Works of

Arts of
Filipino
Artist
Prepared by: Precious Grace A. Salazar
BSA2.1
•1.
 • The Spoliarium (often misspelled
Spolarium) is a painting by Filipino painter
Juan Luna. Luna, working on canvas, spent
eight months completing the painting which

SPOLIA
depicts dying gladiators. The painting was
submitted by Luna to the Exposición
Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid,
where it garnered the first gold medal (out
of three).[1] The picture recreates a

RIUM
despoiling scene in a Roman circus where
dead gladiators are stripped of weapons and
garments. Together with other works of the
Spanish Academy, the Spoliarium was on
exhibit in Rome in April 1884
• Juan Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta (Spanish:
[ˈxwan ˈluna]; October 23, 1857 – December 7, 1899) was
a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the
Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He
became one of the first recognized Philippine artists.

• His winning the gold medal in the 1884 Madrid

Exposition of Fine Arts, along with the silver win of
fellow Filipino painter Félix Resurrección Hidalgo,
prompted a celebration which was a major highlight in the
memoirs of members of the Propaganda Movement, with
the fellow Ilustrados toasting to the two painters' good
health and to the brotherhood between Spain and the
Philippines.

• Regarded for work done in the manner of European

academies of his time, Luna painted literary and historical
scenes, some with an underscore of political commentary.
His allegorical works were inspired with classical balance,
and often showed figures in theatrical poses
•2.
 • Among other things, Pacita Abad is renowned for her
eccentric use of color in her paintings. Some other unique
features of her paintings included underwater scenes, along
with wild animals and tropical flowers. She managed to
highlight the constant changes and developments going on

Underwater in the world around her. Her paintings are a reflection of

her travels all over the world. After briefly studying
painting in New York and Washington D.C., she went on to

Wilderness
travel over 80 countries around the world. Her travels and
her experiences with different people and cultures from
various parts of the world had a major influence on her
style of painting. In 1970s and 1980s, her work was

Series majorly inspired by painters like Ben Shahn, which led her
to create paintings which inspired political and social
thought. Abad received several awards during her lifetime.
In 1984, she became the first woman to win the Ten
Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award. Additionally, she
also won the D.C. Commission on the Arts Award in 1989
and 1990 and the Gwendolyn Caffritz Award in 1992.
• Pacita Barsana Abad (October 5, 1946 – December 7, 2004) was an Ivatan and
Philippine-American painter. She was born in Basco, Batanes, a small island in the
northernmost part of the Philippines, between Luzon and Taiwan. Her more than 30-
year painting career began when she traveled to the United States to undertake graduate
studies. She exhibited her work in over 200 museums, galleries, and other venues,
including 75 solo shows, around the world. Abad's work is now in public, corporate, and
private art collections in over 70 countries
• Both of Abad's parents served, at different times, as Congressman/Congresswomen of
Batanes,[1] and Abad earned a BA in political science at the University of the Philippines
Diliman in 1967. In 1970, she went to the United States intending to study law, but she
instead earned a master's degree in Asian history at Lone Mountain College (which
would later become part of the University of San Francisco) in 1972 while supporting
herself as a seamstress and a typist.[2] Abad studied painting at the Corcoran School of
Art in Washington, D.C. and The Art Students League in New York City. She lived on six
continents and worked in more than 50 countries,[3] including Guatemala, Mexico,
India, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
At the Corcoran School of Art, Abad studied under Berthold Schmutzhart[4] and Blaine
Larson, and the two professors helped launch her artistic career. Abad then pursued her
studies at The Art Students League in New York where she concentrated on still life and
figurative drawing under John Helicker[5] and Robert Beverly Hale.
• Filipina: A racial identity crisis (1990). Acrylic, handwoven cloth, dyed yarn, beads, gold
thread on stitched and padded canvas. The painting is considered as Abad's greatest
work on canvas.
• During Abad's time in San Francisco's art scene, she married painter George Kleiman,
though they later separated. She traveled to art scenes across Asia for a year with
Stanford business student Jack Garrity, then returned to the U.S. to study painting, first
at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and later, at The Art Students League
in New York City. While in California, she married Garrity, who became an
international development economis
•3.
 • A self-taught artist, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo majorly
followed modernist traditions throughout his art career and
highlighted his work by using extremely bold color palettes.
His work was also inspired by science fiction writing and the
Filipino landscape, which he portrayed by using biomorphic
shapes. As a radical modernist artist, Ocampo was part of a
group found by Victorio C. Edades, which was known as the
Saturday Group of Artists or Taza de Oro Group. His work
portrayed the extremely harsh realities of the world he lived

Genesis
in. Moreover, through his paintings, he depicted the colossal
impact of the Second World War. Towards the second half of
his artistic career, he moved on to abstract forms of painting.
He was credited for the invention of an abstract form which
used the native flora and fauna of the Philippines and spatial
elements such as the sun and the stars to portray the abstract
forms of life. In 1965, he won the Republic Central Award.
Moreover, in 1991, Hernando R. Ocampo was posthumously
awarded the title of National Artist of the Philippines.
• Hernando Ruiz Ocampo was a leading radical modernist artist
in the Philippines. He was a member of the Saturday Group of
artists (also known as the Taza de Oro Group), and was one of
the pre-war Thirteen Moderns, a group of modernist artists
founded by Victorio C. Edades in 1938. Famously known for
his triumvirate of with neo-realists Vicente S. Manansala and
Cesar Legaspi, his works reflected the harsh realities of his
country after the Second World War. However, many of his
works depicted lush sceneries and the beautiful Philippine
landscapes through his skillful use of fierce and bold colors.
[2]

