AESTHET IA#4 : National Museum

Having a SunDate with my friends at National Museum was interesting and funny experience because we didn’t just bond but we also learned about different artworks made by our Filipino artists.

“A Filipina Beauty” By Vicente Alvarez Dizon (1931)

People are very very conscious about their appearance — their body, face, clothes, hair etc. This is not only applicable for women, men also become conscious about how they look, most especially when it comes to the person they like. That is why GGSS or Gandang Ganda Sa Sarili became famous. Even in taking pictures they will find an angle where people will see their nose is perfect and so on and so for. Why don’t they think the opposite of that? Like the art made by Vicente, that no matter how poor her angle is, and even they don’t fix themselves, they are still beautiful. Like what the famous quote says, ‘Simplicity is beauty’. They don’t need to put make-up, to straighten or curl their hair, to wear fabulous clothes, to do filter/edit just to make their selves beautiful in the eyes of other people. The most important thing that you must do is to be yourself, just be proud to who you are because being what you are is the most beautiful thing in the world. You just need to accept everything about you, make your flaws as your assets and as your advantage towards others.

“Madonna and Child” by Isabelo Tampingco Y Lacandola (1920–1930)

Mother is a person that will do everything for her children. No matter what, because the important thing is they are doing their job as a mother: to take us good care, to stand beside us, to rescue and save us when we are in danger, and to be with us whenever we are sad or have problems. It is okay that they are the one suffering and not their children because when they see their children in pain, it will cost them the same or sometimes double. Endless care is what you can call for that, you can never ever measure the love of a mother to her children, even you get thousands of ruler or tape measures, it will not and never be enough to measure it. Maybe you will say that there are some mothers who are willing to sell their child/ren, and from that you will conclude that they don’t love their babies. But don’t we think that this is their other way of giving their love to them, that they are thinking what will be good for them. You can say that when you see them selling their babies is okay based on their expressions but deep inside, it costs them pain because it is hard to just give your baby to a person whom you do not know, but they are still doing that because they wanted to give their baby a better future. So, the Madonna and Child is the reminder of the love of a mother to her children.

“Old Man and a Boy ” by Isabelo Tampingco Y Lacandola

This caught my attention because of the idea that Filipinos have good qualities such as being helpful among elders. Helping elders may be done in different forms: helping them to hold their heavy bags, in crossing the streets etc. This reminds me of what Filipinos are before. I barely see these kind of people and act nowadays. For example in buses and LRT, people are ignoring the old people and they didn’t offer their seats to them. Honestly, I am one of them because sometimes I do that, I pretended that I didn’t see them just to remain in my seat. So I can say that this kind of act or character of Filipinos may banished in no time. It also about the simplicity of life before and its hardships. Before, you should go to the forest, or plant some crops in order to get your food but now, you can just pick and order what you want to eat. And if we don’t like the food that was served you will complain, we don’t appreciate the effort that was put in preparing the food unlike before, you will really appreciate it because it was the result of your hard work.

The message of this is to remind us that only time should pass, not our characters. Instead of ignoring them, we should at least appreciate what they’ve done, we should be more considerate and aware on what is happening around us or to the people around us most especially the ones who need help.

“A Plea for Freedom from Fear” by Fermin Gomez (1949)

We know that it is hard to request something from the people who do not care about you or from the people who do not know you, most especially if that request is hard to give or to do, most especially giving freedom. Freedom is a big thing you can ever request to someone, like asking to be free from your parents hands or it can be in terms of giving your partners/ boyfriends/ girlfriends the freedom to choose what they want or to let them go, in short setting them free. There were so many ways in order to achieve freedom, like for example was the things that our heroes did for our country to be free. They sacrifice their loved ones and their lives just to set the Filipinos from the Spaniards, Japanese and Americans. Based on the year when it was sculpted, 1949 is the year of postwar reconstruction and the administration of the late Pres. Elpidio Quirino, who said to be the most corrupt and who neglected the problems of societies. So I think that is the reason why “A Plea of Freedom from Fear” created, it portrayed what happened to the family of the woman during that year: her son was lying on the ground, the other one was holding her dress and the other was hiding behind her while she was holding her baby, maybe her family suffered from heavy damage up to the point that she emotionally pleading for something, she was angry about what happened to her family, she wanted to voice out what she’s thinking or what she wanted to have for her family and society and that is to be free from fear of being hungry, neglected by the society and being in danger.

“Doomed Family” by Dominador Castaneda (1945)

Family is the one who complete our everyday living. Filipinos were known for being family oriented people, it is hard for us when we were being separate to our family. It is our shield, our protector, our happiness and our life. So if you take away from a person his/her family, what do you think he/she will feel? Sad or grief, right? If that is the case, what’s more if someone took away their lives? You may be in troubled, you will feel miserable, no one will care to you. How about taking away their lives in front of you? That you saw their death, how they beg for their lives and their last breath? It’s hard, I know that, because you don’t have the chance to save them, that tou don’t have any other choice but to cry and cry. So for those who have their whole family and for those who ignore their family, please keep in mind that they were the only one who will accept you no matter what so APPRECIATE, VALUE, LOVE them before it’s too late.

“Fugitives from the Japanese” by Dominador Castaneda

Fugitive means running away from someone or from anything in order for you not to catch. This painting portrays what happened during the Japanese era. During these days, there were so many unhappy or unnecessary events happened like massacre and rape, that is why I can’t blame the person in the painting to do that act, to escape from the hands of Japanese people. I think the message of this painting is for us to think that if you can no longer hold the sadness or pain you should know when and how to make your move out of that dark place. And that we shouldn’t be martyr or a masochist that we don’t need to endure the pain, most especially that we have a choice, a choice to escape from that nightmare.

“A Praying Angel” by Guillermo E. Tolentino (1935)

Praying is a way of communicating to our dearest God. We pray for our health, success, family, friends, blessings,etc. But there is one thing that is frequently missing when we are praying, and that is thanking him for all the things he gave and done to us. Some says that in order for your prayers to reach God in the shortest time, you should communicate it to the angels first because they are the one who sit beside Him. So they can tell it to Him directly.

We all know that we have guardian angel, and when we say guardian angel, it usually associated with children. Not that I’m saying that it was only applicable to them, of course older people have their own guardian angel. So angel is equals to children, I can say that the work of Guillermo Tolentino (A Praying Angel) has the message of, children are the ones who were consistently praying: in every meal, before going to bed and when they woke up, they were always communicating to Him.

“The Old Master or Portrait of Teodoro P. Buenaventura (1863–1950) as Painter” by Romeo B. Enriquez (1953)

Art is a way of expressing our emotions, feelings and ideas. Art is for everyone, either for children or adult, meaning ART IS AGELESS. No matter how old you are, you can still do artworks. Just like in the painting, there was an old man who do painting, he doesn’t mind his age, as long as he loves what he does. It really tells me that AGE DOESN’T MATTER!

We should not just took pictures of the Filipino artworks and appreciate their beauty by simply looking to those, but rather we should know what is the meaning of each artworks and its significance in our lives.