Three Favorite Philippine Paintings

 THREE FAVORITE PHILIPPINE PAINTINGS

“Mango Vendor” (1951) by Fernando Amorsolo
“Luksong-Tinik” (1973) by Vicente Manansala
“Man on Fire” (1980) by Ang Kiukok

Because the paintings of the three National Artists cited here are often not available in images of good or high quality, the works posted here don’t necessarily represent my favorites.

However, they do rank among my favorite paintings which are available in images of good or high quality. 

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Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (1892-1972), “Grand Old Man of Philippine Art,” together with Guillermo Tolentino (1890-1976), “Father of Philippine Arts,” practically defined Philippine visual arts for several generations following the conclusion of the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), according to a style that might be described as Philippine Romanticism.

Amorsolo, the first National Artist of the Philippines, was honored posthumously in 1972. He was given the award for Visual Arts-Painting. Tolentino, the first National Artist for Visual Arts-Sculpture, was decorated the following year.

Romanticism in the Western visual arts dates from approximately 1780 to 1850; it was a reaction against Neoclassicism. Intensely and deeply emotive, with an emphasis on subjectivity and focusing on dramatic nature besides recent history—a reaction against the Neoclassical occupation with classical mythology—were characteristic features of Romanticism.

Amorsolo set forth an idyllic, rural vision of the Philippines that was unprecedented in Philippine art. His work set itself apart by its optimism and remarkable light, which in his paintings floods the background and radiates from the figures in the foreground as if reflected. His celebratory vistas were uplifting but also touched by unreality.

His sanguine vision of life under the American colonial regime was interrupted in his art by his bleak documentation of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (1942-1945).

Amorsolo was an expert draftsman, highly accomplished in oil, and a sophisticated colorist as well.

As a master portraitist, he was much sought after.

He idealized the dalaga or young, unmarried woman in his paintings.

“Mango Vendor” (1951) illustrates Amorsolo’s idyllic vision and inimitable light. Clad in freshly laundered baro’t saya (blouse and skirt) accented with with a tapiz (overskirt or apron), about her head a cloth, possibly a shawl (pañuelo), picture-perfect and unspoiled, Amorsolo’s dalaga is idealized by the artist. Smiling, untroubled, ingenuous, and winsome, she resides in Elysium.

Amorsolo’s oeuvre overlaps with that of the Philippine Modernists, who launched the Thirteen Moderns in 1937.

Modernism in the visual arts had been ongoing years earlier. “The Builders” (1928) by Victor Edades, for example, is “Cezannesque.” Edades was the 1976 National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts-Painting.

Mango Vendor (1951) by Fernando Amorsolo

Vicente Silva Manansala (1910-1981), 1981 National Artist of the Philippines for the Visual Arts-Painting (awarded posthumously), is globally renowned for his innovative, influential style termed “transparent cubism,” which advanced beyond original cubism.

“Luksong-Tinik” (1973) or “jumping over thorns,” executed when Manansala was 63 years old, is a masterpiece of his mature work in the style of transparent cubism. It depicts the Philippine variant of a common childhood game worldwide generically known as “leaping,” of which “leapfrog” would be an American equivalent (more or less).

In luksong-tinik, two teams compete to win by leaping over progressively higher heights formed by the opposing team’s vertically connected hands and feet.

The outdoor game originates from at least the early twentieth century. See this 1910 photograph from the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution showing children, somewhat posed, playing the game:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luksong_Tinik.jpg

What exactly is transparent cubism?

The style of cubism begins with a two-dimensional (i.e., rendered on a planar surface) image, divides it into multiple polygons and facets, and then combines and interleaves them into a composition with multiple perspectives of the same subject. In the early twentieth century cubism had burst onto the art scene as a highly creative process involving visual analysis and dissection, followed by the recombination of the divided parts.

Original or analytic cubism (c. 1907-1912), which focused on the process of visual analysis and recombination, was generally monochrome.

Synthetic cubism (c. 1912-1914) transformed analytic cubism by arranging semi-abstract or abstract shapes and polygons into geometricized compositions, often brightly colored and sometimes involving collage.

The leading figures of analytical and synthetic cubism were Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Juan Gris (1887-1927) joined them as another major artist in the style of synthetic cubism.

Pioneered by Vicente Manansala, transparent cubism resorts to the skillful, polychromatic shading of the multiple surfaces resulting from cubist analysis, thereby creating the illusion of transparent, overlapping prismatic facets. His innovative style added depth and complexity to the image, heightening pictorial interest.

We can date the beginning of transparent cubism to at least 1955 when Manansala began work on his commission for the Stations of the Cross of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City chapel, finishing in 1956.

Manansala’s shift to cubism appears several years earlier in his watershed masterpiece, “Madonna of the Slums” (1950).

Manansala enlisted Ang Kiukok (1931-2005), 2001 National Artist of the Philippines for the Visual Arts-Painting, as his apprentice in the University of the Philippines chapel project. Manansala’s influence on Ang Kiukok’s style is visible in the latter’s oeuvre.

Manansala was a highly skilled and accomplished artist whose impact on Philippine painting was outsize.

Luksong-Tinik (1973) by Vicente Manansala 

Ang Kiukok (1931-2005), 2001 National Artist of the Philippines for the Visual Arts-Painting, belongs to the second wave of Philippine Modernists who started out post-World War II. He developed his own uniquely compelling style combining Cubist geometricization with Expressionist emotionalism. Stylistically daring, he worked with bold colors that harmonized surprisingly well on canvas. Indeed, as a colorist he was a genius. His subjects—warring cocks, wrangling dogs, livid fruit, lurid clowns, motley instances of wracked humanity, the crucified Christ in particular, sundry morbid whatnot—were executed, paradoxically, harlequin bright, not dark or brooding; the oxymoron might well account for his commercial popularity. Challenged about his choice of subjects, he said, “Open your eyes. Look around you. So much anger, sorrow, ugliness. And also madness.”

“Man on Fire” (1980) is classic Ang Kiukok and one of his best-known works. We should take Ang Kiukok at his word—the man isn’t in hell; he is just on fire.

Man on Fire (1980) by Ang Kiukok