NATIONAL ARTIST AND

THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO
PARTICULAR AREAS

Adapted from the Contemporary

Philippine Arts from of the Regions
of Sandagan and Sayseng (2016)
The Order of National Artists (Orden ng Pambansang Alagad ng
Sining) is the highest national recognition given to Filipino
individuals who have made significant contributions to the
development of Philippine arts;
namely, Music, Dance, Theater, Visual
Arts, Literature, Film, Broadcast Arts, and Architecture and
Allied Arts. The order is jointly administered by the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and conferred by the
President of the Philippines upon recommendation by both
institutions.
 What exactly is a National Artist?

By definition, a National Artist is a Filipino who

has made significant contributions to the
development of Philippine arts in the fields of
Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts, Literature,
Film, and Architecture. He is someone
who should have been awarded the highest
national recognition for the arts: the National
Artist Award. In Filipino, its proper name is the
Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining.
 What it takes to become a National Artist

The criteria for candidates to the National Artist Award is

composed of at least five points with two already
delineating the weight attached to the title — they should
be (1) artists who have distinguished themselves by
pioneering in a mode of creative expression or style,
thus making an impact on succeeding generations of
artists; and (2) artists who have created a substantial
and significant body of works and/or consistently
displayed excellence in the practice of their art form
thus enriching artistic expression or style.
 What are the processes involved in naming a
National Artist?

First, the process involves a NOMINATION, based on the criteria,

either by an individual or a group. The NCCA announces the opening
of the nominations at the start of the year (as for National Artist
2005, the nomination starts on January 2004).There is also a Special
Research Group, composed of commissioned art experts, which
identifies possible candidates, complementing these nominations
coming from the various art sectors. The Council of Peers, composed
of highly regarded artists, art critics, scholars (including cultural
philosophers and historians), researchers, and other knowledgeable
individuals, does the actual deliberation and screening. Of course, all
previously-named National Artists sit in this council as permanent
members.
 What are the processes involved in naming a
National Artist?

The selection of the composition of The National Artist Award

Council of Peers in itself is a complex process. The composition
for each category or discipline of the council—dance, film and
broadcast arts, literature, literature, music, theater, and visual
arts—is carefully balanced with members coming from both the
provinces and the National Capital Region.
 What are the processes involved in naming a
National Artist?

Any nominated council member who is related to a nominee up

to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity shall inhibit
her/himself from the deliberation process. Likewise, any
member may decline participation in the deliberation. Any
member may also be removed for just cause upon
recommendation to the NCCA Board by at least two-thirds of the
members of her/his category. If this happens, the secretariat
again draws lots until the panel is completed.
 What are the processes involved in naming a
National Artist?

For the second deliberation, the members of the first

deliberation panel choose by secret ballot three members from
among them to represent their respective category.
The members of the panel for the second deliberation decide the
final list of nominees forwarded for the consideration of the
NCCA and CCP Boards. The second deliberation process is
chaired by the NCCA executive director and co-chaired by the
CCP president.
 What are the processes involved in naming a
National Artist?

The NCCA and CCP Boards are convened in a joint

meeting to make the final approval of the list of
nominees. The list is then forwarded to the President for
approval of recipients.
 VISUAL ARTS

Adapted from the Contemporary

Philippine Arts from of the Regions
of Sandagan and Sayseng (2016)
FERNANDO AMORSOLO
 FERNANDO AMORSOLO

The country had its first National Artist in Fernando

C. Amorsolo. The official title “Grand Old Man of
Philippine Art” was bestowed on Amorsolo when the
Manila Hilton inaugurated its art center on January 23,
1969 with an exhibit of a selection of his works.
 FERNANDO AMORSOLO

Among others, his major works include the

following: Maiden in a Stream(1921)-GSIS collection; El
Ciego (1928)-Central Bank of the Philippines
collection; Dalagang Bukid (1936) – Club Filipino
collection; The Mestiza (1943) – National Museum of the
Philippines collection; Planting Rice (1946)-UCPB
collection; Sunday Morning Going to Town (1958)-Ayala
Museum Collection.
Maiden in a
Stream
(1921)-GSIS
collection
 El Ciego
(1928)-Central
Bank of the
Philippines
collection
 Dalagang Bukid
(1936) – Club
Filipino collection
 The Mestiza
(1943) – National Museum of the
Philippines collection
 Planting Rice
(1946)-UCPB collection
Sunday Morning Going to Town
(1958)-Ayala Museum Collection
HERNANDO R. OCAMPO
(April 28, 1911 – December 28, 1978)

