JUAN LUNA

Juan Luna y Novicio (1857–1899), Filipino painter and revolutionary. Juan Luna y Novicio was the older brother of Antonio Luna (1866–1899), a general of the Filipino forces during the Philippine-American War. Juan learned the rudiments of painting under Don Agustin Saez. He became a sailor, and his sea travels inspired him to continue pursuing painting. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Manila under the tutelage of Don Lorenzo Guerrero and further trained in Spain under Don Alejo Vera.

In 1884, his masterpiece, Spolarium, won first prize at the National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid. His friend Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero of the Phillipines after his execution in 1896, praised his success as a triumph of Filipino talent in the face of Spanish prejudice toward Filipinos. Juan created other notable paintings in the academic style such as Daphne and Cleo, Death of Cleopatra, Las Damas Romanas (The Roman Women), Españas y Filipinas (Spain and the Philippines), Peuple et Roi (Purple and Red), Vanidad (Vanity), Inocencia (Innocence), and El Pacto de Sangre (The Blood Compact).

In 1885, he moved to Paris and in the following year married a woman belonging to the prominent Pardo de Tavera family. In 1892, he was arrested for murdering his wife because of her infidelity but was eventually released on the grounds of insanity, as the judge in the case felt that because Luna was such a talented artist, it was a shame to send him to prison. In 1894, he returned to the Philippines, and two years later, he and his brother Antonio were arrested for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the colonial government. They were pardoned in 1897, and days after their release, they left for Europe.

During the Philippine-American War (1899–1901), Juan served as a diplomatic agent for Emilio Aguinaldo, the president of the fledging Philippine Republic. While stopping at Hong Kong on his way home, he died from a heart attack and was buried there. Afterward his remains were brought to the Philippines and interred at San Agustin Church.

Further Reading

Cruz, E. Aguilar. (1975) Luna. Manila, Philippines: Department of Public Information.

Da Silva, Carlos. (1997) Juan Luna y Novicio, First Internationally Known Filipino Painter. Manila, Philippines: National Historical Institute.

Ocampo, Ambeth. (1990) Rizal without the Overcoat. Pasig City, Philippines: Anvil.

Pilar, Santiago. (1980) Juan Luna: The Filipino As Painter. Manila, Philippines: Eugenio Lopez Foundation.

Quirino, Carlos. (1992) Juan Luna. Manila, Philippines: Tahanan Books for Young Readers.

——. (1995) "Luna, Juan." In Who's Who in Philippine History. Manila, Philippines: Tahanan Books, 133.

http://www.bookrags.com/research/luna-y-novicio-juan-ema-03/

FERNANDO AMORSOLO

FERNANDO AMORSOLO

Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (May 30, 1892 - April 26, 1972) is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. Born in Paco, Manila, he earned a degree from the Liceo de Manila Art School in 1909.

Early life and education

Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in Paco, Manila to Pedro Amorsolo, a bookkeeper, and Bonifacia Cueto. Amorsolo spent his childhood in Daet, Camarines Norte, where he studied in a public school and was tutored at home in Spanish reading and writing. After his father’s death, Amorsolo and his family moved to Manila to live with Don Fabian de la Rosa, his mother's cousin and a Philippine painter. At the age of 13, Amorsolo became an apprentice to De la Rosa, who would eventually become the advocate and guide to Amorsolo's painting career. During this time, Amorsolo's mother embroidered to earn money, while Amorsolo helped by selling watercolor postcards to a local bookstore for 10 centavos each. Amorsolo's brother, Pablo, was also a painter.

Amorsolo's first success as a young painter came in 1908, when his painting Levendo Periodico took second place at the Bazar Escolta, a contest organized by the Asociacion Internacional de Artistas. Between 1909 and 1914, Amorsolo enrolled at the Art School of the Liceo de Manila, where he earned honors for his paintings and drawings.

