CONTEMPORARY ART FORMS

AND PRACTICES FROM THE

REGIONS
 VisualArts
 Literature
 Music
 Theatre
 Dance
 Architecture
 Film
 During the American period,
education was introduced to
the Philippines.
 Juan Arellano, Diosdado
Lorenzo, and Victorio Edades-
studied abroad and introduced
the concept of modern art.
 American period- the subjects
of artworks shifted from rural
to urban themes.
 After World War II, artists
started creating proletarian
art which depicts the life after
the war.
 Purita Kalaw-Ledesma: created
the Art Association of the
Philippines.
 Lydia Villanueva-Arguilla:
created the Philippine Art
Gallery.
 Paris Cubism – a kind of cubism
showing fragmented figures in
larger planes, color harmonies,
and texture.
 Vicente Manansala, Romeo
Tabuena, Cesar Legaspi- three
known cubists.
 During the modern period
abstraction was employed.
 H.R. Ocampo, Constantino
Bernardo, Frederico
Aguilar Alcuaz, Arturo
Luz, and Jose Joya- known
abstractionist.
 Napoleon Abueva- became
famous for his modern works.
 Ang Kiukok painted in
expressionistic cubistic style.
 BenCab worked with realism
and experimental devices.
 Ramon Orlina, Impy Pilapil-
explored the use of glass in
making sculptor.
 Surrealism emerged which
explored the world of dream.
 Galo Ocampo, Juvenal Sanso-
known surrealist.
 Magic Realism entered the
art scene.
 MagicRealism- refers to
the style in a painting
showing minute details of
the subjects and
highlighting their texture
and color. Example: Bigas
artwork by Nester Leynes.
 Inorder to promote and
preserve the rich artistry of
the country, The National
Government through The
NCCA’s committee on Visual
Arts (CVA) launched an
education program that
tends to convene artists
annually in the country.
 Therewere art groups
founded in the regions and
provinces like the Baguio
Art Guild and Bacolod’s
Black Artist in Asia.
 BagayMovement took the
scene. It is a kind of
poetry which uses
colloquial language and is
built on concrete images
which tend to describe
experiences.
 Example of Bagay poetry:
Validiction sa Hillcrest written
by Rolando Tinio-it emloys
taglish.
 Amado V. Hernandez
introduced another form of
poetry through his art work “
Ang Bayang Malaya”- a long
narrative piece about a peasant
leader.
 Social protest and social
realism became the theme of
the poem.
 In the area of short story
writing, after the World
War II, short stories
focused on the self
consciousness and self-
expression of the writer.
 KnownEnglish short story
writers: N.V.M. Gonzales,
Nick Joaquin, Alejandro
Roces, Francisco
Arcellana, Gregorion
Brillantes, Bienvenido
Santos, Edith Tiempo.
 Short story writers
produced more social
conscious fiction during
1970s.
 Short stories depicting the
lives of the working class
emerged.
 Social protest was produced
during the Marcos era.
 In the area of novels, the
production of novels with
socio-political themes
continued after World War II.
 In the area of essay and
criticism, literary criticism was
produced after World War II
aiming to analyze the Philippine
writings.
 During the early American
period, the music of the
country was mostly class
due to European influence.
 Avant-garde music
emerged in 1960s.
Due to the introduction of
radio, film, and other
entertainment technology, the
theater music that once
flourished gradually decline,
the rondallas, or the string
bands remain even up to
present.
 Philippine music continuously
revolved.
 Pinoy pop or the Filipino pop music
took place.
 Pinoy pop covers different forms
like jazz, dance hits, folksong
revival, rock and roll, rap, etc.
 Manila sound was born- music
characterized as Western-derived
with English lyrics but with pure
Filipino spirit.
 OPM or Original Filipino
Music became popular.
 OPM is a kind of music
purely Filipino and is
composed and sung by
Filipino composers and
singers.
 The OPM was followed by another
form of popular music called
“Alternative Music”.
 Folk balladeers influenced
alternative music.
 Some examples of alternative
music are Freddie Aguilar’s Anak,
Herber Bartolome’s Tayo’y Mga
Pinoy, and Florante De Leon’s Ako’y
Filipino.
 Atpresent, different
music genre like pop rock,
OPM, indigenous music,
jazz, rap, a mixture of
different genre like ethnic
rock, and many other
forms exist in the music
industry.
 The American introduced the
“bodabil” or stage show.
 The bodabil in the American
period was not form of stage play
since it was composed mainly of
songs, dances, and skits.
 During the Japanese period the
bodabil included short melodrama.
 Through the Western education,
production of Shakespearean plays
and other Western contemporary
classics entered the scene.
 Filipinos in the field of theater
started to experiment on
traditional theater forms like the
sarswela, komedya, and sinakulo.
*Representational styles:
a. Psychological realism-deals with the
problems of individuals.
Ex. Paraisong Parisukat (drama) by
Orlando Nadres and Bayan-bayanan by
Bienvenido Noriega Jr.
b. Social realism- deals with the problems
of individuals considering their society.
Ex. The World is an Apple by Alberto
Florentino.
 Presentationalstyles-
highlights discussion of
social ideas.
- made use of different
methods like dance, song etc.
to summon ideas from the
audience. Example: Theater of
the Oppresso by Augusto
Boal.
 Documentary style- tends to
discuss historical events.
Example: Mayo A-bien Uno
of Al Santos.
*Dula-dula- other form of
theater arts that emerged. It
is a short drama poem.
 BODABIL or VAUDEVILLE- this
dance became popular during the
1st years of American period.
 It is a kind of stage show
introduced by the American.
 Dances like back-and-wing, tap,
clog, skirt dancing were among the
dances.
 European classical ballet entered
the scene.
 Remedios de Oteyza and
Leonor Orosa- ballet dancers
who became ballet instructors.
 The ballet was followed by
modern dance.
 Modern dance is revolutionary
in nature and does not conform
to the rules of classical ballet.
 Modern dance deals with the
mixture of a wide range of
dances, Western and Asian
dances, traditional dances and
other experimental dances.
 Folk and social dances followed
the rise of modern dance.
 FranciscaReyes-Aquino-
research on Philippine Folk
dances, her published
research on folk dances
influence many Filipino
dancers to do similar
research.
 There were dance groups that
developed Filipino adaptations of
European and American dances like
valse, rigaudon,polka, fandango,
jota, etc.
 Other dance groups revived the
indigenous dance forms commonly
performed during rituals and
ceremonies by indigenous people.
 During the American Colonial
and Contemporary Period, the
Philippine architecture adopted
the modern Western
architectural style taking into
consideration the physical and
socio-cultural situation of the
country.
 The Philippine architecture
was characterized as simple,
rational, and functional.
 Juan Arellano, Carlos
Barreto, and Antonio Toledo-
introduced the neoclassic
style in building structures.
 Metropolitan Theatre- one of
the structure built during the
early 20 century. Arellano
th