• H. R. Ocampo was credited for inventing a new mode of

abstraction that exemplifies Philippine flora and fauna, and
portrays sunshine, stars and rain. Using movement and bold
colors, Ocampo utilized fantasy and science fiction as the
basis for his works. His art is described to be "abstract
compositions of biological forms that seemed to oscillate,
quiver, inflame and multiply" like mutations.
•4.
 • One of the most famous Filipino sculptors, Napoleon
Veloso Abueva, was one of the youngest recipients of
the National Artist for Sculpture title in the year 1976.
Among other things, Abueva is known as the Father of
Modern Philippine Sculpture. He is credited for

Kiss of
shaping the art of sculpture in his country. Abueva
used numerous types of material to create sculpture
masterpieces including marble, bronze, iron, stainless
steel, hard wood, cement, adobe, coral and alabaster.
Among one of his early innovation in his field was

Judas “buoyant sculpture”, which according to him was

something to be viewed from the surface of a pool. He
is famously known for being the first Filipino artist for
putting up a one-man sculptural exhibit in the
Philippine Center in New York in the year 1980. He
was awarded the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the
Philippines Award (TOYM) in 1959 and the ASEAN
Award for Visual Arts in the year 1987
• Napoleon "Billy" Veloso Abueva (January 26, 1930 – February 16, 2018) was
known as the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture" Through Proclamation No.
1539, He was proclaimed National Artist for Sculpture in 1976 when he was 46,
making him the youngest recipient of the award to date..
• Billy Abueva, as he was fondly called, was born in Tagbilaran, Bohol, to Teodoro
Lloren Abueva,born in Duero, Bohol, a Bohol congressman and Purificacion
Gonzalez Veloso, born in Cebu, president of the Women's Auxiliary Service.[1]
Abueva had six other brothers and sisters: Teodoro Jr., Purificacion, José, Amelia
Martinez, Teresita Floro, and Antonio.[2] Born Esabelio Veloso Abueva, he was
named after the younger sister of his paternal grandmother, Isabel.[3]

• He assumed the name Napoleon at the age of six, when as a student at the St.
Joseph Academy in Tagbilaran, one of the nuns first called him Napoleon after
Napoleon Bonaparte. The name stuck, and ever since, Abueva referenced the quote
from Napoleon: "If I weren't a conqueror, I would wish to be a sculptor."[4][5]

• Abueva graduated in high school at the Rafael Palma College (now the University
of Bohol) in 1949. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the UP
School of Fine Arts (now UP College of Fine Arts/UPCFA) in 1953 as one of the
second batch of Fine Arts students who moved from the old campus in Padre Faura
to Diliman. He was mentored by fellow National Artist for Sculpture Guillermo
Tolentino.[6]

• Through scholarship grants, he was able to pursue advanced studies abroad

including one from Harvard University.
5.
 • Vicente Manansala was a prodigious artist who received a
six-month grant from UNESCO and was invited to study at
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Quebec, Canada. He is most
commonly known for his Cubist paintings, prints and

Madonna
illustration. He was a member of the Thirteen Moderns,
which was led by Victorio Edades. As a neo-realist, he
became one of the few artists who were responsible for the
modernist movement in the country. Primarily, his work was
focused on the issues and the problems of the world. Along

of the with this, the Second World War had a great impact on his
paintings. National culture, social environment, identity and
native sensibility became the epicenter of his works. Along
with this, he also worked on some abstract pieces but his

Slums main focus remained on using art as a social commentary.

Manansala held his first solo exhibition in the year 1951 at
the Manila Hotel. His work had an immense influence on the
next generation of painters which included Manuel Baldemor
and Angelito Antonio. The Honolulu Museum of Art, the
Lopez Memorial Museum, Manila and the Philippine Center
in New York hold some of his most famous works. He was
posthumously awarded the Order of National Artists of the
Philippines in Visual Arts (Painting) in the year 1981.
• Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga. From 1926 to 1930, he
studied at the U.P. School of Fine Arts. In 1949, Manansala received a six-
month grant by UNESCO to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Banff and
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1950, he received a nine-month scholarship
to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris by the French government.[1]
• Manansala's paintings are the best and were celebrated as the best of the
barrio and the city together. His Madonna of the Slums is a portrayal of a
mother and child from the countryside who became urban shanty residents
once in the city. In his Jeepneys, Manansala combined the elements of
provincial folk culture with the congestion issues of the city.[1]

• Manansala developed transparent cubism, wherein the "delicate tones,

shapes, and patterns of figure and environment are masterfully
superimposed". A fine example of Manansala using this "transparent and
translucent" technique is his composition, kalabaw (Carabao).[1]

• Vicente Manansala, a National Artist of the Philippines in Visual Arts, was a

direct influence to his fellow Filipino neo-realists: Malang, Angelito
Antonio, Norma Belleza and Manuel Baldemor.[1] The Honolulu Museum
of Art, the Lopez Memorial Museum (Manila), the Philippine Center (New
York City), the Singapore Art Museum and Holy Angel University (Angeles
City, Philippines) are among the public collections holding work by Vicente
Manansala. Holy Angel University recently opened a section of its museum
called The Vicente Manansala Collection, holding most of the estate left by
the artist.