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Source: http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/rss.php

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<title>Artes de las Filipinas: Philippine Arts and Antiquities</title>
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<description>The Arts of the Philippines. A Website in Honor of Philippine Arts, Antiquities and Culture.</description>
<managingEditor>info@artesdelasfilipinas.com (Artes Webmaster)</managingEditor>
<language>en</language>
<item><title><![CDATA[FEDERICO SIEVERT'S PORTRAITS OF HUMANISM]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/228/federico-sievert-s-portraits-of-humanism</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/228/federico-sievert-s-portraits-of-humanism</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2024 02:28:43 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[JUNE 2024 – Federico Sievert was known for his art steeped in social commentary. This concern runs through a body of work that depicts with dignity the burdens of society to offer a counter-narrative to demagogues and shape the future generation’s understanding of the nation’s socio-political past. The problems of slums such as inadequate housing and squalid, overcrowded, joblessness, urban poverty, aspirations and strength of will became his thematic discourse. Sievert was a pivotal member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, ABAY and SANGGAWA, giving him a more visceral expression in understanding the lives and struggles of the poor and even fighting the same fight as they did. When the demands for socio-political works slackened, Sievert took a break from his visual work, later resurfacing with art that was cathartic, familial and spiritual in bent. His reflection on faith, skepticism, self-worth and valuing his works vis-à-vis the works of other male artists was confessed in his canvas. With renewed attention to his work, Grace de Jesus, his wife, holds a mirror up to pay tribute to his life and art. She portrayed a picture of the painter as a husband, father and pastor, his first forays into art and ruminates why he did not experience the success that he deserved. Even after all this time, Federico Sievert’s art remains wrapped in an aura of mystery and received little recognition in his lifetime. The display of his archive images opens up his work to the public in the hopes of achieving a higher level of recognition and curatorial respect.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[FILIPINO ART COLLECTOR: ALEXANDER S. NARCISO]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/227/filipino-art-collector-alexander-s-narciso</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/227/filipino-art-collector-alexander-s-narciso</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:52:46 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2024 - Alexander Narciso is a Philosophy graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, a master’s degree holder in Industry Economics from the Center for Research and Communication and a fellow with distinction of the Life Management Institute. He started his profession as a career agent in Sun Life in 1986 before moving to the head office in 1989, in charge of various agency support roles that include sales training and promotions and agency events. He then took the role of Director for Marketing, Chief Agency Distribution Officer and eventually was appointed the President of Sun Life of Canada Philippines, Incorporated. He retired from this post in December 2023 but remains as the President of Sun Life Foundation.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[An Exhibition of the Design Legacy of Salvacion Lim Higgins]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/226/an-exhibition-of-the-design-legacy-of-salvacion-lim-higgins</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/226/an-exhibition-of-the-design-legacy-of-salvacion-lim-higgins</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:11:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2022 – The fashion exhibition of Salvacion Lim Higgins hogged the headline once again when a part of her body of work was presented to the general public. The display is chic, refreshing, modern, contemporary and pure joy that any wearer from yesterday to today continues to surprise. Ironically, the exhibition was displayed in the lobby of a mall where foreign brands took up most of the space, exerting significant competitive pressure on made-to-measure fashion. But this is precisely the objective of the fashion exhibition: to expose Salvacion Lim Higgins’s artistic vision and make it relevant to today’s generation. Her work reminds everyone that simplicity and uniqueness were lifetime goals. For more than four decades, Salvacion Lim Higgins’s body of work is characterized by neatness, volume, elegance, sculptural and classical and evidently -- drama. Her legacy of walking pieces of art, tailored pieces, exact and perfect fit equates that a Filipino designer once set the bar as high as possible. [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jose Zabala Santos A Komiks Writer and Illustrator of All Time]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/223/jose-zabala-santos-a-komiks-writer-and-illustrator-of-all-time</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/223/jose-zabala-santos-a-komiks-writer-and-illustrator-of-all-time</guid><pubDate>Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:38:45 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[One of the emblematic komiks writers in the Philippines, Jose Zabala Santos contributed to the success of the Golden Age of Philippine Komiks alongside his friends and associates, Francisco Coching, Francisco Reyes and Tony Velasquez. The four of them created enduring characters that entertained the komiks readers for generations. In 1932, Amado Hernandez, the editor of the Sampaguita magazine, launched his career as a cartoonist. Later, the pre-war komiks readers of the vernacular komiks strips were soon introduced to the delightful characters of Titina, Lukas Malakas, Sianong Sano and Popoy, among several others. After the Second World War, Zabala Santos worked on outdoor advertising with Amado Manalang and as a cartoonist in the komiks, Halakhak Komiks, edited by Isaac Tolentino. He later joined the Pilipino Komiks, where he plotted and illustrated his flagship character, Lukas Malakas.
his month, Artes de las Filipinas honors the contributions of Jose Zabala Santos by highlighting his life, his influence on artists like Larry Alcala, Mauro Malang Santos and Nonoy Marcelo, to name a few and his one of a kind komiks strips. The photographs of works and the excerpts available in this site were collected and shared by Gerry Santos and Gerard Joseph Santos, Jose Zabalas Santos’ son and grandson.
 
Maraming Salamat, Mang Pepe!<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Patis Tesoro's Busisi Textile Exhibition]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/216/patis-tesoro-s-busisi-textile-exhibition</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/216/patis-tesoro-s-busisi-textile-exhibition</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 2022 03:21:44 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">July 2022<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- The exhibition explores the often-surprising history of the celebrated Philippine hand-made textiles (jusi and piña), intricate patterns and designs, as well as the thinking and creativity of Patis Tesoro in how she promotes the traditional looming techniques and supporting community-based farming initiatives to create her distinctive dyes, beadwork, embroideries, prints and weaves. Through this exhibition, Tesoro gave relevance to today’s Philippine costume design and fashion industry, strengthening further our Philippine cultural identity.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Philippine Art Book (First of Two Volumes) - Book Release]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/215/the-philippine-art-book-first-of-two-volumes-book-release</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/215/the-philippine-art-book-first-of-two-volumes-book-release</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 May 2022 02:33:57 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2022 --   Artes de las Filipinas welcomed the year 2022 with its latest publication, The Philippine Art Book, a two-volume sourcebook of Filipino artists. The data gathering for this book began in the year 2012 and was completed in 2020 to give time for artists’ interviews. Scattered interviews and correspondence to artists’ kins and exhaustive library research and available records were utilized in writing the entries of each artist.
 
The book has become an A-Z guide to more than a thousand artists and is a good resource for readers interested in the works and biographies of Filipino artists. Its distinguishing feature is that it covers the lives, works and artistic activities of acclaimed, lesser-known, obscure and contemporary Filipino artists who have contributed to the flowering of Philippine art history for the past nearly five centuries. It is also designed to add interest and understanding to the reader’s visits to exhibitions and museums as well as aid the study of past and contemporary art. More importantly, the writing provides updates to reflect new scholarship, revised articles, bibliographies and corrections of past research to all classes of students and users for self-education or as a starting point for further investigation.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lamberto R. Hechanova: Lost and Found]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/214/lamberto-r-hechanova-lost-and-found</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/214/lamberto-r-hechanova-lost-and-found</guid><pubDate>Wed, 13 Jun 2018 05:11:13 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2018-- A flurry of renewed interest was directed towards the works of Lamberto Hechanova who was reputed as an incubator of modernist painting and sculpture in the 1960s. His early works comprised of assemblages, collages, fine prints, oils, reliefs, sculptural pieces and temperas. In 1966, his Last Supper painting won first prize at the National and Professional Division in Painting sponsored by Traveler’s Life and his Perspectus #7 and Algae won first and second prize at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Art Competition. Several other notable awards came his way but in 1968, his indoor sculpture, Allegory in Aluminum landed first place at the First Exhibition of the Philippine Sculptors. Lamberto once remarked: “I want Philippine art to take one direction and that is world recognition. And I’m going to do it!” In 1969, he represented the country at the VI Biennale de Paris with his sculpture entries, Transfiguration 1, 2 and 3 series and then settled in the US thereafter where he explored and validated the aesthetic structures of periods, kinds of art and materials. The Cultural Center of the Philippines bestowed on him the Thirteen Artists Awards in 1970. Overseas in 1971, he continued to reap success when his painting, Aberglaube won the Award of Excellence in Painting at the Baltimore Museum of Art Annual Art Competition and Exhibition. The following year year, he bagged the Governor’s Award in Painting for his painting, Solaris Excello and in 1981, Venetian Flight, a variation of his Ply Art series, landed first prize at the Artists USA in New York City. Forty-nine years following his move to the United States, Lamberto Hechanova is introduced to us once more by his eldest son, Martin Hechanova, a graphic artist living and working in Canada. By bringing attention to the activities, merits and honors gathered by his father, the mutual preoccupation he shared with him and some fundamental biographical details, he makes it abundantly clear the many strands of his father’s works and ideas to invite the public to assess his works and influence.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[European Artists at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/212/european-artists-at-the-pere-lachaise-cemetery</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/212/european-artists-at-the-pere-lachaise-cemetery</guid><pubDate>Wed, 02 May 2018 03:14:20 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April-May 2018--The Pere Lachaise Cemetery in the 20th arrondissement in Paris, France was opened on May 21, 1804 and was named after Père François de la Chaise (1624-1709), the confessor of King Louis XIV who resided in the Jesuit building who stood on the site of the chapel. Because of its proximity from the city center, only thirteen graves were housed in the first year of its operation and so to attract clientele, a marketing strategy was devised by its then administrator to transfer the remains of Jean de la Fontaine, French poet in the 17th century and Molière, French playwright, actor and poet to give the cemetery a certain amount of prestige and importance.  Today, the cemetery gained the name la cite des morts—the city of the dead-- as it has become a resting place of some of the influential writers, painters, musicians and politicians in history. The 110 acres site has a park-like ambience, rolling hills, hundreds of cascading trees, maze of cobblestone roads, dramatic statues in individual tombstones and burial chambers, elaborate names of avenues, sepulchers and tombs, thus, making it the world’s most famous burial grounds. Pere Lachaise is considered the largest garden of Paris. Some European painters and sculptors are eternally sleeping in this peaceful garden cemetery.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Inday Cadapan: The Modern Inday]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/211/inday-cadapan-the-modern-inday</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/211/inday-cadapan-the-modern-inday</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Nov 2017 04:26:51 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October-November-December 2017--In 1979, Inday Cadapan was forty years old when she set out to find a visual structure that would allow her to voice out her opinion against poverty and the unjust labor practices. Largely self-taught, she began painting her commentaries to help the people see how they could make their communities pliable. One of her key paintings, Inang Bayan that depicted the political leaders during the Martial Law and the EDSA Revolution found its way to the cover of the Panorama magazine. Soon after, Cadapan eagerly studied the works of Willem de Kooning, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. She found their use of simple, bold and well thought-out lines a labyrinth to which a single thread was the key. She also began using strident colors as an expression of beauty. As a result, Cadapan produced a surfeit of images which placed her in conversation with other Expressionist painters. Aside from her acrylic and watercolor paintings of still lifes, landscapes and women figures, Cadapan also created wood sculptures that have references to Ifugao rice gods. She also made use of ceramic, papier mache and fabric collages in the form of dolls across her career. “More than anything, art is gestures, instinct, feelings and these things are not taught in school,” Cadapan once burbled. In 1986, she mounted her first one-woman show, Expressions Inday ’86 at the City Gallery in Rizal Park where the paintings and wood sculptures that she created from 1981-1985 were the cynosures of the show. After that, she continued to paint and sculpt prolifically in this style. In this replete with informative anecdotes interview, Magel Vee, her only child, proposes a new understanding of her mother’s artistic contributions to the history of Philippine art.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dex Fernandez As He Likes It]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/210/dex-fernandez-as-he-likes-it</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/210/dex-fernandez-as-he-likes-it</guid><pubDate>Sat, 02 Sep 2017 10:05:11 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August-September 2017 -- Dex Fernandez began his art career in 2007, painting a repertoire of phantasmagoric images inhabited by angry mountains, robots with a diminutive sidekick, triangle-shaped flying saucers, androgynous octopus, bumblebees spitting fire, flying piranhas, stegosaurus with long neck and whales with shark teeth. Espousing Pop Surrealism in his early works, he demonstrated his imaginative spirit by depicting a place similar to the netherworld. The following year, he showed interest in graffiti, an activity taken up by the Pilipinas Street Plan, a group of artists who showcased ephemeral artworks on streets. During this time, he experimented with graffiti using ready-made Kraft paper which could stick in any street wall. Gradually, he combined his graffiti with collage on photographs to reveal new nuances. As Fernandez progressed in his art, he developed labor-intensive methods that made use of archival photos, pre-existing imagery, French curves, biomorphic forms and tangles of strange life forms, making his artworks architectural, topographical, biological, bawdy, cartoony, chaotic, orderly, placid and apocalyptic. He also did notable mural art projects, animations, children's book and zines that brought him his succes de scandale. More importantly, his art also won him a substantial following and inclusion in important exhibitions and residencies. Fernandez’s works have not been seen in any depth in local art museums and private collections and so for those, like me, who have not discovered his meticulously executed canvases, the only subsequent opportunity is in this month’s feature article. Here, he talked about his humble beginning, the institution where he received his training, the coup de foudre show that infatuated him to enjoy his art studies, the stint he did in Saudi Arabia and the evolution of his subject matter and more-is-more technique.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Noel Soler Cuizon's Gesamtkunstwerk and Everything in Between]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/208/noel-soler-cuizon-s-gesamtkunstwerk-and-everything-in-between</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/208/noel-soler-cuizon-s-gesamtkunstwerk-and-everything-in-between</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Apr 2017 03:17:10 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April-May 2017—The public exhibition of Noel Soler Cuizon’s works began in 1987 when he was a member of Hulo, a group of alumni students of the Philippine Women’s University who explored non-traditional Western materials. Freeing the hand from the brush and utilizing it in other manual aspects of works led him to work with wood assemblages which he composed in a structure of multi-frames that overlapped each other and accompanied with painted cut-out figures, thus, engaging the viewers to interact with the contents of his art pieces. His works were later referred to as interactive wood assemblages. In 2004, he began exploring performance art as a medium to expand on the interactive model of his early works as well as to define the symbiotic relationship between the message and motivation of all his other works. Markadong Bayani (2004) was his first public engagement with performance art in Manila which he mounted at the Kanlungan ng Sining in Rizal Park. Reenacting the execution of Jose Rizal infront of his monument, he and Crisanto de Leon, his collaborator, appropriated the idea of Christ falling three times when he carried his cross. In this interview, Cuizon has done a sensitive job of taking the readers to the impulsion of his artistic hunt beginning with his maternal grandmother, Natividad Fajardo and his aunt, Brenda Fajardo. He also provided some very welcome and interesting anecdotes on his art professors in the Philippine Women’s University, his undergraduate thesis, his early years as an exhibiting artist at Hiraya Gallery, his teaching career and how all these nascent experiences translated into his art. He also passed on some of his views about how his assemblages should be regarded, the relevance of curatorial reviews, the frills and thrills of an artist, among several others, striking a balance between too much and too little editorial intervention.
 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Last Full Show Danilo Dalena Retrospective]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/207/last-full-show-danilo-dalena-retrospective</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/207/last-full-show-danilo-dalena-retrospective</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Mar 2017 03:21:04 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2013--Magkalinawan na tayo sa simulat simula pa. Hindi ito ang last full show ni Danilo Dalena. At lingid sa kaalaman ng  karamihan, naging abala naman siya gayong tila nanahimik matapos ang makalawang survey ng mga obrang idinaos rin ito sa Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas noong 1990.
 