designed the theater and

experimented with
romanticism. Decorative motifs
incorporating native plants and
variety of colors were
employed in the building.
 It was also in the early 20th
century when “tsalet” was
developed. It is a type of
house stilts with a front porch
made of wood and concrete.
 Also, steel was used in
buildings as protection for
calamities like earthquakes.
 Succeedinggenerations of
architects changed path and
deviated from the traditional
architectural style.
 After World War II,
architecture in the country
departed from native
tradition.
 Real estate development
started to take place and
two-storey houses were
introduced.
 Filipinohouses were
Americanized.
 Urban housing, multi-storey
tenement and government
housing projects emerged
due to the increasing
population and decreasing
land availability.
 Construction of expressway,
convention centers, hospitals,
hotels, malls, high-rise
buildings, amusement centers,
etc. All these comes with
technological advancements
like escalators, elevators, air-
conditioning system,
computers, etc.
 In the regional set up,
residential houses, churches,
public markets, business
space tend to imitate the
architectural styles in the
urban.
 Also, eco-cultural tourism
was introduced.
 The film industry in the
Philippines started in 1897
through the initiative of
foreign businessman.
 Swiss entrepreneurs were
the first to feature film
shows in Manila.
 The film became popular in
1912 when foreigners Edward
Gross and Harry Brown
produced the film about the
life of Dr. Jose Rizal.
 Jose Nepomuceno- 1st Filipino
who produced a film and is also
tagged as the “Father of
Philippine Movies”, his work
entitled “ Dalagang Bukid”.
 PhilippineLiterature was also
another source of movie
themes.
 There were film adaptations
of the works of Francisco
Baltazar’s “Florante at
Laura”, and Jose Rizal’s Noli
Me Tangere, and El
Filibusterismo.
 Film companies were
established like the Filippine
Films, Partolone Hispano-
Filipino, Excelsior Pictures,
Sampaguita Pictures Inc.,
LVN pictures, and X’Otic
Films.
 In 1942, movie productions
stopped and the Filipinos went
back to watching and producing
stage shows. Movie production
resumed after the war.
 Film produced after the war
contained war stories and
heroism like “Garrison 13” and
“Dugo ng Bayan”.
 During the 1950’s, four film
studios became prominent and
considered as the big four.
These are LVN, Sampaguita,
Lebran, and Premiere.
 Film awards were also
instituted like the Filipino
Academy of Movie Arts and
Sciences (FAMAS), and Maria
Clara Awards.
 Filipino
movies, directors,
and producers started to be
recognized not just locally
but internationally like,
“Ifugao” of Gerardo De Leon,
and “Anak Dalita”, of
Lamberto Avellana.
 During the Marcos regime,
the government regulated
the film making. With the
establishment of the Board
of Censorship Motion
Pictures (BCMP), film script
had to be submitted prior
production.
 Young directors started the so
called new cinemas, three of
directors were Lino Brocka,
Celso Ad, and Ishmael Bernal.
 The movies under new cinema
revolved around the themes on
nationhood, love in hostile
setting, and social issues.
 Inthe contemporary period,
Philippine film revolved
around a variety of subjects
and themes like martyr wife,
superhero, action, melo-
drama, comedies etc.