A self-taught painter, was a leading

member of the pre-war Thirteen
Moderns, the group that charted the
course of modern art in the
Philippines. His works provided an
understanding and awareness of the
harsh social realities in the country
immediately after the Second World
War and contributed significantly to
the rise of the nationalist spirit in the
post-war era.
 HERNANDO R. OCAMPO
(April 28, 1911 – December 28, 1978)

Ocampo’s acknowledged masterpiece Genesis served as

the basis of the curtain design of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines Main Theater. His other major works include Ina
ng Balon, Calvary, Slum Dwellers, Nude with Candle and
Flower, Man and Carabao, Angel’s Kiss, Palayok at
Kalan, Ancestors,Isda at Mangga, The
Resurrection, Fifty-three “Q”, Backdrop, Fiesta.
Genesis
BENEDICTO CABRERA

Benedicto R. Cabrera, who signs

his paintings “Bencab,” upheld the
primacy of drawing over the
decorative color. Bencab started his
career in the mid-sixties as a lyrical
expressionist. His solitary figures of
scavengers emerging from a dark
landscape were piercing stabs at the
social conscience of a people long
inured to poverty and dereliction.
 BENEDICTO CABRERA

Bencab, who was born in Malabon, has christened the

emblematic scavenger figure “Sabel.” For Bencab, Sabel is a
melancholic symbol of dislocation, despair and isolation–the
personification of human dignity threatened by life’s vicissitudes, and
the vast inequities of Philippine society.*
Bencab’s exploration of form, finding his way out of the late
neo-realism and high abstraction of the sixties to be able to
reconsider the potency of figurative expression had held out vital
options for Philippine art in the Martial Law years in the seventies
through the contemporary era.
SABEL
Carlos “Botong” Francisco
 Carlos “Botong” Francisco
Carlos “Botong” Francisco, the poet of Angono, single-
handedly revived the forgotten art of mural and remained its
most distinguished practitioner for nearly three decades. In
panels such as those that grace the City Hall of Manila,
Francisco turned fragments of the historic past into vivid records
of the legendary courage of the ancestors of his race. He was
invariably linked with the “modernist” artists, forming with
Victorio C. Edades and Galo Ocampo what was then known in
the local art circles as “The Triumvirate”. Botong’s unerring eye
for composition, the lush tropical sense of color and an abiding
faith in the folk values typified by the townspeople of Angono
became the hallmark of his art.
Carlos “Botong” Francisco

His other major works

include the
following: Portrait of
Purita, The Invasion of
Limahong, Serenade, Mus
lim Betrothal, Blood
Compact, First Mass at
Limasawa, The
Martyrdom of
Rizal, Bayanihan, Magpup
ukot, Fiesta, Bayanihan
sa Bukid, Sandugo.
Cesar Legaspi
 Cesar Legaspi

A pioneer “Neo-Realist” of the country, Cesar Legaspi is

remembered for his singular achievement of refining cubism in
the Philippine context. Legaspi belonged to the so-called
“Thirteen Moderns” and later, the “Neo-realists”. His distinctive
style and daring themes contributed significantly to the advent
and eventual acceptance of modern art in the Philippines.
Legaspi made use of the geometric fragmentation technique,
weaving social comment and juxtaposing the mythical and
modern into his overlapping, interacting forms with disturbing
power and intensity.
Among his works are Gadgets
I, Gadgets II, Diggers, Idols of
the Third
Eye, Facade, Ovary, Flora and
Fauna, Triptych, Flight, Bayaniha
n, Struggle,Avenging
Figure, Turning
Point, Peace, The Survivor, The
Ritual.
 Abdulmari Asia Imao

A native of Sulu, is a sculptor, painter,

photographer, ceramist, documentary film
maker, cultural researcher, writer, and
articulator of Philippine Muslim art and
culture.

Through his works, the indigenous ukkil,

sarimanok and naga motifs have been
popularized and instilled in the
consciousness of the Filipino nation and
other peoples as original Filipino creations.
National Artist for Visual Arts (2006)
(January 14, 1936 – December 16, 2014)
Selected works:
Industry Brass Mural, Philippine National Bank,
San Fernando, La Union
Mural Relief on Filmmaking, Manila City Hall
Industrial Mural, Central Bank of the Philippines,
San Fernando, La Union
Sulu Warriors (statues of Panglima Unaid and
Captain Abdurahim Imao), 6 ft., Sulu Provincial
Capitol
 Guillermo Tolentino
National Artist for Sculpture (1973)
(July 24, 1890 – July 12, 1976)
A product of the Revival period in Philippine
art. Returning from Europe (where he was
enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts,
Rome) in 1925, he was appointed as
professor at the UP School of Fine Arts
where the idea also of executing a
monument for national heroes struck him.
The result was the UP Oblation that
became the symbol of freedom at the
campus. Acknowledged as his masterpiece
and completed in 1933, The Bonifacio
Monument in Caloocan stands as an
enduring symbol of the Filipinos’ cry for
freedom.
Guillermo Tolentino