Mula kay Dalena mismo nanggaling ang pamagat na LFS. Ika niya : mala all-star cast finale iyan sa Alibangbang (bar sa Cubao na pinaghugutan ng mga tumanyag niyang larawan na mananayaw), o special llave kasali lahat ng mga bidang manlalaro ng Jai Alai (Dalena HQ matapos Dalena HQ matapos matanggalan ng trabaho sa pagpapasara ng mga lathalain noong martial law). Kung Baga ‘ all hands on deck’ sa bapor,’pasiklaban’ o patalbugan sa entablado, royal rumble sa WWF. Bongga! Sabi nga ng mga naghahanap ng kaaliwan noong dekada’70, yugto kung kailngan unang sumikat si Dalena bilang pintor at iskultor.
 
Noon pa man asiwa na si Dalena kapag itinatali ang kanyang mga Gawain sa lohika ng istilo, o kapag naihahanay siya sa mga kampo kampong nagtatagisan ng galling sa mundo ng sining. Kaya naman, kahit na makailang beses na ring sinubukan  ng kritiko at historyador na lapatan ng kronolohiya ang mga likha niya (Jai Alai ang pambungad  bahagyang pupuslit si Quiapo at Alibangbang, sumunod ang mga serye ng sine, Port Area Authority at ehersisiyo at pumupwesto ang buhay Kamuning sa gawing hulihan) manaka-naka parin tumiwalag ang mga ito sa pagkakasunod-sunod na kalimita’y dikta ng payak na pagsusuri. Nariyan na nga’t naturingan na siyang expressionist pati na social realist. Gayunpaman, nagbabakasakali ang LFS na matinag kahit kaunti ang ganung pagsasalugar  upang mabigyang puwang din ang mga nagawa ni Dalena na lihis sa mga kategoryang nakagawian na.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lito Mayo's Alternate Reality]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/206/lito-mayo-s-alternate-reality</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/206/lito-mayo-s-alternate-reality</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2017 02:13:05 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January-February 2017—Lito Mayo was a fixture in the Philippine art scene since the 1970s and his relevance in the history of Philippine art has never been questioned and ignored. When he was a college sophomore, he received recognitions for his prints and sculptures from the Makati Rotary Club Art Competition, Nayong Pilipino Competition and the University of Sto. Tomas Graphic Arts and Sculpture Competition. In 1976, he staged his first one-man show, Printshow at the Art Associates Gallery where he showcased his early experimentations with etching and intaglio. The amalgamation of animals, figures and texts in his works exhibited his idiosyncratic approach to Art Brut Surrealism as substantiated in Abakada (1976), Hayop (1976) and Shell (1976), among several others. That same year, two of his etchings, Anting-Anting ni Kristo (1975-1976) and Komersiyalismo (1976), was awarded first prize and first runner-up, respectively, at the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) Graphic Arts Division. He also served as the president of the Philippine Association of Printmakers from 1975-1976. Mayo often spawned distorted creatures in agony, nude women, stylized humanoids and threatening reptiles. “Fantasy and reality are just the same,” he once said of his works. He also played on the hidden fears of the viewers by using bold strokes, distortion and sheer backdrops of color. In this interview, Michelangelo, his elder son living and working in Santa Clara, California as a microbiologist, takes us back to the many strands of his father’s life and works, significantly adding to even a well-informed viewer’s knowledge.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Galleria Taal's Select Photo Exhibition]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/205/galleria-taal-s-select-photo-exhibition</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/205/galleria-taal-s-select-photo-exhibition</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Dec 2016 11:03:45 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2016--This ancestral house was built circa 1870 by Domingo Ilagan and Maria Martinez (who died both in 1903). They had six children: Aniceto Ilagan, Rosario I, Villanueva, Candida I. Barrion, Conception I. Sison, Julita Ilagan and Juan Ilagan. The Ilagan house was actually an ancestral house but Candida paid off her siblings to gain, sole ownership. Candida who married Antonio Barrion, a lawyer and delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention representing the 3rd district of Batangas, had three daughters Nellie B. Inumerable, Corazon B. Rodriguez and Charito B. Ahorro. They moved to this house on 1944 after their conjugal home in Batangas City was burned down during Japanese occupation. Candida lived in this beautiful house and was their home until she passed away 1975. The house had been neglected for several years after her death. In 2004, Manny and Bobby Inumerable, children of Nellie, restored the present house.
 
  
 
 [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[ABUEVA Works and Words]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/204/abueva-works-and-words</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/204/abueva-works-and-words</guid><pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2016 11:26:33 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2016 
 
CITATION 
 
Napoleon  Veloso Abueba, hardly in his middle age, is the acknowledge patriarch of modern sculpture  in the Philippines.
Restless, daring, imaginative he blazed new paths in his chosen art. A protean innovator in a craft which demand high skill, he is the weather vane of contemporary sculpture, planting the seeds of future growth in creation whose full implication, in terms of form and their limits in terms of material, remain the object of continued exploration by his peers and apostles. 
 
Napoleon Veloso Abueba is the born expirementor . Seeking to extend the boundaries of his art he invented “buoyant sculpture” which has intrigued puzzled and finally inspired his generation of sculptors. He has also created play sculpture and sculpture furniture, both of which reflect his originality and versatility. But it is for his large monumental works for which he is best known. In the figures of the Christ that he has hewn for chapels and churches all over the country, he reveals an unsuspected religious spirit, large in inception, large still in inspiration. The same spirit informs his secular works as in the historico- heroic murals commemorating the virtues of the race in numerous national shrines.
  
Napoleon Veloso Abueba is an artist of unquestioned power and seriousness. Massive abstraction of incredible variety and diversity an unfailing inventiveness, a prodigious energy and inexhaustible inspiration firmly imprint his signature in the art of our time. His works are a metaphor for his world and his age. 
In these achievements, the country takes his pride. 
  
CITATION OF THE NATIONAL ARTIST AWARDCONFERRES ON NAPOLEON VELOSO ABUEVA BY THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT ON MARCH 27,1976 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Leo Abaya's Dialogue of Ideas and Images]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/203/leo-abaya-s-dialogue-of-ideas-and-images</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/203/leo-abaya-s-dialogue-of-ideas-and-images</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Sep 2016 12:33:20 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2016--Leo Abaya has an enviable sense of timing. In 1993, his student plate of a collage study of images from magazines, Views and Points of View won the Jurors Choice at the Art Association of the Philippine Annual Art Competition. What made his winning meaningful was that his mimetic exercise of sourcing preliminary images from magazines to demonstrate the long tradition of appropriation was intelligible to an audience. Abaya explores many disciplines that integrates collage, conceptual art, costumes, film, installation, literary art, painting, print, set design and sculpture. More often, he demonstrates with conviction that whenever a work he creates is presented, it hangs within a matrix of assumptions, conscious and unconscious that deeply influence the viewer’s perception of it. Pay attention as Leo Abaya discusses some of his select works, his rich educational background and art practice. What we may possibly witness in this interview is the palimpsest of our nation’s history.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[School of Sanso]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/202/school-of-sanso</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/202/school-of-sanso</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2016 12:15:33 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2016--Juvenal Sanso (1929, Spain) is a seminal Philippine modernist. His works have been collected in museums in Philippines, France and the United States. He studied Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines from 1947 to 1951. Napoleon Abueva, Araceli Limcaco, Larry Alcala were among his classmates. He then spent several months at the Accademia di Belli Arti di Roma in 1591 and did further studies at Lecole Nationale Superieure des Beauz-Arts in Paris in 1952.
 
The Exhibition School of Sanso is the artists return to its roots, back to the University of the Philippines where his passion, values and skills in art making were honed through formal instruction and the guidance of master mentors. They include Fernando Amorsolo, Guillermo Tolentino, Fabian dela Rosa, Irineo Miranda and Ramon Peralta Sr. The exhibition reflects on the artist‘s creative formation, the condition of art education of the time, the early style marking an emerging body of work and the eventual break away of the artist from the traditional style which was prompted by curiosity, diligence and honest introspection. The works on exhibit range from his early student plates, copperplate prints from his early years in Paris, experimental photography, and paintings which used techniques learned from printmaking. Almost all these from the Fundacion Sanso collection, a non-profit organization with the mandated of preserving and presenting the works of Juvenal Sanso. This year marks the 70th year Sanso as a professional artist.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ancient Name Given to the Islands]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/201/ancient-name-given-to-the-islands</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/201/ancient-name-given-to-the-islands</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2016 10:16:36 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2016--ifferent Island of the Philippine archipelago had bad various names in history. The native inhabitants had their own names, but as each wave of foreign voyagers touch these places they either baptized them with their own appellation or misspelled the native names due to differences of language and pronunciation. To worsen the confusion map maker gave the different names to the same place. The list based on that first prepared by Pardo de Tavera, enumerates alphabetically the names given to islands and places in the Philippines mentioned in ancient maps.
 
Aboea Mucho primero – Where Magellan first entered the Philippines in its eastern central part and duly marked by cartographers of the late sixteenth century. 
 
Abuya – One of the ancient names for Leyte derived from Abuyog a town on the lower eastern coast of that island. Appear in Herrera (1601), Baeu (1650) Sanson (1654), Visecher (1710, Mortier (1710) 
 
Achan – One of the names given to Samar or its northern half. 
 
Aquarina – A town in Lingayen Gulf in northern Luzon mentioned by Kaerius (1598) and Bertius (1643) Sanson calls it Pangasinan. 
 
Assan – Another name for Marinduque. 
 
Balabao – The straight south of Palawan near Borneo named after an island, which the magallanic expedition saw Pigafetta called it Bilalon , which Ramussio (1554), Ortelius (1570) and Mercator (1678) included although they placed it next to Jolo or Sulu. 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Raul Piedra's Textured Abstracts]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/200/raul-piedra-s-textured-abstracts</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/200/raul-piedra-s-textured-abstracts</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2016 11:35:12 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2016--Known for his textured abstract paintings, Raul Piedra, still a college student in 1970, staged his first solo exhibition at the University of the East where he featured his paintings of botanicals, landscapes and still lifes of orchids using acrylic and watercolors. He put out another batch of the same subjects at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, Cebu in 1978. During the 1980s, he started his series of semi-abstraction of rock formations and horizons mixed with ancient Malayan alphabet. This brought about his style of textured abstraction of modern landscapes using subtle colors of blues, browns and grays. In this feature, his wife, Adoracion “Baby” Tayag Piedra, lets us in into the interior life of her husband and some important biographical details about the artist.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Carcar, Cebu]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/199/carcar-cebu</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/199/carcar-cebu</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2016 19:17:17 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2016-- Carcar has been established a component city of the Province of Cebu by virtue of Republic act 9436 which passed into law on April 15, 2007, and ratified by the people of carcar in a referendum on July 2, 2007. Carcar had progressed from a small seaside settlement around 40 kms. South of “Zebu” or “Sugbu” now Cebu City, to what it is today.
 
Land Resource: 
 
The total land resource or land area of Carcar is, 12,200 hectares per re plotted map of the DENR approved in September 2012. The land of Carcar City is generally level with less than 18% slope comprising 78.7% of the total land area. Areas with slopes ranging from 18 to 50% cover 19.3%, and those over 50% slope comprise approximately 1.9% of the total land area. The highest recorded elevation is a little over 660 meters (2,170 ft) above sea level, located within Barangay Napo. 
 
Land Allocation 
 
Of the total land area, around 64.08 hectares are under NIPAS (Guadalupe Mainit-Mabugnao Hot Spring); 4,450.567 hectares are Forestland areas (Upland and Lowland); 7,685.6 hectares are Alienable and Disposable (A &amp; D) land areas; and 3,152.59 hectares of Open Access including mangroves and upland forestland. 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The San Miguel Arcangel Parish Church Argao, Cebu]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/198/the-san-miguel-arcangel-parish-church-argao-cebu</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/198/the-san-miguel-arcangel-parish-church-argao-cebu</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2016 11:38:56 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2016--The construction of this beautiful Baroque Rococo church was begun in 1734, the year after the parish was established by the Augustinian Order and was completed in 1788.
 
