National Museum of the Philippines
As a requirement for my AESTHET class, I visited (together with my sister) the National Museum of the Philippines also known as Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas.
The National Museum is located beside Rizal Park near Intramuros, Manila. It was designed by an American Architect, Daniel Burnham, last year 1918. It is a government institution in the Philippines and serves as an educational, scientific and cultural institution in preserving the various permanent national collections featuring the ethnographic, anthropological, archaeological and visual artistry of the Philippines.
One of the artworks exhibited inside the museum is “Spoliarium” by Juan Luna Y Novicio who is one of the first recognized national artists. The painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid, where it garnered the first gold medal.
Another artwork displayed inside the museum is this sculpture by another national artist, Guillermo E. Tolentino. This work recasts Tolentino’s winged victory sculpture that surmounts the pillar of his Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City, which he completed in 1933.
This hitherto unnamed mortuary statue is an example of how the sculptor intended to forsake that sculptural tradition but could not. It is a reminder that the National Artist continued to accept commissioned private work despite his then newly acquired fame.
This is a painted window by Cesar Amorsolo on commission for a private mortuary chapel in Manila after the Second World War, where it remained until its transfer and subsequent donation to the National Museum.
This is a triptych featuring Christ the King seated in the central panel, flanked by the archangels Raphael and Gabriel, bowing low, on the side glass panels. The iconography of Christ the King is a classical Christian representation based on several passages of scripture.
This painting was being worked upon by Fernando Amorsolo, and was the very last to receive his attention upon his death in April 24, 1972.
Various of his works are also displayed. It includes portraits and various sketches which has their own separate gallery inside the museum.
These “Amorsolo Drawings” are excerpts from the essay Amorosolo — The Gentle Rebel by Rodolfo Paras-Perez. These sketches contain details like: hands and feet-in gestures and positions as eloquent as his characterization of faces. Or bodies. He also made drawing studies of farmers doing their cyclic chores (from planting rice to harvesting) and city-folk doing daily routines such as cooking, dining, or trying to get through the Japanese wartime occupation.
These victorian-like sculptures by some of our national artists are also displayed in the museum. (From left to right) 1. “Ornate Vase”, “Wine Pitcher”, “Vase with Garlands” by Isabelo Tampinco Y Lacandola 2. “Corinthian Capital” by Isabelo Tampinco Y Lacandola 3. “Mother Nature” by Vidal A. Tampinco 4. “Lady with Cornucopia” (A pair of figurines) by Isabelo Tampinco Y Lacandola.
This is my favorite gallery in the museum. It exhibits various abstract paintings. Here are some of the artworks.
Most of the paintings are by Jose T. Joya, a National Artist for Visual Arts (2001). Joya was a printmaker, mixed media artist, and a former dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts. He pioneered abstract expressionism in the Philippines. His canvases were characterized by “dynamic spontaneity” and “quick gestures” of action painting. He is the creator of compositions that were described as “vigorous compositions” of heavy impastoes, bold brushstrokes, controlled dips, and diagonal swipes”. Joya added the brilliant tropical colors. He was awarded a Fulbright-Smile-Mundt grant which enabled him to pursue a master’s degree in Fine Arts in 1956–57.
I think these two are my most favorites among all the various artworks in the museum. The first one’s a mixed media of stitched painting into a collage by Imelda Cajipe Endaya. It is her work from a period when she was “full of inner rage during the time of the protest movement versus the Marcos dictatorship.” The other one’s a sculpture by Solomon Saprid who is know for his bronze sculptures that involved welding scraps of metal together, making the piece look jagged.
Other artworks that caught my attention.
More photos inside the museum.