After graduating from the Liceo, he entered the University of the Philippines' School of Fine Arts, where Dela Rosa worked at the time. During college, Fernando Amorsolo's primary influences were the Spanish court painter Diego Velazquez, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Ignacio Zuloaga. Amorsolo's most notable work as a student at the Liceo was his painting of a young man and a young woman in a garden, which won him the first prize in the art school exhibition during his graduation year. To make money during school, Amorsolo joined competitions and did illustrations for various Philippine publications, including Severino Reyes’ first novel in Tagalog, Parusa ng Diyos (God’s Punishment), and Iñigo Ed. Regalado's Madaling Araw (Dawn). He also illustrated for the religious Pasion books. Amorsolo graduated with medals from the University of the Philippines in 1914.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Amorsolo

NAPOLEÓN ABUEVA

NAPOLEÓN ABUEVA

Napoleón Isabelo Veloso-Abueva (born January 26, 1930), more popularly known as Napoleón Abueva, is a Filipino artist. He is a sculptor given the distinction as the Philippines National Artist for Sculpture. He is also entitled as the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture". He is the first and only Boholano given the distinction as National Artist of the Philippines in the field of Visual Arts.

Biography and career

Napoleon Abueva, nicknamed Billy, was born on January 26, 1930 in Tagbilaran, Bohol to Teodoro Abueva, a Bohol congressman and Purificacion (Nena) Veloso, president of the Women’s Auxiliary Service. His father was a friend and contemporary of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas and Ambassador Narciso Ramos. He was a member of the Provincial Board, and later became the Provincial Governor of Bohol. He ended his career as a Congressman in 1934. Both of Abueva's parents died serving their country.

Abueva has six other brothers and sisters: Teodoro (Teddy), Jr., now based in New York, USA; Purificacion (Neny -deceased), married to Atty. Ramon Binamira (dec.) of Tagbilaran City; Jose Abueva (Pepe), former president of the University of the Philippines; Amelia Martinez (Inday), now living in Chicago; Teresita (Ching)Floro, now living in Sydney, Australia; and Antonio (Tony), a landscape artist who met a tragic fate aboard Princess of the Orient; his body has not been found.

In 1943, at the height of the Second World War, Napoleon Abueva became an unwilling victim of the atrocities of the Japanese. With his father, a leader in the underground movement, and his mother in the women's Auxiliary group, the family was hunted. His parents were captured, tortured, and killed in Valencia. Billy was then only 14 years old, but this did not spare him from the brutality of the invaders. He accompanied his grandmother to Ilaya, Duero where they were captured by some Japanese soldiers. His grandmother was later freed, but he was hog-tied, brought to Guindulman, and tortured for more than a week. He lost his front teeth, and the blue-black marks on his wrists and ankles took weeks to heal. [1]

As a young boy, Billy studied at the Tagbilaran Elementary School, and later at University of Southern Philippines, Holy Name College (now Holy Name University), and Rafael Palma College (now the University of Bohol) before making it as a sculptor.

A home-grown talent, he was given a break in 1951 when he won the Pura Villanueva-Kalaw Scholarship. He then took up a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines where he graduated in 1953. This was followed by a Fulbright-Smith Mundt Scholarship in 1954-55, after which he got a foreign Students Scholarship at the University of Kansas (1955-56). At the same time, he won another scholarship at the Instituto de Allende in Mexico City which he did not avail due to conflict in schedule. It was also in 1955 that he finished his Masters in Fine Arts at the Cranbook Academy of Arts, U.S.. In 1956, he attended Harvard University for another scholarship grant.

At U.P, one of his mentors was Guillermo Tolentino, also a national artist, who created the oblation at the university entrance .

Abueva has helped shape the local sculpture scene in the Philippines. Being adept in both academic representational style and 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.
In 1976, he was awarded the status of National Artist of the Philippines by then President Ferdinand Marcos. He was the youngest recipient of the title at age 46.