On the bicentenary of her completion-specifically from September 29, 1907 until September 29, 1988--the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel patron saint of Argao and the Argavanons through the Argao Parish by the Centennial Commission headed by Rev. Fr. Jose C. Canseko, parish priest and the steering council headed by Hilario G. Davide, Jr. restored her and her premises to their original beauty and grandeur—in gratitude to their forebears who built her in thanksgiving to God for the countless blessings He showered and continue to shower upon them, as an expression of the constancy of their love for our Lady and their devotion to their patron saint and protector and as their spiritual gift to the generations yet to come.
 
The feast day was fittingly climaxed by a pontifical mass with his Eminence Ricardo J. Vidal[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Filipino People Before the Arrival of the Spaniards]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/197/the-filipino-people-before-the-arrival-of-the-spaniards</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/197/the-filipino-people-before-the-arrival-of-the-spaniards</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2016 12:14:28 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April-May 2016--Position of Tribes – on the Spaniards, the population of the Philippines seems to have been distributed by tribes in much the same manner as at present. Then, as now, the Bisayas occupied the central islands of the archipelago and some of the northern coast of Mindanao. The Bikols, Tagalogs, and Pampangos were in the same parts of Luzon as we find them today. The Ilokanos occupied the coastal plain facing the China Sea, but since the arrival of the Spaniards they have expanded considerably and their settlement are now numerous in Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, and the valley of the Cagayan.
 
The Number of People – These tribes which to-day number nearly 7,000,000 souls, at the time of Magellan’s discovery aggregated not more than 500,000. An early enumeration of the population made by the Spaniards in 1591, which included practically all of these tribes, gave a population of less than 700,000. (See chapter VIII., The Philippines Three Hundred Years Ago.) 
 
There are other facts too that show us how sparse the population must have been. The Spanish expeditions found many coasts and islands in the Bisayan group without inhabitants. Occasionally a sail or a canoe would be seen, and then these would disappear in some small “estero” or mangrove swamp and the land seem as unpopulated as before. At certain points, like Limasaua, Butuan, and Bohol, the natives were more numerous, and Cebu was a large and thriving community; but the Spaniards had nearly everywhere to search for settled places and cultivated lands.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Porfirio CastaÃ±eda on His Tatay, Dominador CastaÃ±eda]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/196/porfirio-casta-atilde-plusmn-eda-on-his-tatay-dominador-casta-atilde-plusmn-eda</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/196/porfirio-casta-atilde-plusmn-eda-on-his-tatay-dominador-casta-atilde-plusmn-eda</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Mar 2016 11:34:43 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2016--Dominador Castañeda spent his early education at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Quiapo, Manila. In 1924, he graduated at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts (UP SFA) and continued his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago where he fell under the influence of the Impressionists. During his studies abroad, Castañeda participated in the 1929-1931 Educational and Sketching Tour in Mexico and did some plein air painting there. His art education paid off when he won first prize in an art competition sponsored by the Philippine Free Press in 1939 and another in Treasury Art Design Competition sponsored by the Central Bank of the Philippines in 1949. He joined the UP SFA faculty in 1931 and taught Painting Advanced Drawing from Life, Philippine Art History, among others and became the school director from 1955-1961 after Guillermo Tolentino’s term. He retired from teaching in 1961 and continued research writing for Art in the Philippines, a reference book on the history of art in the Philippines, published in 1964. Castañeda succumbed to colorectal cancer on November 27, 1967. A retrospective exhibition of  his drawings and watercolors was held at the Solidaridad Galleries in 1971. In this feature interview, Porfirio Castañeda, Dominador’s eldest son, unearths crucial facts on his father’s private life as he saw himself, his tame public image, familiar subjects that he painted, artistic comrades, final year and his invaluable contribution to Philippine art-- extraordinary revelations still unknown to many.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mandaluyon, San Juan, Deodato, Salvador and Juan Arellano]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/195/mandaluyon-san-juan-deodato-salvador-and-juan-arellano</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/195/mandaluyon-san-juan-deodato-salvador-and-juan-arellano</guid><pubDate>Fri, 04 Mar 2016 09:19:03 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2016--It was in the best of times, in a silence of pastures and green land. My father, the architect-painter Juan M. Arellano was born in the Tondo district of Manila in 1888. He was schooled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila that was founded by Catholic Jesuits in 1595, eight years old when Jose Rizal was condemned to death in 1896, and twenty-seven at the end of three centuries of Spanish rule in the Philippines. He made his home in this town of San Juan in the early 1900s till his death in 1960 when he was seventy-two.
The eldest of five siblings, I was born to him in 1941 to a mother with a name not unlike his, Juanita, surnamed Claro, a kind and simple woman from Lipa, Batangas who was much younger than he. As a growing child in the span of those early forties, I was given tentative names by these parents. Baby to start with, Chinko, then Salvy, evolving finally in my early teens to Dodong, most gruesome of all, myself, to this day with no clue why. That aside, my mother and father lived with each other until he died, as enduring life partners, no less than that.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ginto A Golden Heritage From Our Filipino Ancestor]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/194/ginto-a-golden-heritage-from-our-filipino-ancestor</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/194/ginto-a-golden-heritage-from-our-filipino-ancestor</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:33:42 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2016--This exhibit feature ancient ornaments crafted by our Filipino ancestor from 700 to 1,200 years ago. These form part of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Pre-Hispanic Gold Collection.
 
The illustration that depict how these exquisite gold pieces were used are from the Boxer Codex, a manuscript written in 1590 with colored drawings of ethnic groups in the Philippines at the time of their initial contact with the Spaniards.In the Philippines, the 10th and 14th centuries were years of political, economic, and social progress, when primary artistic and scientific development occurred. Unearthed gold ornaments manifest a rich material culture dating almost 300 years before Spanish colonizers discovered the island.
 
Of the metals abundance, the Spanish explorers who landed on the islands in the 16th century noted,” Pieces of gold, the size of walnuts and eggs, are found by sitting the earth in the island.” As gold was plentiful, ancient Filipinos mastered gold working and created splendid works of art that are exquisite demonstrations not only of the skillful.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Alfredo Roces: Man of Arts and Letters (Second of Two Parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/191/alfredo-roces-man-of-arts-and-letters-second-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/191/alfredo-roces-man-of-arts-and-letters-second-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2016 09:40:37 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2016--Alfredo Roces holds a prominent place in the history of Philippine art. He is a painter who started with a figurative style but soon began to amalgamate Expressionism, Fauvism and Impressionism in his paintings. As he move into Abstract Expressionism and assemblage, he also branched out in these various separate directions without abandoning the figurative and realist schools. More than that, he is also a notable author of Philippine art books whose ability to connect with the readers comes down to how he brings out the fullness of his subject. His books, Amorsolo 1892-1972, Filipino nude: the human figure in Philippine art and a portfolio of nudes, Legaspi The Making of a National Artist, Anita Magsaysay-Ho In Praise of Women, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo & The Generation of 1872, to name a few, immortalized his writing style. Clear and solid sentences, apt words and sentences to reflect the truth about his subject are the distinguishing marks of his style. He is a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in Humanities and a Hall of Fame awardee at the Filipino Australian Artists and Cultural Endeavor Society, among many others.In this two-part interview with Roces, he takes us back to his early years as a student of Dominador Castañeda and then George Grosz, his involvement in the formation of the Saturday Group, his artworks during martial law and his life and activities in Sydney, Australia.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Alfredo Roces: Man of Arts and Letters (First of Two Parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/185/alfredo-roces-man-of-arts-and-letters-first-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/185/alfredo-roces-man-of-arts-and-letters-first-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2016 10:59:01 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2016--Alfredo Roces holds a prominent place in the history of Philippine art. He is a painter who started a figurative style but soon began to amalgamate Expressionism, Fauvism and Impressionism in his paintings. As he move into Abstract Expressionism and assemblage, he also branched out in these various separate directions without abandoning the figurative and realist schools. More than that, he is also a notable author of Philippine art books whose ability to connect with the readers comes down to how he brings out the fullness of his subject. His books, Amorsolo 1892-1972, Filipino nude: the human figure in Philippine art and a portfolio of nudes, Legaspi The Making of a National Artist, Anita Magsaysay-Ho In Praise of Women, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo & The Generation of 1872, to name a few, immortalized his writing style. Clear and solid sentences, apt words and sentences to reflect the truth about his subject are the distinguishing marks of his style. He is a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in Humanities and a Hall of Fame awardee at the Filipino Australian Artists and Cultural Endeavor Society, among many others.In this two-part interview with Roces, he takes us back to his early years as a student of Dominador Castañeda and then George Grosz, his involvement in the formation of the Saturday Group, his artworks during martial law and his life and activities in Sydney, Australia.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Quiapo and Pakil of Danny Dalena]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/190/the-quiapo-and-pakil-of-danny-dalena</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/190/the-quiapo-and-pakil-of-danny-dalena</guid><pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2015 12:03:55 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2015--Danny Dalena appeared with a bang in the early seventies. He first made his mark with a brilliant and caustic political cartoons and illustrations for the Free Press Philippine Leader which gave new life to editorial cartooning and brought out the exciting potentials of the graphic arts in our country. This was followed by his Jai-Alai Series which placed him high on the roster of AAP winners and won for him the Mobil Art Grand Award for painting 1980.
 
This present CCP show is survey rather than a retrospective of the artist’s works and Dalena himself emphasizes its ongoing quality of art still in the process of being produced. Included are his political cartoons of 1970 to 1972 and the more recent ones for Midweek magazine in 1985, the toilet and graffiti drawings of 1972, paintings from the Jai-Alai Series from1974 to 1979, the Alibangbang Series in 1980, the Quiapo paintings in 1979 and the present Pakil Series from 1984 to the present.
 
Dalena honed his art in hundreds of characters studies, figure drawings of down-and-out betting hall and beerhouse types. In these highly concentrated images is revealed an endless obsession with morality in the telltale wrinkle of skin, the ugly folds of fat, the sweet and grime ill-concealed beneath the worn clothes. The superb fluency of drawing captures an entire vocabulary[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dominador Castañeda]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/189/dominador-casta-ntilde-eda</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/189/dominador-casta-ntilde-eda</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:57:48 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2015--At the age of six his father presented him a French book of drawing lesson: and the child sat down and did the lessons over and over with crayons. Then his father took him to the School of Fine Arts on R. Hidalgo Street in Quiapo. Yet, the elder Castañeda did not want his son to be a painter. For him, art was an avocation. To take the child’s mind off painting, he bought him an air gun with which he could hunt and roam the fields. It did not work. The sceneries that the young Castañeda often saw – “the majestic clouds… that hang over fields and the richly colored flowers and the butterflies that dotted them…” made him wish for a painting career. (Three studies of clouds effect from a suite of drawings of the type are included in this exhibition: 91, 92, and 93.) As a final stroke when he was eleven, his father took him a struggling painter’s studio. The young Castañeda noted the anemic look of the painter; a looked painfully echoed by his rather large family and – his easel, an old contraption of his own manufacture (which) shook whenever his brush alighted on the canvas.” Addressing the young man, the painter advised to give up painting because an artist had to go through more lean days than plenty. To this the young Castañeda ask- “…why (then) have you clung this all this years...” Indeed, for the young Castañeda, there was only one answer. When his father took him to the School of Fine Arts, the sight of the students at their drawing boards so excited him, he cut loose from his father – darted across the street and nearly got knocked by a speeding rig: pressing his face to the railings, he vowed he would join the students someday. He kept his promise. He later graduated from the School of Fine Arts with several medals and coveted prize in composition offered by the director of the school, Rafael Enriquez. But graduation did not his will to study. When he was already a professional artist, he copied 215 pages book on
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intricate, Beautiful, Raunchy: Japan Embraces Its Ancient Erotic Print Tradition]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/188/intricate-beautiful-raunchy-japan-embraces-its-ancient-erotic-print-tradition</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/188/intricate-beautiful-raunchy-japan-embraces-its-ancient-erotic-print-tradition</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2015 18:56:13 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October 2015-- Ukiyo-e, the popular color woodblock prints of Japan, are globally recognized and renowned, but their raunchier examples tend to see less light, rarely going on public display. Known as shunga (“spring pictures”), these highly erotic scenes comprise a genre of their own, and an exhibition devoted entirely to them has opened for the first time in their country of origin. Shunga, currently on view at Tokyo’s Eisei-Bunko Museum, features 133 works shown over two consecutive display periods, with many attributed to familiar names such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
 
The exhibition is preceded in scope by only one other show, which opened at the British Museum in 2013 and drew close to 90,000 visitors in three months. Nearly half of the works on display at Eisei Bunko come from the British Museum, with the rest borrowed from various Japanese museums and private collections. Open since mid-September, Shunga, too, is attracting so many people that organizers have been reporting heavy visitor congestion and 20-30-minute waiting lines. Despite the works’ popularity, their highly explicit nature is the chief reason behind their limited display in museums: as Japan Today notes, finding sponsors for large shunga exhibitions is difficult, and curators often express worry about public complaints. Ten establishments turned down requests to host Shunga before Eisei-Bunko offered its space, and the exhibit is restricted to museum-goers 18 years old and up (the British Museum advised parental guidance for those under 16).
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Betis Mandukit: A Comparative Analysis of the Works of Wilfredo Layug and Boyet Flores]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/187/betis-mandukit-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-works-of-wilfredo-layug-and-boyet-flores</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/187/betis-mandukit-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-works-of-wilfredo-layug-and-boyet-flores</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:29:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2015--When one mentions the district of Betis in the town of Guagua, Pampanga, the first thing that most likely comes to mind is woodcarving. It is an art that is as old as the history of the town itself and a skill that has been passed on from generation to generation, unveiling the wealth of the locals’ creativity and many facets of their culture. Betis remains to be the furniture-making and woodcarving centre, not only of Pampanga, but of the entire Luzon. Betis furniture, in particular, is recognized by many as “export quality” and “world class.” The eclectic mix of local and European aesthetic sensibilities has appealed to international buyers for it gives both Oriental and Western appeal. If you happen to pass by the Olongapo-Gapan and Bacolor-Guagua Road, you’ll notice a long stretch of shops and showrooms displaying wood furniture and sculptures of religious icons made by local carvers of Betis, most of them from Brgy. Sta. Ursula. Old folks coming from this barangay are believed to be the pioneers in the tradition of pamandukit (woodcarving) and pamaganluagi (wood working) in the Kapampangan province.
 
