Art Gallery

La Barca de Aqueronte” (1887)

Artist: Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo

Location: Gallery III, South Wing Galleries, Level 2 (House Floor)

Also known as “The Boat of Charon,” this piece was
inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Inferno which Felix Hidalgo
read while he was in Italy. It’s a very graphic painting
that shows how Charon mercilessly ushered
condemned souls to the place of their eternal
damnation.
 “Planting of the First Cross” (1965)

Artist: Vicente S. Manansala

Location: GSIS Northwest Hall (Gallery XXIII), North Wing
Galleries, Level 3 (Senate Floor)
Vicente Manansala vividly captured the
birth of Christianity in the Philippines in
this historical artwork. It features Filipinos
in 1521 as they stand with curiosity and
interest while Spanish soldiers erect the
country’s first cross—the same one that
still stands in Cebu. The piece combines
the artist’s mastery of both traditional and
modern painting techniques, as well as his
unique style of “transparent cubism.”
In this exhibition, we introduce unique works by artists from
West and Central Africa, which were acquired by the museum
following An Inside Story: African Art of Our Time, the
exhibition held in 1995.
In the small display room, we also present works by the
sculptor Yasuda Haruhiko, who died in January 2018.
African nations began to successively gain independence from
around the 1960s, and despite confronting various difficulties,
have undergone remarkable economic developments in
recent years. When looking at the world of art, it is possible to
observe the presence of numerous African artists who are
engaged in actively producing works while each incorporating
their complex and diverse historical / cultural backgrounds.
Their works have come to attract attention in Europe and the
United States since the early 1990s, with interests also rapidly
increasing in Japan since the 2000s.
The Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, also
known as the CCP Complex, is an 88-hectare (220-acre)
reclaimed property owned by the Cultural Center of the
Philippines (CCP) located along Roxas Boulevard in
Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a mixed-use cultural and
tourism hub overlooking Manila Bay in south-central
Manila, most of which fall under the jurisdiction of the
city of Pasay.
It features several brutalist structures designed in the
1960s and 1970s by Leandro Locsin, such as the
Tanghalang Pambansa, the Philippine International
Convention Center, and the Sofitel Philippine Plaza
Manila. Other landmarks in the complex include the
Coconut Palace, the Manila Film Center and Star City
amusement park.