Other works include the

bronze figures of President
Quezon at Quezon
Memorial, life-size busts
of Jose Rizal at UP and UE,
marble statue of Ramon
Magsaysay in GSIS Building;
granolithics of heroic statues
representing education,
medicine, forestry, veterinary
science, fine arts and music
at UP.
 Arturo Luz

Arturo Luz, painter, sculptor, and designer for

more than 40 years, created masterpieces that
exemplify an ideal of sublime austerity in
expression and form. From the Carnival series
of the late 1950s to the recent Cyclist paintings,
Luz produced works that elevated Filipino
aesthetic vision to new heights of sophisticated
simplicity. By establishing the Luz Gallery that
professionalized the art gallery as an institution
and set a prestigious influence over
generations of Filipino artists, Luz inspired and
developed a Filipino artistic community that
nurtures impeccable designs.

National Artist for Visual Arts (1997)

Among his other significant
paintings are Bagong
Taon, Vendador de
Flores, Skipping
Rope, Candle
Vendors, Procession, Self-
Portrait, Night
Glows,Grand Finale, Cities
of the Past, Imaginary
Landscapes.
 Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz

He is known mainly for his gestural

paintings in acrylic and oil, as well as
sketches in ink, watercolor and pencil. He
was also a sculptor of note and has
rendered abstract and figurative works in
ceramics, tapestries and even in relief
sculptures made of paper and mixed
media, which he simply calls “Alcuazaics.”

National Artist for Visual Arts (2009)

 Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz

His works are highly favored, not only for its studied
refinement and European flair, but also for the ease and
pleasure conveyed by his choice of light, color and
composition; all of which add up to scenes which are
always quite playful but never cluttered. His love for
classical music is also apparent in this constant fluidity.
 Napoleon Abueva
At 46 then, Napoleon V. Abueva, a native
of Bohol, was the youngest National Artist
awardee. Considered as the Father of
Modern Philippine Sculpture, Abueva has
helped shape the local sculpture scene to
what it is now. Being adept in either
academic representational style or modern
abstract, he has utilized almost all kinds of
materials from hard wood (molave, acacia,
langka wood, ipil, kamagong, palm wood
and bamboo) to adobe, metal, stainless
steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron,
alabaster, coral and brass.
National Artist for Sculpture (1976)
 Napoleon Abueva

Among the early innovations Abueva introduced in 1951 was what he

referred to as “buoyant sculpture” — sculpture meant to be
appreciated from the surface of a placid pool. In the 80’s, Abueva put
up a one-man show at the Philippine Center, New York. His works
have been installed in different museums here and abroad, such
as The Sculpture at the United Nations headquarters in New York
City.
Some of his major works
include Kaganapan (1953),
Kiss of Judas (1955),Thirty
Pieces of Silver, The
Transfiguration (1979),
Eternal Garden Memorial
Park, UP
Gateway (1967), Nine
Muses (1994), UP Faculty
Center, Sunburst (1994)-
Peninsula Manila Hotel, the
bronze figure of Teodoro M.
Kalaw in front of National
Library, and murals in marble
at the National Heroes
Shrine, Mt. Samat, Bataan.
 J. Elizalde Navarro

J. (Jeremias) Elizalde Navarro, was born on May

22, 1924 in Antique. He is a versatile artist, being
both a proficient painter and sculptor. His devotion
to the visual arts spans 40 years of drawing,
printmaking, graphic designing, painting and
sculpting. His masks carved in hardwood merge the
human and the animal; his paintings consists of
abstracts and figures in oil and watercolor; and his
assemblages fuse found objects and metal parts.
He has done a series of figurative works drawing
inspiration from Balinese art and culture, his power
as a master of colors largely evident in his large
four-panel The Seasons (1992: Prudential Bank
collection).
National Artist for Painting (1999)
(May 22, 1924 – June 10, 1999)
A Navarro sampler includes his
’50s and ’60s fiction illustrations
for This Week of the Manila
Chronicle, and the rotund,
India-ink figurative drawings for
Lydia Arguilla’s storybook, Juan
Tamad. Three of his major
mixed media works are I’m
Sorry Jesus, I Can’t Attend
Christmas This Year (1965),
and his Homage to Dodjie
Laurel (1969: Ateneo Art
Gallery collection), and A
Flying Contraption for Mr.
Icarus (1984: Lopez Museum).
 Francisco Coching