In this essay, the author compares some of the works of well-known contemporary woodcarvers (mandukit) namely Willy Layug and Boyet Flores, and determine how they were influenced by master-carver Apung Juan Flores, while also reflecting on the development and state of the woodcarving tradition in Betis.The following aspects are taken into account and examined: artists’ background; subject matters or themes; styles and approaches; materials and tools; techniques and process of production; and other important issues such as art patronage and market.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Accustomed Othering in Colonial Writing]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/186/accustomed-othering-in-colonial-writing</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/186/accustomed-othering-in-colonial-writing</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2015 17:31:55 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2015--There are at least three major discursive issues that can be extracted from the document, Customs of the Tagalogs written by Juan de Plasencia in 1589, if we are to put socio-political context into the text – first, the issue of authorship; second, the discourse of power in colonial writing; and third, the logic of binarism or the Occident-Other dichotomy. These are interrelated threads that probably constitute major segments of colonial historical writing in the Philippines.
 
The authorial voice or authorship plays a pivotal role in putting meaning(s) to this colonial text. The author, Juan de Plasencia was, in the first place, not a native Tagalog but a Franciscan missionary who first arrived in the Philippines in 1577. He was tasked by the King of Spain to document the customs and traditions of the colonized (“natives”) based on, arguably, his own observations and judgments. Notably, de Plasencia wrote the Doctrina Cristiana, an early book on catechism and is believed to be the first book ever printed in the Philippines. Such initiatives were an accustomed practice of the colonizer during the Age of Discovery to enhance their superiority over the colonized and validity of their so-called duties and legacies to the World. It is a common fact that during this era, the Spanish colonizers, spearheaded by missionaries, drew a wide variety of texts ranging from travel narratives and accounts of the colony to even sermons.
 
In this particular text, de Plasencia tried to avoid discussing the “conflicting reports of the Indians” through an “informed observation” to obtain the “simple truth.” This “truth,” however, is debatable, and the manner of how he actually arrived to his reports is even more problematic. The text foregrounds two important figures: the observer (de Plasencia) himself, with his own background, subjectivites and biases; and the observer’s subject[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Alliance Francaise de Manille's Aguilar Alcuaz A picturesque journey in Europe]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/184/alliance-francaise-de-manille-s-aguilar-alcuaz-a-picturesque-journey-in-europe</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/184/alliance-francaise-de-manille-s-aguilar-alcuaz-a-picturesque-journey-in-europe</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:14:45 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[SPAIN
 
June-August 2015--In 1955, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz received a scholarship grant to study at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. His instructor soon noticed that he was very talented. He was asked to leave the university , as “they had nothing more to teach him”. So less than a year after his arrival in Madrid, he moved to Barcelona where he soon joined a group of artists, called “La Puñalada”. The group got together because they were against Spanish art’s conservatism. Most of the artists who joined “La Puñalada” became forerunners of modern and contemporary art in Spain, such as Tapies, Cuixart, and Tharrats.
 
Aguilar Alcuaz started to flourish as an artist and became well-known for his abstract paintings. He held exhibits at the highly prestigious Sala Direccion Generak, Museum of Comtemporary art in Madrid, having been the youngest then at 24  to have exhibited there. He also received several awards such as the first prize at the Premio Francisco Goya (1958) in Barcelona, where he met Don Benjamin Gayubar, who was his first and foremost sponsor amd later became at one time the biggest collector of Aguilar Alcuaz’s works. By the end of the 1950’s, he had finally adopted a change of name to what he later would be known as: Aguilar Alcuaz. The change –or better modification- of name was necessary to distinguish himself from the many others also named “Aguilar” in Spain.
 
 [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[REVELATIONS A Jaime de Guzman Retrospective]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/183/revelations-a-jaime-de-guzman-retrospective</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/183/revelations-a-jaime-de-guzman-retrospective</guid><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2015 17:01:35 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->May 2015--Jaime de Guzman began his fine art studies at the University of Sto Tomas where he majored in Painting. Two years later, he packed his brushes and spent nearly a year traveling and painting in Cebu, Samar and Zamboanga. It was then that he sought out Martino Abellana, mentor to many of the Cebuano artists. His paintings reflected the everyday scenes of his travels – the port of Cebu, house interiors of local artists, and the hills of Samar. He later returned to Manila to enroll as a Fine Arts student at the University of the Philippines.
Jaime had his first solo exhibit at Solidaridad Galleries in Malate, Manila in 1967. That same year, he also had a one-man show in the National Museum, quite a feat for a 25-year old who traced his origins ro Liliw, Laguna. 
 
In the process, he had joined bohemia, or more specifically, the generation of war babies and baby boomers that had taken up from where European existentialists and American beatniks had trailed off – to become the Flower Power people by the turn of the 1960s. 

[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Remembering Severino "LAC" Lacambra, Sr. (1918-1985)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/182/remembering-severino-quot-lac-quot-lacambra-sr-1918-1985-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/182/remembering-severino-quot-lac-quot-lacambra-sr-1918-1985-</guid><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2015 11:35:08 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2015--Nothing much have been recorded lengthily about Severino Lacambraâ\x80\x99s life and works except that he was often written in the shadow of his more popular contemporaries, Cesar Buenaventura and Simon Saulog. Lac, as he was called by his artist friends, began his painting career in 1960 painting head studies using charcoal and colored pencil. Later, he used his palette knife to carve out thick strokes of boats, butterflies, children at play, farmers, fishermen, Igorots, sabungeros and sea view. To achieve the texture he desired, he mixed his oils with ashes, burned plastic, dented cans and sand. Aida , Cristina, Cynthia and Imelda Lacambra, the artistâ\x80\x99s daughters, provide the readers with an ample amount of material about her father. Her clear narrative allows us to know the early years of his career and the works he produced in a fresh light.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Stolen Picasso Painting Shipped As A Christmas Present Has Finally Been Seized]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/181/a-stolen-picasso-painting-shipped-as-a-christmas-present-has-finally-been-seized</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/181/a-stolen-picasso-painting-shipped-as-a-christmas-present-has-finally-been-seized</guid><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2015 18:57:58 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2015--A stolen Picasso painting which was considered lost for years has resurfaced in the United States, where it had been shipped under false pretenses as a $37 Christmas present labeled as “art craft." The 1911 painting, La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser), was discovered in December in a FedEx shipment from Belgium to Long Island City.
 
The US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta Lynch, filed a civil forfeiture suit on Thursday, February 26 to return the painting to France. The work is owned by the French government. 
 
The painting, worth millions of dollars, was stolen in Paris more than a decade ago, though the theft's exact date is unclear. It had been smuggled out of a storeroom at the Centre Georges Pompidou. 
 
The canvas was last exhibited in Munich in 1998, and then returned to Paris, where it was placed in storage at the Paris museum. It wasn't until three years later, in 2001, when officials received a loan request for the cubist landmark, that the theft was noticed. Having searched the storerooms to no avail, they declared the painting, then valued at more than $2.5 million, stolen, the New York Times reports.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[HERNANDO R. OCAMPO]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/180/hernando-r-ocampo</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/180/hernando-r-ocampo</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:30:44 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[BIO – DATA (as of March 12, 1971) I. Date and Place of Birth: April 28, 1911, Sta. Cruz Manila II. Name of Father: Emilio Ocampo y Salterio III. Name of Mother: Delfina Ruiz y Santos IV. Name of Wives: 1. First Wife: Irene Illorato y Yusay (Deceased) 2. Second Wife: Cresencia Valenzuela[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Making An Impression: Efren Zaragoza's Life in Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/177/making-an-impression-efren-zaragoza-s-life-in-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/177/making-an-impression-efren-zaragoza-s-life-in-art</guid><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2015 19:53:34 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January-February 2015--Efren Zaragoza had his first sighting as a printmaker in 1966 when he joined the First National Graphic Art Competition sponsored by the Art Association of the Philippines. His interest in printmaking was further whetted with the establishment of the Philippine Association of Printmakers (PAP) workshop in 1968. In 1969, he mounted his first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery where he showcased his woodblock prints. Working alongside with other print advocates, Zaragoza’s figurative works such as the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao often focused on the history, life, religion and culture and traditions of the Filipino people from 1970s-1980s while simultaneously doing ceramic arts. He worked mostly with woodcut, etching and lithography for their distinct visual effects. Seato Against Communism (1965), Sacred Relics (1966), Divide and Multiply (1968), Flagellants (1968), Africana II (1970), Laced Voodoo (1971), Mushroom Eaters II (1974), In Mourning State (1976) and Ati-Atihan Festival Series One (1976) were some of his known expressionist prints.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Van Gogh was murdered, claims forensic expert: "He did not shoot himself"]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/175/van-gogh-was-murdered-claims-forensic-expert-quot-he-did-not-shoot-himself-quot-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/175/van-gogh-was-murdered-claims-forensic-expert-quot-he-did-not-shoot-himself-quot-</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:07:46 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2014--The true nature of Vincent van Gogh’s death continues to be a topic ripe for mystery – after a leading forensics expert has claimed that the artist was murdered.
 
The Sunflowers painter died an agonising 29 hours after taking a bullet to the abdomen in a wheat field near Paris in 1890. On his death bed he apparently revealed he had shot himself. 
 
However, Dr. Vincent Di Maio, an expert on gunshot injuries, has said that he be believes the wound was “not self-inflicted”. 
 
According to Vanity Fair, Di Maio, who  was a key witness at the George Zimmerman trial, said that it was highly likely that Van Gogh “did not shoot himself”. 
 
