towards the style of
Cézanne and other Post-Impressionists.

The height of his artistic development is

his dynamic entry into Philippine art in
1928 with his solo exhibit at the Philippine
Columbia Club. Here he mounted his most
renowned work, The Builders. This work is
the sum total of all the other pieces
included in the show. They are a far cry
from the works of the first Philippine
national artist and most popular painter
Fernando Amorsolo and the other
classicists who painted bright cheery
scenes of flawless Filipinos and their
idealized daily routines. Edades, on the
other hand, presented figures in muddy
earth colors – yellow ochres and raw
sienna accented by bold black contours.
Subjects are distorted figures (those
whose proportions defy classical
measure), and Edades’ brush strokes are
agitated and harsh. The choice of his
subject also caused quite a stir to those
who viewed the show. He portrayed tough,
dirty construction laborers and simple folk
wrestling in dung and dust. Even his nudes
are nothing like Amorsolo's portrayal of the
Filipina at her best.

With the uproar Edades' ideas raised, he

knew that he cannot make a living out by
merely painting what he wished. So he got
by producing commissioned works,
particularly murals. He did murals for
prominent individuals (like Juan Nakpil)
and institutions. His later works are said to
be ‘flatter.’ His portraits and genre
paintings in Davao are not seen to be as
heavy or solid as his earlier phase with The
Builders. From Cézanne, Edades grew
more interested in the style of Utamaro of
Japan and other artists whose charm is in
color rather than solidity.

By introducing modern ideas into the

Philippine art scene, Victorio Edades
managed to destroy the conventions of
domestic art, and also got rid of the
clichéd ideology he believed stunted the
development of Philippine art. His
defiance to what the Conservatives
structured as ‘art’ was a conscious call for
real artistic expression. He attested that
"art is ever the expression of man's
emotion, and not a mere photographic
likeness of nature. Thus to express his
individual emotion, the artist is privileged
to create in that distinctive form that best
interprets his own experience. And the
distortion of plastic elements of art such
as line, mass and color – is one of the
many ways of expressing one's rhythmic
form." That was the reason why his
disproportionate figures are made that
way – for the sake of composition.
Legacy
Through his continuous propagation of
modern art as shown in his works and
teachings, Edades proved that modernists
were not fooling people as Guillermo
Tolentino asserted. Dialectically, Edades
explained that modern art is not anti-
classicist. He said, "From the technical
point of view, Modern Art is an outgrowth
of Classical Art. Modern Art is the
interpretation of the Classical concept
conditioned by the artist's new experience
with the aid of improved means of
aesthetic expression." Not conforming to
the academic perception of art, he made
art available to the ordinary person.
Through his determination to stand by his
ideology, Edades became a bridge
between the past and the present.

Auction records

For the longest period, the works of

Edades despite his role in the development
of Philippine modernism have only
become prominent in the Philippine art
market during the 2010s. In the same
period, works by other Philippine
modernists Anita Magsaysay-Ho, José T.
Joya and Hernando R. Ocampo have
already broken world record prices at
auction.[1]

On November 22, 2014, an early work from

1926 called American Football Player sold
for a record price of PHP9.276 million
(US$205,923.65) at a Christie's auction in
Hong Kong.[2] That record was broken on
June 11, 2012, when a later work from
1976 called Poinsettia Girl was sold at a
Leon Gallery auction in Manila for a world
record price of PHP23.230 million
(US$440,257.98).[3]
The Other Moderns
Galo B. Ocampo; Carlos V. Francisco
(National Artist, 1973); Vicente Manansala
(National Artist, 1981); Hernando R.
Ocampo (National Artist, 1991); Cesar
Legaspi (National Artist, 1990); Demetrio
Diego; Diosdado Lorenzo; José Pardo;
Ricarte Purugganan; Bonifacio Cristobal;
Arsenio Capili; Anita Magsaysay-Ho.

References
1. Villegas, Ramon N.; Gonzalez III, Augusto
M.R.; Nakpil, Lisa Guerrero (2020), León at
Ten: 2010-2020, Makati City: León Gallery
Fine Art and Antiques
 2. "VICTORIO EDADES (1895-1985)
AMERICAN FOOTBALL PLAYER" (https://w
ww.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5853132) .
Christie's. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
3. "Victorio Edades (1895 - 1985) Poinsettia
Girl" (https://leon-gallery.com/auctions/lot/
The-Spectacular-Mid-Year-Auction-2022/5
9/64) . Leon Gallery Fine Art and Antiques.
Retrieved June 11, 2022.

Further reading
Benesa, Leo. "Victorio Edades." 2002.
National Commission for Culture and
the Arts. April 13, 2004 [1] (http://www.n
cca.gov.ph/culture&arts/cularts/arts/vis
ual/visual-edades.htm) .
An excerpt from What is Philippine
about Philippine Art? and Other Essays.
Manila: National Commission for
Culture and the Arts, 2000. Reprinted
from Weekend, September 21, 1979, 4.
—,"Philippine Contemporary Art as a Post-
War Phenomenon." 2002. National
Commission for Culture and the Arts.
April 13, 2004 [2] (http://www.ncca.gov.
ph/culture&arts/cularts/arts/visual/visu
al-contempo.htm) . An excerpt from
What is Philippine about Philippine Art?
and Other Essays. Manila: National
Commission for Culture and the Arts,
2000. Reprinted from Verlag Neves
Forum, 1970.
Deocampo, Nick. "Edades: Victorio C.
Edades and Modernism in Philippine Art."
[Manila]: National Commission for
Culture and the Arts Commission on
Galleries, [2004].
Guerrero, Amadis Ma. and Purita Kalaw
Ledesma. Edades: National Artist.
Makati: Published for Security Bank &
Trust Co. by Filipinas Foundation, c1979.
Ingle, Lydia Rivera. Edades: kites and
visions. Quezon City: New Day
Publishers, c1980.
 Paras-Perez, Rod. Edades and the 13
moderns. Manila : Cultural Center of the
Philippines, 1995.

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