Acknowledged as the “Dean of Filipino

Illustrators” and son of noted Tagalog
novelist and comics illustrator Gregorio
Coching, was a master storyteller – in
images and in print. His illustrations and
novels were products of that happy
combination of fertile imagination, a love of
storytelling, and fine draftsmanship. He
synthesized images and stories informing
Philippine folk and popular imagination of
culture. His career spanned four decades.
National Artist for Visual Arts (2014)
(January 29, 1919 – September 1, 1998)
 Francisco Coching

In his characters and storylines, Coching brings to popular

consciousness the issues concerning race and identity. He also
discussed in his works the concept of the hero, which resonate
through the characters on his comics like in Dimasalang and El
Vibora.
He also left a lasting influence on the succeeding generations of
younger cartoonist such as Larry Alcala, Ben Infante and Nestor
Redondo. The comics as popular art also helped forge the practice
and consciousness as a national language.
 Victorio C. Edades

Painting distorted human figures in rough,

bold impasto strokes, and standing tall and
singular in his advocacy and practice of
what he believes is the creative
art, Victorio C. Edades emerged as the
“Father of Modern Philippine Painting”.
Unlike, Amorsolo’s bright, sunny, cheerful
hues, Edades’ colors were dark and
somber with subject matter or themes
depicting laborers, factory workers or the
simple folk in all their dirt, sweat and grime.
National Artist for Painting (1976)
(December 23, 1895 – March 7, 1985)
Among his works are The
Sketch, The Artist and the
Model, Portrait of the
Professor, Japanese
Girl, Mother and
Daughter, The Wrestlers,
and Poinsettia Girl.
 Ang Kiukok

Born to immigrant Chinese parents Vicente

Ang and Chin Lim, Ang Kiukok is one of
the most vital and dynamic figures who
emerged during the 60s. As one of those
who came at the heels of the pioneering
modernists during that decade, Ang Kiukok
blazed a formal and iconographic path of
his own through expressionistic works of
high visual impact and compelling meaning.

National Artist for Visual Arts (2001)

(March 1, 1931 – May 9, 2005)
 Some of his works
include Geometric
Landscape (1969); Pieta,
which won for him the
bronze medal in the 1st
International Art Exhibition
held in Saigon (1962); and
the Seated Figure (1979),
auctioned at Sotheby’s in
Singapore.

PIETA
 Jose Joya
A painter and multimedia artist who distinguished
himself by creating an authentic Filipino abstract
idiom that transcended foreign influences. Most
of Joya’s paintings of harmonious colors were
inspired by Philippine landscapes, such as green
rice paddies and golden fields of harvest. His use
of rice paper in collages placed value on
transparency, a common characteristic of folk art.
The curvilinear forms of his paintings often recall
the colorful and multilayered ‘kiping’ of the
Pahiyas festival. His important mandala series
was also drawn from Asian aesthetic forms and
National Artist for Visual Arts (2003)
concepts.
(June 3, 1931 – May 11, 1995)
 Jose Joya

He espoused the value of kinetic energy and spontaneity in painting

which became significant artistic values in Philippine art. His
paintings clearly show his mastery of ‘gestural paintings’ where paint
is applied intuitively and spontaneously, in broad brush strokes, using
brushes or spatula or is directly squeezed from the tube and
splashed across the canvas. His 1958 landmark
painting Granadean Arabesque,a work on canvas big enough to be
called a mural, features swipes and gobs of impasto and sand. The
choice of Joya to represent the Philippines in the 1964 Venice
Biennial itself represents a high peak in the rise of the modern art in
the country.
His legacy is undeniably a large body of work of consistent excellence
which has won the admiration of artists both in the local and international
scene. Among them are his compositions Beethoven Listening to the
Blues, and Space Transfiguration, and other works like Hills of
Nikko, Abstraction, Dimension of Fear, Naiad, Torogan, Cityscape.
 Vicente Manansala

Vicente Manansala‘s paintings are

described as visions of reality
teetering on the edge of abstraction.
As a young boy, his talent was
revealed through the copies he made
of the Sagrada Familia and his
mother’s portrait that he copied from
a photograph.

National Artist for Painting (1981)

(January 22, 1910 – August 22, 1981)
 Vicente Manansala

After finishing the fine arts course from the University of the
Philippines, he ran away from home and later found himself at
the Philippines Herald as an illustrator. It was there that
Manansala developed close association with Hernando R.
Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, and Carlos Botong Francisco, the
latter being the first he admired most. For Manansala, Botong
was a master of the human figure. Among the masters,
Manansala professes a preference for Cezanne and Picasso
whom he says have achieved a balance of skill and artistry.
Manansala’s works include A Cluster of Nipa Hut, San Francisco Del
Monte,Banaklaot, I Believe in God, Market Venders, Madonna of the
Slums, Still Life with Green Guitar, Via Crucis, Whirr, Nude.