He made the claim in response to a request by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, whose biography of Van Gogh disputes the long-held suicide theory. [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jerson Samson's Doon Po Sa Amin]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/174/jerson-samson-s-doon-po-sa-amin</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/174/jerson-samson-s-doon-po-sa-amin</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:02:30 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November-December 2014--Jerson Samson, during his freshman year at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts (UP CFA), started making a name for himself when his entries, Tukso and Nakaligtaang Kalikasan were finalists at the 27th Shell National Students Art Competition in 1994. He played his cards right that in 1997, his piece, Alay 1 was awarded honorable mention at the Metrobank Foundation Young Painters Annual and his other entry, Pasasalamat kina Lolo at Lola was the Juror’s Choice at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Art Competition Representational Category. In 1999, he was among the Top 5 awardees at the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards which led him to exhibit his piece, Nagsisikip na ding-ding during the Asean Art Awards at the National Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All these times, Samson had given the art viewing public a peek of the Antipolo neighborhood he grew up in where from a house apposite, from an upstair room, at no great distance, the inhabitants’ bustling activities and domestic interiors scenes were free-to-view--his personal and private response to primeval scenes he nonchalantly espied and depicted using saturated colors. In 2002, he opened his first one-man exhibition, Tahanan at the Boston Gallery where his ten[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lex Tvbiera's Breezy Beach and Secret Gardens]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/173/lex-tvbiera-s-breezy-beach-and-secret-gardens</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/173/lex-tvbiera-s-breezy-beach-and-secret-gardens</guid><pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:58:31 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2014--In 1978, Lex Tvbiera received his first commissioned work from Emmi Barbin, an ardent art collector based in Missouri, U.S.A to paint the American jazz musician, John Coltrane. Signing Tvbiera as his artist name, he concentrated in painting landscapes and seascapes in 1990 set in imagined nature resurrecting the styles of Fernando Amorsolo and Andrew Wyeth who influenced his development as a realist painter. Typically his landscapes indicated mountains, valleys, rice fields and rivers; flowers were painted on the foreground to add color. Figures were never entirely absent as when he decided to put some, he painted them swimming in the sea or tending the farm and a carabao ingraining them well on the scene. A member of the Saturday Group under the leadership of Cesar Legaspi, Tvbiera joined the weekly sessions of nude and portrait painting from 1989-1992. On November 18, 1998, he mounted his first solo exhibition, A Sense of Horizon at the Ayala Museum where he showcased fifteen of his landscape paintings. Fisherman Sorting out Catch (1996), Boracay Island (1997), Gulod Landscape (1998), Preparing for a Sail (1998), Landscape with Brook and Flowers (1998) and The Majestic Mayon Volcano, Albay, Bicol (1998) were his principal works. Because of a cornea problem, Tvbiera gradually slowed down in painting in 2000 picking up the brush when in the mood to paint.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Roberto Chabet at West Gallery and Finale Art File]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/172/roberto-chabet-at-west-gallery-and-finale-art-file</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/172/roberto-chabet-at-west-gallery-and-finale-art-file</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:16:49 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>August 2014-- This year marks the 50th anniversary of Roberto Chabet as an artist. To commemorate this milestone, a series of exhibitions is running until January 2012. It began with highly anticipated shows presented by Osage Art Foundation in Hongkong and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Singapore and continues with exhibits in several Manila galleries. The various shows can be seen as retrospective in cumulative installments.
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<div>Considered a pioneer in conceptual art in the Philippines, Chabet (b. 1937) has produced thousands of works, from drawings, paintings, collages to sculptures and installations, the majority of which have been documented in the Chabet Archive, a comprehensive undertaking initiated by Ringo Bonoan in conjunction with the Lopez Museum.  
 </div>
<div>Chabet escapes easy categorization because the depth and breadth of his oeuvre is enormous. His conceptualism takes on whatever chameleonic medium is most aprops. He balances high-art gravitas and Duchampian puckishness. 
 </div>
<div>Chabet has also been an influential teacher, mentoring two generations of artists at the University of the Philippines. He has also spearheaded provocative that have questioned the nature, history, and meaning of art.</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rody Herrera's Nationalistic Legacy]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/171/rody-herrera-s-nationalistic-legacy</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/171/rody-herrera-s-nationalistic-legacy</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2014 18:04:47 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2014--Influenced by Fernando Amorsolo’s use of impressionistic brushstrokes and Botong Francisco’s carefully modelled form, color and movement, Rody Herrera’s historical sensibilities commenced when he did the cover of The Philippine Collegian on November 1946 wherein he depicted two long-barreled guns, two helmets slung across, a skull, gnarled tree arched over the three central symbols, light from the top on the weapons, the shadow they cast and beneath, the words, Only the brave shall make them/only the immortal claim them. He was eighteen at that time. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of Herrera’s mature works which led him to paint historical themes combing history books and seeking out surviving kins of historical figures to reconstruct significant events in history. Gabriela Silang Being Led to the Gallows, The Discovery of the Katipunan, The Battle of Manila Bay, The Battle of Imus and The Verdict, among several others were his important works. In 1951, along with Juvenal Sanso, he merited attention when he won second prize in the conservative category of the Art Association of the Philippines for his painting, Andamyo. Pugad Lawin (1963) and Kakang Pule (1964) were his two other winning works at the Bonifacio and Mabini and Centenary Art Competitions. In 1967, Herrera’s design of vignette for the ten peso bill was adjudged winner at the nationwide contest sponsored by the Central Bank of the Philippines. He held his first one-man exhibition at Gallery One in 1972 showing portraits, religious and still life paintings.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ambrocio Mijares Morales (1892-1974): Engraver, sculptor, art professor and supporter of the Katipunan]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/170/ambrocio-mijares-morales-1892-1974-engraver-sculptor-art-professor-and-supporter-of-the-katipunan</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/170/ambrocio-mijares-morales-1892-1974-engraver-sculptor-art-professor-and-supporter-of-the-katipunan</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2014 13:22:28 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[May 2014--Engraver, sculptor, art professor and supporter of the secret organization, the Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK), Ambrocio Morales’s earliest recorded sculpture in 1927 was the bust of Bonifacio Bedaña (alias Suyod), the president of the KKK chapter Nagligtas based in barrio Pulo, Pasig. This was interesting to note because Morales and Guillermo Tolentino, his colleague at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, backup the Katipunero’s activities in Pasig. Morales engraved the Commonwealth Commemorative Coin, the Gallerza Commemorative Medal, President Carlos Garcia Commemorative Coin (1954) and a gold copper cigarette case (1952) which provided samples of his command of the engraving tools. He also created sculptures inspired by classical figures. Among them include the Statue of Ramon Magsaysay (1932), Twelve Animals (1937), Icarus the Fallen Angel (1937), Fountain of Neptune (1950), The Savior (1951), Independence at Liberation of Pasig (1952), The Last Supper (1952), Defender of Bataan (1953), Eight Insects (1953), Bust of Teresita Quintana (1953), Serena Fountain (1957), Bust of San Mateo (1958) and Bas-Relief of Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr. (1958). In 1960, he was commissioned to execute a garden sculpture of the Via Crucis at the grotto of the Our Lady of Lourdes in San Jose del Monte Bulacan. Two of his sons, Alfredo Morales, Sr. and  Goring Morales assisted him in completing this commissioned work successfully bringing the fourteen scenes to life . Originally, white was painted over the life size garden sculptures but had gone through different color changes over the course of time.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Posthumous Prognosis for Supposedly Syphilitic Gauguin, via His Teeth]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/169/posthumous-prognosis-for-supposedly-syphilitic-gauguin-via-his-teeth</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/169/posthumous-prognosis-for-supposedly-syphilitic-gauguin-via-his-teeth</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Feb 2014 17:39:32 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2014--It’s long been believed that painter Paul Gauguin was wrecked by syphilis when he died in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, but thanks to some old teeth thrown down a well, he may posthumously be given a cleaner bill of health.
<div>As Martin Bailey reported for the Art Newspaper, researchers with Chicago’s Field Museum analyzed four dislodged teeth that were found in a well in an archeological dig near the hut where Gauguin’s lived from 1901 until his death. The teeth were discovered inside a glass container, along with some painting supplies, like a brush made from an island fruit and a coconut shell still stained with pigments. Since the teeth are pocked with cavities, and people in the Atuona village didn’t eat sugar in that era, they were immediately suspected as European; a later DNA test comparing the dental remains with the teeth of a grandson of Gauguin showed a 90–99% probability.</div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The History and the 1940s Graduates of the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/168/the-history-and-the-1940s-graduates-of-the-university-of-the-philippines-school-of-fine-arts</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/168/the-history-and-the-1940s-graduates-of-the-university-of-the-philippines-school-of-fine-arts</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2014 10:15:03 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2014--The School of Fine Arts was established by authority of Act No. 1870, founding the University of the Philippines which was enacted by the Philippine Assembly on June 18, 1908. The School was opened to students in June, 1909. It was first housed in a building rented by the University at 931 Calle Resurreccion Hidalgo, Quiapo. In May, 1926, it moved to 1001 California Street, Ermita, and in November, 1933, it moved to Villamor Hall where it is present housed.
The object of the School, besides the teaching and development of the graphic and plastic arts in their various and manifold branches, which is its chief objects, is “to exert an influence toward the advancement and refinement of those industrial trades which are of an artistic nature; as gold and silver work, ceramics, embroidery, lace-making, and metal work.”[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The History and the 1930s Graduates of the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/167/the-history-and-the-1930s-graduates-of-the-university-of-the-philippines-school-of-fine-arts</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/167/the-history-and-the-1930s-graduates-of-the-university-of-the-philippines-school-of-fine-arts</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:57:13 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February-March 2014--The School of Fine Arts was established by authority of Act No. 1870, founding the University of the Philippines which was enacted by the Philippine Assembly on June 18, 1908. The School was opened to students in June, 1909. It was first housed in a building rented by the University at 931 Calle Resurreccion Hidalgo, Quiapo. In May, 1926, it moved to 1001 California Street, Ermita, and in November, 1933, it moved to Villamor Hall where it is present housed.
The object of the School, besides the teaching and development of the graphic and plastic arts in their various and manifold branches, which is its chief objects, is “to exert an influence toward the advancement and refinement of those industrial trades which are of an artistic nature; as gold and silver work, ceramics, embroidery, lace-making, and metal work.”[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Van Gogh's Sunflowers came into bloom]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/166/how-van-gogh-s-sunflowers-came-into-bloom</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/166/how-van-gogh-s-sunflowers-came-into-bloom</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:21:17 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2014--At first nobody wanted them. Van Gogh painted four images of sunflowers in a pot, and then three copies that depart in many details from the originals. Together, they amount to an iconic body of work, representative of his creative powers at their height. Yet the first time one was exhibited in his lifetime it caused uproar.
<div> </div>
<div>Having been invited to show work alongside Les Vingt, an avant-garde group of 20 artists in Brussels, in January 1890, Van Gogh consulted his brother Theo as to what he should send. Theo recommended the sunflowers and explained why. "I've put one of the sunflowers on the mantelpiece in our dining room. It has the effect of a piece of fabric embroidered with satin and gold, it's magnificent." But such richness and beauty, achieved by means of Van Gogh's stark simplicity and strong colour, was not apparent to others. The artist Henry de Groux threatened to remove his own work from the 1890 exhibition if he found it in the same room as "the laughable pot of sunflowers by Mr Vincent". As Van Gogh's artist friendsToulouse-Lautrec and Paul Signac were present when this was said, the evening ended in chaos, and a fight was only narrowly avoided. The next morning, De Groux resigned. To the critic of Le Journal de Charleroi, it was understandable: this artist had been "very justly exasperated" by Van Gogh's sunflowers.
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<div>Today, four of these seven sunflower paintings are in public collections. Two of the four originals can be seen in London from 25 January, when the one belonging to Munich's Neue Pinakothek joins the one in theNational Gallery. Anyone who tried to buy Christmas cards last year at the National will have been forewarned. Almost half the Christmas merchandise, or so it seemed to this disgruntled visitor, was covered with sunflowers – fridge magnets, drying-up cloths, mugs, table mats, coasters, diaries, address books, even spectacle cloths and cases. </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Antiques Roadshow portrait revealed to be by Anthony Van Dyck]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/165/antiques-roadshow-portrait-revealed-to-be-by-anthony-van-dyck</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/165/antiques-roadshow-portrait-revealed-to-be-by-anthony-van-dyck</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jan 2014 16:48:31 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2013-- Father Jamie MacLeod, who runs a retreat house in north Derbyshire, first took the artwork to Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, in 2012.
<div> He said he was now planning to sell the piece by the 17th Century Flemish artist to buy new church bells.</div>
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<div>The BBC show's host Fiona Bruce said she was "thrilled" by the revelation.</div>
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<div>More was revealed about the painting when Father Jamie took it to filming for another edition of Antiques Roadshow in Cirencester, Gloucestershire in June this year.</div>
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<div>The Van Dyck portrait was identified after Ms Bruce, who was making a show about the artist with expert Philip Mould, saw the painting and thought it might be genuine.</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Leonardo Boy Hidalgo Comes Home For Good]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/164/leonardo-boy-hidalgo-comes-home-for-good</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/164/leonardo-boy-hidalgo-comes-home-for-good</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Jan 2014 09:03:31 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2014---In 1958, Boy Hidalgo joined a group exhibition where he debuted as an aquarellist, partial to on-the- spot painting. He staged his first one-man show at the C.I.V.I.S in Rome, Italy in 1960 and then held his first Manila exhibition at the Gallery Bleue in 1971. Alla prima was Hidalgo’s technique through and through. His subjects were nudes, seascapes, still lifes, groves and landscapes with mountains, fields and rivers devoid of people. He also produced public monuments in Heroes Hill and Gen. Antonio Luna in La Union, Dominican Saints and Martyrs at the Central Library of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and also religious sculptures such as Christ Crucifixion at Roxas District, Christ the King at Baguilin, La Union and Sto. Domingo at Cabuyao, Laguna. In this New Year feature, Odra Hidalgo-Anderson, Hidalgo’s daughter, discusses her father’s early life, private and public works in Italy and America and his life as a husband, father and grandpa. She also reminds us that while Boy Hidalgo had been away from the Philippines for several decades, her father always considered the Philippines his home.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Renato Rocha: Building Modern Sculptures]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/163/renato-rocha-building-modern-sculptures</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/163/renato-rocha-building-modern-sculptures</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Dec 2013 17:49:34 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2013--From 1960-1965, Renato Rocha had a winning streak in various art competitions including the University of the Philippines Student Catholic Action Art Competition (UP SCA) and the National Student Art Competition. His big break came in 1965 when his piece, Expulsion from Paradise, an abstract figure of Adam and Eve won him the grand prize at the 18th Art Association of the Philippines Art Competition. He also participated in two international group exhibitions: the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 and the New York World’s Fair in 1964. In the beginning of his career, Rocha used acacia, molave and narra in sculpting abstracted figures of animals, family, women and other free forms as they were stylishly economical, glowing with mellow warm patinas and strong and lasting in character. In 1978, he opened his first solo exhibition, Renato A. Rocha: Recent Wood Sculptures at the Manila Peninsula Hotel and three years later, held his second solo exhibition, Rocha’s Wood Sculpture at the Rear Room Gallery at the Manila Garden Hotel. “I arrived at my style through exposure, assimilation and distillation. I see no threat that my style would ever get exhausted because flexibility resides in me” Rocha once said. “My works are documentation of my maturation and an index of our people’s maturation.” The Cry of Pugad Lawin (1971), Struggle of Man for Higher Knowledge (1974), Evolution (1976), Guitarist (1977), Reclining Figures (1977), Mariang Makiling (1989), Seal of Abra (1992) were among his key works.  [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Looted by the Nazis, found in a squalid apartment: Ã¢ï¿½Â¬1bn cache of degenerate art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/161/looted-by-the-nazis-found-in-a-squalid-apartment-atilde-cent-iuml-iquest-frac12-acirc-not-1bn-cache-of-degenerate-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/161/looted-by-the-nazis-found-in-a-squalid-apartment-atilde-cent-iuml-iquest-frac12-acirc-not-1bn-cache-of-degenerate-art</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2013 14:23:46 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2013--A cache of “lost” paintings looted by the Nazis before the Second World War containing some 1,500 works by world-renowned artists including Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Klee and valued at an estimated €1bn has been found, according to German media reports.
<div>Bavarian customs police discovered the sensational haul in the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the 80-year-old son of well-known pre-war art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. The younger Gurlitt had hoarded the paintings in his Munich apartment for over half a century, according to Germany’s Focus magazine.  
 </div>
<div>The apartment in which the paintings were found was said to have been an abandoned mess, full plates with the remains of rotting meals on them, food packaging, and old tins of canned food. It said that in some cases Picasso works were wedged between cans. According to Focus, authorities had in fact seized the works in 2011 but their existence had not been revealed until now. The paintings were said to have been placed in storage in a customs depot outside Munich while attempts were made to trace their original owners.</div>
<div> 
</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The History of Marikina's Shoe Industry]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/160/the-history-of-marikina-s-shoe-industry</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/160/the-history-of-marikina-s-shoe-industry</guid><pubDate>Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:46:53 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2013--Marikina was founded three hundred righty-three years ago when the Jesuits arrived in 1630. They called the area Jesus dela Peña (Jesus of the Rocks). It was later called Mariquina and a parish was established there in 1687. Fishing and farming were the main source of livelihood. In 1901, the town was officially named Marikina by the First Philippine Commissioner, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera replacing the Hispanidad “q” with the vernacular “k”. Later in 1977, the town was officially made a part of the newly-created Metro Manila area.
<div> </div>
<div>The significant year for Marikina was in 1887. It was in this year when shoemaking started to flourish through the efforts of Don Laureano "Kapitan Moy" Guevarra. From this year, the growth of the place economically becomes dynamic due to shoemaking.  Today, Marikina is one of the sixteen (16) cities and a municipality of Metro Manila. It was proclaimed a city through the Republic Act 8223 on December 8, 1996. It is a multi-awarded metropolitan city, often cited for its vibrant economy, highly-skilled and literate work force, involved and enlightened business community and responsive local government that puts a premium on governance, sustainable urban development and public service. It is also one of the healthiest cities in the Asia-Pacific region, winning at least seventy-eight awards and recognitions both local and international in a span of twelve years. </div>
<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Zeng's Last Supper Sells for Record $23.3 Million at Sotheby's Auction]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/159/zeng-s-last-supper-sells-for-record-23-3-million-at-sotheby-s-auction</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/159/zeng-s-last-supper-sells-for-record-23-3-million-at-sotheby-s-auction</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2013 11:30:48 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October 2013--A painting by Zeng Fanzhi sold for US$23.3 million at a Sotheby's auction on Saturday night in Hong Kong, setting a new record price for a work by an Asian contemporary artist.
<div> Titled “The Last Supper” and inspired by the Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century mural of the same name, the large painting¬–almost 13 feet wide–was sold after a bidding war that lasted over 10 minutes between two buyers on the phone. A crowd of 600 people in a packed room at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre applauded several times as the prices slowly escalated up to the final result. 
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<div>The winning bidder, who paid more than the presale estimate of 80 Hong Kong dollars (US$10.3 million) was not identified by the firm.</div>
<div> 
The work, sold by Swiss collectors Guy and Mariam Ullens, broke the previous Asian contemporary record set by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s “My Lonesome Cowboy.” That work, a sculpture, sold for US$15.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2008.</div>
<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Federico Estrada: The Forgotten Great]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/158/federico-estrada-the-forgotten-great</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/158/federico-estrada-the-forgotten-great</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:54:53 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October 2013-- A lesser known contemporary of Vicente Manansala, Federico Estrada started his career as a sculptor in 1932. He was the first Filipino to work at the atelier of Pietro Amberti who taught him the secrets of synthetic marble, floating strips, spray dotting, molding and general sculpturing from 1932-1940. Notable among his works were the eagle casting and fountain project at the Manila Hotel, the seven statues on the panel columns of the San Agustin Church in Iloilo, among others. A Chinese mausoleum was decorated with his dragon done in waterproof cement and synthetic. On March 8, 1946, Estrada participated in his first group exhibition with Fernando Amorsolo, Botong Francisco, Vicente Manansala, among others. This group show was sponsored by the N.T.C Art Club in Tanduay, Manila. From 1951-1953, a number of his works won top prizes at the Art Association of the Philippines. But because he had a large family to feed, he turned mostly to painting for livelihood. “Sumisikat at tumatanyag ang ibang artista dahil sila ay mayayaman, lagi silang nangingibang bansa at laging laman ng pahayagan, sobra ang publisidad  kung kaya tanyag na tanyag” he once lamented. Estrada’s paintings consisted of portraits of newlyweds, rural landscapes, mythology and genre scenes. Market vendors, coffee farmers, housewives haggling over coconut heads to be grated at home, washerwoman bent on her laundry, neighbors doing their everyday work despite the rising floodwater, unharried women under wide umbrellas and naked children bathing by clay tapayans were images he often depicted. In the ensuing years, Estrada participated mostly in group shows and his obsession in his twilight years was to have a one-man show. “Why, just to have a 33 by 40 painting frame, you’ll have to spend P170 and that’s [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[P183 Dead: Street Artist Known As 'Russian Banksy' Dies At 29 Years Old]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/157/p183-dead-street-artist-known-as-russian-banksy-dies-at-29-years-old</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/157/p183-dead-street-artist-known-as-russian-banksy-dies-at-29-years-old</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:33:24 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>MOSCOW -- Pasha P183, a prominent Russian graffiti artist who hid his identity and has been compared to Britain's Banksy, has died. He was 29.</div>
<div>The Teatralnoye Delo theatrical production company, which recently commissioned Pasha P183 to create scenery for the musical "Todd," said the artist died Monday in Moscow. It wouldn't elaborate. 
 </div>
<div>Teatralnoye Delo's spokeswoman Regina Vartsan, who knew the artist personally, described him Wednesday as a "sincere and open person of remarkable talent and unique vision." 
 </div>
<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Brief Sketch of the History of Plastic-Graphic Arts in the Philippines (Second of Two Parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/155/brief-sketch-of-the-history-of-plastic-graphic-arts-in-the-philippines-second-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/155/brief-sketch-of-the-history-of-plastic-graphic-arts-in-the-philippines-second-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:36:10 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2013--In sculpture, we are face to face with a problem more difficult perhaps than that which we have encountered in the consideration of Philippines architecture, considering the fact that there is scarcity of authoritative data and proofs of the existence of an autochthonous art in sculpture. Not  even the later epochs of pre-historic times, such as for example, that when for the first time Spain set her foot on this soil and found a civilization far advanced than that which she did imagine to exist among the Malayan Filipinos of those times, judging not according to western standards but merely reflecting the civilization of India, China, Arabia and Japan, were they able to leave a legacy to Spanish-Filipino generation something conclusive in matters of sculpture sufficient to enable that generation to determine the peculiarities of style even sculpture psychology, with which the artist, archeologist or the historian of art could solve more or less the problem touching the relation that could have existed between the pre-Spanish and the Hispano-Filipino styles.
<div> 
The earliest works of a sculpture character, found in the Philippines consisted of little figures of clay, tile, porcelain and wood which were brought to the country by Indian, Chinese, Japanese emigrants who in coming had as their principal desire the establishment of commercial relations with the natives. Among the various articles intended for sale some were of an artistic character. These objects at the beginning did not arouse among the natives more than simple curiosity; then, later, they began to buy some of these articles as household decoration; but a little later more this simple curiosity and the constant sight of such artistic objects, may have probably induced those who were artistically inclined to imitate the little figures. They had no tools for such work but the </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Brief Sketch of the History of Plastic-Graphic Arts in the Philippines (First of Two Parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/154/brief-sketch-of-the-history-of-plastic-graphic-arts-in-the-philippines-first-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/154/brief-sketch-of-the-history-of-plastic-graphic-arts-in-the-philippines-first-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:24:57 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2013--The best starting point in the history of Philippine art is probably the Sixteenth century, with the implantation of Spanish sovereignty over the islands.
During the pre-Spanish period, the Philippines already enjoyed a certain degree of civilization. The unit of social and political organization varied in size from 5 to 7,000 inhabitants, and was known as “barangay”. The people fabricated different kinds of boats, fishing apparatus, and finished arts; they wove textiles from abaca, pineapple, cotton, and silk which came from China; they embroidered and carved sculptures symbolic of their ancestors whom they called “anitos”. According to [Trinidad H.] Pardo de Tavera, they were expert silver, gold and coppersmiths, working on these minerals for artistic jewels and for bedecking their weapons and arms. The late distinguished artist and sculptor, Jose Ma. Asuncion, says in this connection: “During the first period (pre-Spanish) Filipino art was but the shadow of that existing in the Asiatic continent, eminently oriental, with some local characteristic which were developed in manner parallel to the different foci of Oriental civilization with which we were in close contact, such as India, China, Indo-China, Japan, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Moluccas… Upon the implantation of Spanish sovereignty over these Islands, every vestige of this Oriental art was swept away in the center of the Philippines Archipelago.” Further he says, “ architecture, sculpture and painting, if at all they existed by reason of the necessities and beliefs then obtaining, left no archeological traces in forgotten corners of the Philippines.”
Until now, these are the only available data on Filipino art during the pre-Spanish period. As can easily be seen, these observations are based on deductions which may be considered reasonable, but for the purpose of the present treatment, it would seem desirable to look for more authoritative sources. On the other hand, the bows and arrows, [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mario de Rivera: Shape and Color of Memory]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/153/mario-de-rivera-shape-and-color-of-memory</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/153/mario-de-rivera-shape-and-color-of-memory</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:08:23 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2013--LIBERTAD in Mandaluyong City could be a typical street in busy Metro Manila with its row of apartments and the bustle of passing motorists. On number 26, a mix of potted plants flanked the door to the home of Mario de Rivera, one of the Philippines’ most prolific painters. There is stillness at De Rivera’s home as if the house has deliberately pushed away the ambient street noise to reflect a singular trait of its owner.
<div> Described by the art critic Alice Guillermo as the creator of paintings with “sumptuous imagery…showing the rich confluence of cultures,” De Rivera has maintained a low but distinctive profile in the country’s art scene. The artist as a self-indulgent, garrulous creature would be a tag difficult to pin to De Rivera who often carefully picks his words.</div>
<div> 
“Painting is the only way I can be totally myself,” says De Rivera when queried what prompted him, after several years of working overseas, to return some forty years ago to full-time painting. And, indeed, a passionate artistic engagement is often evident in the works of De Rivera where the viewer is entranced not only with imagery, colors and textures, but an amalgam that provides a hint to the Filipino psyche. </div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Angono-Binangonan Petroglyphs]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/152/the-angono-binangonan-petroglyphs</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/152/the-angono-binangonan-petroglyphs</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:18:36 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July-August 2013--A geological study in Tres Hermanas in Antipolo was undertaken by the National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines. In this site, the Plio-Pliestocene deposit was identified as Laguna Formation which consists of tuffs deposited in an alluvial setting. The radio-metric datings are 1.7 and 1.0 million years. Recovery of plant fossils and extraction of pollen grains from sediments were undertaken. The data indicated a sub-tropical moderate climate in the Plio-Pliestocene. The area was covered by a forest with thick trees  and bushes  of angiospermae (flowering plants) gymnospermae (pines) and ferns or pterydophytes. Grasses were present, indicating atleast partly open forest or grasslands. The presence of pine trees and ferns indicated a subtropical moderate climate, cooler that the present day climate of the area. Vertebrate fossils found were molars and tusks of Pygmy Stegodonts and pertrified remains of a giant land turtle.
<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[William Gaudinez's Cathedrals of Truth]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/151/william-gaudinez-s-cathedrals-of-truth</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/151/william-gaudinez-s-cathedrals-of-truth</guid><pubDate>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 16:53:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2013-- William Gaudinez came to public attention during the 1984 Metrobank Painting Competition. Early in his career, he painted vendors, fiesta and childhood scenes but over time found a way to integrate his paintings, love of sculpture and his narrative gifts in crafted mixed media urnas and retablos using capiz and coconut shells, carabao bones and horns, colored beads, jade, mother of pearl and kamagong hardwood shaped into leaves. With this approach, Gaudinez aimed to explore the customs and ritual practices of the indigenous Filipinos and restore the art making traditions of craftsmen in inlaying materials that were often used in carving and embroidery. His work is generally seen as aligned with folk art as he carved, collaged, painted his urnas and retablos with historical and socio-political-cultural-religious vignettes to satirize contemporary society. In both closed and open doors of his urnas, Gaudinez often took up the themes of globalization to make known his call for change. His images were the poor, the working class and the indigenous people as they provided the honest, simple way of life and an appropriate setting for nostalgia. William Gaudinez discusses further the creation of his art, his growth as an artist and the development of his artistic philosophy in this June interview to reinforce the value of folk knowledge and its place in modern day society. [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Serafin Serna's Traces of Greatness]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/150/serafin-serna-s-traces-of-greatness</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/150/serafin-serna-s-traces-of-greatness</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 18:26:41 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[May 2013--Serafin Serna was in his senior year when World War II broke out. He was studying at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts where he learned the fundamentals of painting. He executed two paintings during his student years, Igorot Woman and Marketing in Baguio, both painted in 1941 that showed the influence of Fernando Amorsolo, his UP professor. Serna did not hesitate to tackle even the more complex subjects such as head studies of young and old people with the confidence of a great painter. While working as a layout artist in the Philippines Herald since the 1950s, he began his series of pastoral landscapes until the 1970s for which he became a familiar name. However, while not much is known of Serna’s personal life and other efforts, his paintings during the American period and onwards points out a range of examples of his art.  In this interview, Bessie del Rosario, Serafin Serna’s granddaughter reveals that his grandfather, whom she calls Papa, was an affectionate family man who participated energetically in building a good relationship with his family. The business success Serafin and his wife, Bellaflor Laureano of Malabon achieved allowed him to paint what his heart desires. Serafin Serna died of emphysema on March 9, 1979.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Critical Essay on Constructing the Filipina: A History of Womenï¿½s Magazines (1891-2002)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/149/a-critical-essay-on-constructing-the-filipina-a-history-of-women-iuml-iquest-frac12-s-magazines-1891-2002-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/149/a-critical-essay-on-constructing-the-filipina-a-history-of-women-iuml-iquest-frac12-s-magazines-1891-2002-</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:05:50 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>April 2013--Constructing the Filipina: A History of Women’s Magazines from 1891-2002 by Georgina Reyes Encanto is a first attempt to record the history of Women’s magazines in the historical-feminist perspective. The author herself is the former Dean of Mass Communication and a Journalism professor in the University of the Philippines. Her research interests mainly cover Philippine press history, feminism and gender issues in Philippine media and popular culture.
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<div>She begins her book with an introduction to the location of Women’s magazines in the lives of everyday Filipina women. Women’s magazines are the most accessible forms of media for women of different social classes. Topics of magazines usually include gossip, fashion, tips for the house and the workplace, horoscopes and relationship advice, all of which are absorbed by many of the readers from cover to cover. The pictures of beautiful scantily clad or fashion forward women who the readers idolize are often found on the covers along with advertisements of products that are supposed to aid women into becoming like the celebrities they adore. Encanto gives specific statistics regarding their circulation well as statistics on which medium and the percentage of the population were actually reading magazines thereby establishing factual evidence on Women’s magazines’ ubiquity. She also states that the study of women’s magazines as an Ideological and/or Repressive State Apparatus is a challenge yet a necessity because of their influences in the ideologies, decisions and world-view of women in the country within the book’s given timeframe. She mentions that while cursory historical accounts have been made by earlier writers, none of them have written in the historical-feminist perspective or have focused on women’s magazines specifically.
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<div>The author describes that women’s magazines did not appear until the last quarter of the 19th century. The women writers at that time were of bourgeoisie, ilustrada upbringing who propagated dominant Western, patriarchal and religious ideologies to their readership.  The articles in these magazines had women assigned to subordinate, domestic roles; deceiving women by romanticizing their roles as homemakers thus establishing the ideas of the hegemony during that era. Amidst the seemingly progressive articles that promote women’s development, juxtaposing these against repressive, colonial ideologies was very evident with the portrayal of the ideal women as learned and cultured ‘Queens of the Home’ in a patriarchal society. The ideal women exist to serve their husbands and use her knowledge for the proper upbringing of her children. The perception of physical beauty should reflect those of the </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Controversial Caravaggio to be unveiled in London]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/148/controversial-caravaggio-to-be-unveiled-in-london</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/148/controversial-caravaggio-to-be-unveiled-in-london</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:55:10 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>March 2013--Mahon bought The Cardsharps for £50,400 (est £20,000-£30,000) when it came up for auction at Sotheby’s, London in 2006, ascribed to a 17th-century “follower” of the artist. Mahon believed it to be by the master. A controversial Caravaggio that belonged to the late collector and scholar Denis Mahon is due to be unveiled in April at the Museum of the Order of St John in London. Although the rest of Mahon’s 58 Italian Baroque paintings have been bequeathed to UK public collections, the long-term future of The Cardsharps is uncertain, because of the question of attribution.
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<div>The Cardsharps came up for sale at Sotheby’s, London in 2006, ascribed to a 17th-century “follower” of the artist and estimated at between £20,000 and £30,000. Mahon bought it for £50,400 (the hammer price was £42,000), believing it to be by the master. The seller, Lancelot William Thwaytes, is now taking legal action against Sotheby’s because of its alleged misattribution, but the claim is being robustly rejected by the auction house. </div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stuttgart museum returns looted medieval masterpiece]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/147/stuttgart-museum-returns-looted-medieval-masterpiece</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/147/stuttgart-museum-returns-looted-medieval-masterpiece</guid><pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:10:38 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>March 2013--The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart has returned Virgin and Child, a 15th-century painting attributed to the Master of Flémalle (1375-1444), to the estate of Max Stern, a German-born Jewish dealer who fled the Nazis and later operated the Dominion Gallery in Montreal. The restitution ceremony took place in Berlin at the Canadian Embassy.</div>
<div>The return of Virgin and Child marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Galerie Julius Stern in Düsseldorf and the tenth anniversary of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project at Concordia University in Montreal, which estimates that at least 400 works that once belonged to Stern are still unrecovered. In 1935, Stern (1904-87) was banned from working as an art dealer, the profession practiced by his family in Düsseldorf. After Stern closed the business, 228 works from the gallery were auctioned at Mathias Lempertz in Cologne in 1937. Works from his and his mother’s personal collections, left on consignment, were mostly seized. Virgin and Child was sold with other works after Stern had fled to London, to raise 25,000 Reichsmarks to buy a passport for his mother to leave Germany.</div>
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<div>Although no bill of that sale survives, the painting came into the hands of the Frankfurt art dealer Alexander Haas, who sold it to a Dr Scheufelen in 1939. Scheufelen sold eight paintings to the planned Führermuseum in Linz in 1943, at least one of which came from Haas. In 1948, 125 works from Scheufelen’s collection were exhibited at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; 118 of those, including Virgin and Child, were willed to the museum.</div>
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<div>Tracing the picture’s provenance was complicated by the destruction of Stern’s business records when his London flat was bombed during the Blitz. Three universities are beneficiaries of Stern’s estate—Concordia, McGill University (Montreal), and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.</div>
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<div>The Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) of the New York State Department of Financial Services has supported the claim by researching the painting’s history and corresponding with the Staatsgalerie.</div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jose Zabala Santos (1911-1985)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/146/jose-zabala-santos-1911-1985-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/146/jose-zabala-santos-1911-1985-</guid><pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:32:41 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>March 2013--Jose Zabala Santos or “Mang Pepe” to his neighbors in Kuatro Kantos, Malabon, was born in Calumpit, Bulacan on July 20, 1911. He acquired his early drawing skills from his mother whose avocation is painting. Later on, he took up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines when he was sixteen but soon quit because cartooning wasn’t offered then. Instead, he enrolled in a US correspondence course on cartooning and earned his diploma.</div>
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<div>“Zabala,” as he is known in the cartoon world, started his career in 1932. It was Amado Hernandez or Ka Amado, then editor of Sampaguita magazine, who launched his career as a cartoonist. Pre-war readers of the vernacular comic strips were soon introduced to the delightful characters of – Titina, Lukas Malakas, Sianong Sano and Popoy. When Sampaguita folded up, Liwayway Publications started running his characters in 1935, thus ensuing the popularity of his character Lukas Malakas.
 