Some of his major works include Kaganapan (1953), Kiss of Judas (1955), Thirty Pieces of Silver, The Transfiguration, Eternal Gardens Memorial Park (1979), 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. One masterpiece he dedicates to the Boholanos is the Sandugo or Blood Compact shrine in Bool, Tagbilaran City, a landmark at the site of the first international treaty of friendship between Spaniards and Filipinos. This is now a tourist attraction in Bohol province. This shrine is an expression of Abueva's awareness of his roots, and a manifestation of his artistic talents.

Abueva also performed the death mask procedure of the late Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004, as well as that of Ninoy Aquino in 1986. Both masks are now displayed at the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac. Incidentally, he also made a death mask of Cardinal Sin.[2]
He is married to Cherry Abueva, a psychiatrist, and has three children, Amihan,Mulawin, and Duero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Abueva

Rey Paz Contreras

Sculpture of mother and child by Contreras made from discarded century-old molave hardwood, texturized stainless steel and other materials indigenous to the Philippines

Rey Paz Contreras (born August 31, 1950) is a prominent Filipino sculptor working with urban refuse and environmental materials as artistic media. He is inspired by the indigenous Filipino culture and creates visual forms of contemporary images that explore a distinct Filipino aesthetics. He currently has his studio near the railroad tracks in Tondo, Manila, where he conducts his community-based art training to promote a socially-responsive 'people's art' that has developed into the Daambakal Sculptors Collective. Contreras' pioneered the use of travieza or hardwood railroad tracks during the late 70s.

Through the years, Contreras has experimented on non-traditional art materials in his quest for contemporary Filipino art. Aside from the travieza, he explored using logging refuse (roots and branches) in order to pave way for reforestation efforts and to help organize backyard industry to onion farmers who supplied and eventually were trained to use the hardwood refuse salvaged from the river as art material. After the devastating Mount Pinatubo eruption, Contreras experimented on using the volcanic rocks and lahar to sculpt human figures reminiscent of the indigenous Aeta and lowland communities who were displaced by the volcanic eruption; these stone sculptures were exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, paving way for further exploration of the volcanic materials as art media.

An activist during the repressive Marcos regime, Contreras employs his art as a form of agency. Using local and available materials, he critiques the local artists' dependence on foreign art, not only in media but also in concept and form. This rejection of the western cultural hegemony as form of anti-colonial, anti-fascist sentiment was part of the broader Social Realism art movement in the Philippines and is a central part of the continuing recognition of the importance of the Social Realist movement.

As an artists, Contreras is also a pioneering spirit in the development of community-based 'people's art'. He has conducted workshops in the provinces and has organized self-sustaining community craft-based art groups such as Cadaclan Carvers in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija, Malasiqui carvers in Pangasinan and more recently the Banglos Art Group in Quezon Province; he has taught woodcarving on other provinces such as Capiz, Rizal and Abra. He has also been supportive of progressive religious organizations, most notable is his partnership with the Missionaries of Jesus (MJ). Some of the more popular public art of Contreras can be found on chapels like Calaruega and Chapel on the Hill in Batulao, Batangas (near Tagaytay); his work in Sagada, Mountain Province is found inside the Episcopalian Church.

Contreras' significant contribution to the development of contemporary Filipino/Philippine art has been recognized by various art organizations and cultural institutions since the early 1990s. He was conferred the prestigious Patnubay ng Lahi Award by the City of Manila in 1992. That same year, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Art Competition - Sculpture Category. In 1994, he was the recipient of the 1st Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc. Public Art Competition, his sculptural monument entitled The Trees is the first permanent structure unveiled at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Metro Manila. Institutions that have the work of Contreras in its permanent collection includes the National Museum, Cultural Center of the Philippines, GSIS Museo ng Sining, GMA Network and BAFI. He has conducted sculptural training workshop in the regions and has been invited to exhibit in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Cuba, Brazil, Australia and the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rey_Paz_Contreras