<div>When World War II broke out in 1941, he abandoned his career. However, in 1942, he was invited by the Manalang advertising agency to join its art department until 1948. It was his stint in the advertising field that he discovered animation. In 1949, he worked in the advertising department of the Philippine Manufacturing Company (PMC). There, he made Juan Tamad together with Francisco Reyes for a PMC product in 1955. Juan Tamad is a six-minute pioneering animated short film shot in 35mm and processed in the US, but believed to have never had a commercial run in the movie house circuit.</div>
</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lucian Freud Says Thank You to the Nation with a Corot Painting]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/145/lucian-freud-says-thank-you-to-the-nation-with-a-corot-painting</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/145/lucian-freud-says-thank-you-to-the-nation-with-a-corot-painting</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:52:21 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>
<div>February 2013--The late artist Lucian Freud has left a treasured painting by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot as a thank you to Great Britain for welcoming his family when they arrived as refugees in 1933.</div>
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<div>Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, L'Italienne ou La Femme à la Manche Jaune (The Italian Woman, or Woman with Yellow Sleeve ), about 1870</div>
<div>Freud's Jewish family moved from Berlin to London to escape the rise of Nazism when he was 11. He became a British citizen in 1939 and went on to become one of last century's finest painters before his death aged 88, in July 2011. 
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<div>The Arts Council England have allocated the painting, L'Italienne ou La Femme à la Manche Jaune (The Italian Woman, or Woman with Yellow Sleeve), to the National Gallery under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which allows people to transfer works of art and important heritage objects into public ownership in lieu of inheritance tax. Freud specified in his will that he wanted the painting to have its new home in the National Gallery so it could be enjoyed by future generations. Director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny said:</div>
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<div>'This painting is a great addition to the National Gallery where, although we have a very strong collection of Corot’s works, we have no examples of a late figure painting of this kind. Its rough-hewn monumentality and abrupt transitions anticipate Picasso’s exercises in the classical manner and make it one of the most modern looking paintings in the Collection. Freud was a frequent visitor to the Gallery and had an exact idea of the impact that this bequest would make.' 
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</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Silay\x92s Ancestral Houses: The Glory of the Past]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/144/silay-s-ancestral-houses-the-glory-of-the-past</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/144/silay-s-ancestral-houses-the-glory-of-the-past</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:29:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2013--A physical structure has no significance to the community if it does not have corresponding stories that help shape the people surrounding it. This reason has contributed to the preservation of family structures in the city of Silay.
 
The city of Silay in Negros Occidental, 14 kilometers North, was one of the cities in the province that reaped the success of the sugar industry boom. Its golden age was between late 19th century and the early year before the Second World War. The houses were the seat of the privileged clans of the city. But the damage of the War and the decline of the sugar industry led to the return to its laid back atmosphere. 
<div> There are a total of thirty-one (31) recognized ancestral buildings in Silay. Some are still inhabited while some have become commercial establishments. Of all the ancestral houses in the area, the Hofileńa Ancestral Home and the two houses that are turned into museums – Bernandino Jalandoni Ancestral House and the Balay Negrense Museum are the most visited houses that are open for public viewing.</div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to turn a manuscript into a bestseller]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/143/how-to-turn-a-manuscript-into-a-bestseller</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/143/how-to-turn-a-manuscript-into-a-bestseller</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:56:52 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<div>November 2012--Editors today generally spend less time in editing because time is money. This is the observation that novelist Ken Spillman gave at a panel discussion on "Uncut: Issues in Editing" at the recent "Read Lit District," the Third Philippine International Literary Festival in Makati City's Ayala Museum.</div>
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<div>Spillman, author of the successful Jake series for young readers and whose novel Advaita was described by Young India Books as a work of "sheer genius" that "gently pushes the boundaries of language," qualified that "the best writers respect and respond well to the editor's work."</div>
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<div>Because he also accepts editing jobs, he said as a reader he first tries to get "a feel of the manuscript. I look for copouts or parts where the author is struggling with a point of view or if he is able to sustain it and be effectively consistent if he switches it."</div>
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<div>A good editor, he added, "becomes a little bit more of a writer, a partner of the writer. He is inside the work already, not outside." 
 
<div>Spillman said a good editor always prefers "less is more." He advised writers, "Don't overwrite. Give the reader space. Help the book become the best it can be." This can be done by reducing the original draft by maybe 10 percent without anything essential getting lost along the way as the writer learns to edit himself.</div>
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<div>David McKirdy, poet, author of Accidental Occidental and former director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, said the editor's work is always marked by invisibility. He agreed with Spillman that the better writers respond well to editors.</div>
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lenore Lim's Liberation of Colors]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/142/lenore-lim-s-liberation-of-colors</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/142/lenore-lim-s-liberation-of-colors</guid><pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:28:17 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November-December 2012--Lenore Lim burst upon the art scene in 1968 after graduating from the UP College of Fine Arts where she was a student of Jose Joya, Carlos Valino, Larry Alcala and Virginia Agbayani. To create her designs and experience spontaneity, intuition and accidents, she began working on tie-dyes before she moved on to computer-generated designs which she executed in traditional etchings and serigraphs medium. In 1991, she explored the possibilities of printmaking to expand her knowledge and enjoyment of the process and for a wider audience to understand and appreciate her art. Over the course of her career, Lim’s works in oil, watercolor, pastel, mixed media, installations and mobiles are admired for their optimistic color schemes, intimate reflections and themes of illumination of past and present times: a visual language she conceived to stimulate critical thinking. In this November interview, Lenore Lim traces her early years, her teaching career, her work with new technologies and studio practice, the creation of her famous combines and shares how she carved out a brilliant career for herself at the heart of Canada, New York and Manila's artistic and cultural community. The changing nature of the critical reception of her work and her view that “there is no gender in my work” solidify that her art continues to be valuable and relevant at this time.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Unique Tombs found in the Philippines]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/141/unique-tombs-found-in-the-philippines</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/141/unique-tombs-found-in-the-philippines</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:02:03 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ MANILA, Philippines — Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said Thursday.
<div>National Museum official Eusebio Dizon said the village on Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, could be at least 1,000 years old based on U.S. carbon dating tests done on a human tooth found in one of 15 limestone graves he and other archaeologists have dug out since last year. 
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<div>The discovery of the rectangular tombs, which were carved into limestone outcrops jutting from the forest ground, is important because it is the first indication that Filipinos at that time practiced a more advanced burial ritual than previously thought and that they used metal tools to carve the coffins. 
 
</div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Woman Buys Renoir for $7]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/140/woman-buys-renoir-for-7</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/140/woman-buys-renoir-for-7</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:35:56 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2012-- A Missing Renoir has turned up in a fleamarket in America, where a woman bought it unaware of its value, for $7 (€5.45).
The lucky buyer said she was persuaded to make the purchase by the fact the painting was being sold along with a doll of the American folklore character John Bunyan and a plastic cow. “I’d never seen a John Bunyan doll before,” she told Huffington Post. 
She also liked the fancy frame, which she thought she could resell. She took the canvas out, planning to throw it away, when her mother told her it would be worth getting it valued – especially as it had a prominent plaque on the frame with “Renoir” written on it… 
 Now auctioneers Potomack say the painting has been identified as Paysages au bord de la Seine, which they estimate to be worth about €60-80,000. 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Culture and Art of the Mangyan]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/139/the-culture-and-art-of-the-mangyan</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/139/the-culture-and-art-of-the-mangyan</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:27:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September 2012--The Mangyan tribe has been included in the history of Mindoro. Spaniards have long documented the life of the Mangyan people. However, much is still to be learned from the culture of one of the Philippines’ richest ethnic group. Mangyan refers to the Philippine ethnic group living in Mindoro Island but some can be found in the island of Tablas and Sibuyan in the province of Romblon as well as in Albay, Negros and Palawan. The word Mangyan generally means man, woman or person without any reference to any nationality. Social scientists have documented Mangyan tribes into several major tribes. One of the ways to categorize them is through their geographical location. The Northern tribes include the Iraya, Alangan and Tadyawan tribes while the Buhid, Bangon Batangon and Hanunuo Mangyan comprise the tribes in the South.
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<div>The Culture 
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<div>Despite being grouped as one tribe, Mangyans differ in many ways. In comparison to the technological advance between the two geographical divisions, the Southern tribes are more advanced as seen in their use of weaving, pottery and system of writing. The Northern tribes, on the other hand, are simpler in their way of living. Their language just like the whole Philippines came from the Austronesian language family. However, even if they are defined as one ethnic group the tribes used different languages. On the average, they only share 40% of their vocabulary words on their mutual languages. The tribes have also varied physical and ethnogenetic appearances: Iraya has Veddoid features; Tadyawan are mainly Mongoloid; and the Hanunuo looks like a Proto-Malayan.
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<div> </div>[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Conservators also oppose plan to sideline Berlin's Old Masters]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/137/conservators-also-oppose-plan-to-sideline-berlin-s-old-masters</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/137/conservators-also-oppose-plan-to-sideline-berlin-s-old-masters</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:18:27 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2012--Conservators in Germany have joined the protest over plans to relocate the world-famous collection of Old Masters in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie. Under the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz's (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) plan, the estimated 3,000 works will move into the much smaller Bode Museum to make way for modern art including the collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch. Any Old Master that cannot be displayed in the smaller space will go into storage for an estimated six years until a new space is found for the collection on the capital's Museum Island.
The move, which was announced at the beginning of July, poses a “significant conservation risk”, said a statement released by the Bonn-based Verband der Restauratoren (Association of Restorers) on 19 July. The association, which has around 2,500 members, argues that the Pietzsch collection should move into the Gemäldegalerie only when a suitable location has been found to accommodate the Old Masters. “Only then can transport be reduced and the possibility that large parts of the collection will disappear into stores for years be avoided,” the statement said. “Any handling, packaging and transportation—even within the building—means mechanical stress and climatic changes to the works, which weakens their substance.”[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Edrick Daniel's Chimerical Pursuits]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/138/edrick-daniel-s-chimerical-pursuits</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/138/edrick-daniel-s-chimerical-pursuits</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:20:21 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2012--Edrick Daniel began his career in 2004 painting figurative works that show the influence of surrealism. Fantasy, tales, relationship informed his early narratives. Later, he sought the foundation of a figurative symbolic art to usher the viewers into his metaphors and inner visions. In creating moods, he made use of props—boats, roses, eyes, tongues, birds, butterflies, moon, black water, suit case, animals and figures floating through the air and conjunctions of seemingly unrelated objects to tell a story, increase the element of enigma, upend, invert and collapse into terra incognita. In this interview, Edrick Daniel eloquently recounts his early life through his student years and artistic training, his companions and artistic colleagues and elucidates his influences which inspired his mature works. Edrick Daniel’s sharpness, sensibility, honest, frank and unabashed thoughts and opinions prove that he is no quack or charlatan but a fascinating portrait of a young painter who live his life with panache, deftly wrapping talent into his art.
 
You entered the University of the Philippines in 2000, give us a picture of your student years. 
 
Life in UP was fun as far as I can remember. I was able to breeze through my major subjects due to the fact that I had a clique to work with. Later on these people I grew up in art became my group mates and we became known as Sangviaje.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Poland's long-lost Raphael found]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/135/poland-s-long-lost-raphael-found</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/135/poland-s-long-lost-raphael-found</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:25:41 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2012--Poland's long-lost masterpiece, attributed to Raphael and feared destroyed by many, has been re-discovered in a bank vault in an undisclosed location.
Portrait of a Young Man, around 1513-1514, from the Czartoryski family collection in Crakow, was confiscated by the Nazis in 1939 for Hitler's Führermuseum, Linz. It disappeared in 1945 shortly before the end of the Second World War.
A spokesman for Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Office for the Restitution of Cultural Goods told the Polish media today (1 August) that he is confident the painting will be returned to Poland. “Most importantly, the work was not lost in the turmoil of the war. It has not been burnt or destroyed. It exists. It is safely waiting in a region of the world where the law favours us,” he said, declining to disclose in which country.
Portrait of a Young Man is Poland's most important work that has been missing since the war. Attempts by the Czartoryski family to find the painting after 1945 were hampered by the fact that Poland was behind the Iron Curtain. In 1991, the family renewed its efforts to find the painting. Although unverified, many art historians believe the subject of the painting is Raphael himself. Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski bought the portrait in 1798 along with Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, around 1489-90.
UPDATE: In a subsequent statement on its website the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has tried to calm expectations, saying: "We have no information as to where exactly the image is... however, we can confirm that [the ministry] continues to monitor all signals reaching us about the image's location."[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The (Stifling) Spaces of Femininity in the Philippine Art World: A Book Review on Flaudette May Datuin's Home Body Memory: Filipina Artist in the Visu]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/134/the-stifling-spaces-of-femininity-in-the-philippine-art-world-a-book-review-on-flaudette-may-datuin-s-home-body-memory-filipina-artist-in-the-visu</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/134/the-stifling-spaces-of-femininity-in-the-philippine-art-world-a-book-review-on-flaudette-may-datuin-s-home-body-memory-filipina-artist-in-the-visu</guid><pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:00:34 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[August 2012--Home Body Memory: Filipina Artists in the Visual Arts, 19th Century to Present by Flaudette May Datuin, PhD. is a recount of the history of Filipina artist from during the 19th Century until the present time on which the book was written and published in early 2000s. Datuin, an Associate Professor in the Art Studies Department of the University of the Philippines, is an advocate of feminism in the Philippines. She has curated and organized various exhibitions and forums on women artists in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia. In the text written by Professor Patrick Flores for the book, he refers to the book as a charting of the “itinerary of the history of the Filipino artists in the visual arts…from the abode of the ‘feminine’, a sense of belonging to a tradition of norms governing women in a social milieu”(Flores xi).
Datuin begins with the acceptance of Paz Paterno in the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura during the 19th century, the emergence of women modernists during the 20th century and eventually the establishment of groups which are sympathetic to making women more visible in different fields in the current era (Kasibulan and Gabriella among a few). She doesn’t simply narrate the history in a chronological manner, she refers to her process as a “re-telling a compensatory history that women have been making art since the 19th century and continue to do so till the present”(Datuin 68). She also singles out certain artists whose works and insights she deem essential to her book; focusing more on the visual arts particularly in painting, sculpture, installation and performance art and how they portray women, canonical or otherwise, in their works. These images include the woman with child, depiction of women in their “spaces” in their homes and portrayal of women as goddesses, nymphs, virgins, vamps, victims, etc.
 
Datuin also discusses the often disparaged activity of tsismis or as Datuin calls it, usapang babae among sewing circles s a seemingly trivial yet may have posed as an instigator for the early feminists to clamor for equal rights during the mid 19th century. The presence of gossip among sewing circles across cultures has often been an activity associated to women with malicious idle minds. These circles represent a space wherein women are free to do and say what they want without the prying, disapproving eyes of men. [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Guide to Malacañan's Presidential Museum and Library]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/133/a-guide-to-malaca-ntilde-an-s-presidential-museum-and-library</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/133/a-guide-to-malaca-ntilde-an-s-presidential-museum-and-library</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:27:27 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2012--The Presidential Museum and Library is located in Kalayaan Hall, originally built in 1921 during the American colonial era as the Executive Building and today a wing of Malacañan Palace, the historic and official seat and residence of the President of the Philippines. The Museum exists to afford public visitors the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the executive department and promote an appreciation not only of the history, role and heritage of Malacañan Palace from its 18th century beginnings in Spanish colonial times across to the present day, but also of the great institution of the Philippine presidency and the legacies of the fifteen Filipinos who to date have held highest office in the land.
 
At Kalayaan Hall, reached through the historic Commonwealth-era Harrison Gate of Malacañan Palace, the Presidential Museum and Library is housed in some of the most historically important and architecturally significant rooms in the Philippines. Indeed, these rooms, many restored under the Arroyo administration, continue to play a role in official life. Noteworthy furniture, artwork, memorabilia and items from the collections of the Palace as well as private institutions and individuals have been assembled to form a unique and substantial exhibition for visitors. The building itself, designed by Ralph Harrington Doane in elegant neo-Renaissance style, is one of the finest examples of American colonial public architecture in the country, and one of the best-preserved today.
The rooms on the ground floor, most of them paneled in hardwood and sumptuously carved by the most renowned of Filipino woodcarvers, Isabelo Tampinco, housed the Executive Bureau during the American Period, and are today devoted to the colonial-era history of Malacañan Palace. 
 
The Old Waiting Room
The first of these rooms is the Old Waiting Room Gallery, which features relics and items evoking the Spanish era (c. 1750s-1898), during which the Palace was established, first as a private country home (c. 1750s -1825), then as state owned retreat of the Governor-General (1825-1847),[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bonifacio Nicolas Cristobal: Rediscovering a Forgotten Great]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/132/bonifacio-nicolas-cristobal-rediscovering-a-forgotten-great</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/132/bonifacio-nicolas-cristobal-rediscovering-a-forgotten-great</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:21:20 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2012-- Bonifacio Cristobal’s artistic influence was as great as his contemporaries. He began his painting career in 1937 after obtaining a Certificate in Painting from the UP School of Fine Arts. Upon his graduation, he travelled to Europe to pursue his Masters in Paris, France where he studied figure painting at the Academie Julien and then moved to Rome, Italy to study at the Regge Academia di Belle Arti. When he returned to the Philippines in 1939, he exhibited his works, taught art appreciation and freehand drawing, among others, at the Philippine Normal College and the Centro Escolar University. In 1947, Cristobal continued his teaching profession at the University of Santo Tomas where he taught anatomy, life drawing, modeling perspective, portrait painting and painting from life until his death in 1977. Taken together, Bonifacio Cristobal’s body of works is pivotal to the development of modern expression in the country as it gave way to a new interpretation of the painting enterprise.  In this June 2012 feature, Aurora Cristobal-Manguerra, the painter’s daughter, offers an intimate portrait of her father; provides a unified narrative of his early and academic life through his beginning as a painter to his practice of modernism and his involvement with the Thirteen Moderns led by Victorio Edades; and illuminates why the painter’s personal life, fame and commercial success followed a muted course.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Munch's 'Scream' beats auction record at $119.9 mn]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/131/munch-s-scream-beats-auction-record-at-119-9-mn</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/131/munch-s-scream-beats-auction-record-at-119-9-mn</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 May 2012 17:40:45 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[May 2012--"The Scream" is one of four versions of a work whose nightmarish central figure and lurid, swirling colors symbolized the existential angst and despair of the modern age.
It was sold by Norwegian Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and supporter of the artist. He plans to establish a new museum in Norway.
On two occasions, other versions of the painting have been stolen from museums, although both were recovered. Copies have adorned everything from student dorms to tea mugs and the work has the rare quality of being known to art experts and the general public alike.
"We're delighted to say that this magnificent picture, which is not only one of the seminal images of our history, but also one of the visual keys for modern consciousness, achieved a world record," Simon Shaw, head of the Impressionist and modern department at Sotheby's, said.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cenon Rivera: Artist and Professor of Modern Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/130/cenon-rivera-artist-and-professor-of-modern-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/130/cenon-rivera-artist-and-professor-of-modern-art</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:06:50 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April-May 2012-- Cenon Rivera, a painter of note, began his art career in the 1950s and later made significant contributions in Philippine art. In 1952, he pioneered in graphic art by making distinctive eighty different sets of  serigraphed Christmas Cards.  Then in 1956, he began experimenting on monoprint, woodcut, linocut and lawanicut. It was also in this year when he started teaching graphic art at the University of Santo Tomas. He also published “Pintig ng Buhay at iba pang Katha,” a bilingual collection of short stories, poems, essays and other writings he did from 1938 to 1956. In 1957, Cenon Rivera started a painting style characterized by horizontal and vertical grids for which he was best remembered. However, despite all the articles written about him and the significant works he produced, the man himself had remained a mystery to many. In this April 2012 feature, Noel Rivera, the artist’s son and Executive Director of the Pasig City Museum, provided much information about his father’s early career and development as an artist; his artistic outputs; his known and unknown contributions as an art professor and director of the UST Department of Fine Arts and his private life with him.
 
Has there been any book written about your father?
As far as I know none yet. He was authoring his own book and when he reached the final editing stage, Alzheimer occurred.
Your father was a painter, sculptor, printmaker and maker of mosaic and stained glass. Which came first? second? third?
Painter, poet, printmaker, stained glass, maker of mosaic, sculptor.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Break the Silence Over Fakes]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/129/break-the-silence-over-fakes</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/129/break-the-silence-over-fakes</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:44:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2012 -- The press has recently been full of reports about forgeries. In Europe, fakes by Wolfgang Beltracchi have embarrassed a number of experts and collectors. In the US, a painting purportedly by Jackson Pollock that was sold for $17m is the subject of a lawsuit against the now-closed Knoedler gallery and its former president Ann Freedman. This “Pollock”, moreover, seems to be only the tip of the iceberg, since it appears to belong to a surprisingly large collection of pictures supposedly painted by leading abstract expressionist artists. This collection was allegedly brokered by a previously obscure dealer named Glafira Rosales, who is now said to be the subject of an FBI investigation. The names attached to the paintings Rosales allegedly handled include Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, as well as Pollock.
One of these paintings, supposedly from the “Elegy to the Spanish Republic” series by Motherwell, was recently confirmed as a forgery by the Dedalus Foundation as part of a court settlement. The foundation, which I head, is sponsoring a catalogue raisonné of Motherwell’s work. Our experience with this and related works makes it clear how problematic the issue of authenticity has become for scholars, collectors, gallery owners, and foundations specialising in modern painting. Sharply rising prices and an increasing scarcity of major works have created a rich environment for forgers.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vermeer's Woman in Blue regains its hues]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/128/vermeer-s-woman-in-blue-regains-its-hues</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/128/vermeer-s-woman-in-blue-regains-its-hues</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:08:39 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Visitors to the Rijksmuseum will soon be able to see Vermeer’s newly restored Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, 1663-64, when it returns home following a Japanese tour which funded the work’s restoration. A century ago, the critic Jan Veth wrote that “nothing has ever been painted that is more noble and refined than this blue young woman”, but age took its toll and the blue appeared to gradually fade beneath the varnish. The painting has once again regained its colour and is due to be unveiled at the museum on 30 March.
 
Conserving a painting simply to regain its visual impact is a luxury, but the opportunity came with a Japanese request to borrow the work. Assisted by a substantial fee, the work was done at the Rijksmuseum in 2010, just before Woman in Blue made its first trip to Asia, as part of the touring exhibition “Communication: Visualising Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer”. The show opened in June 2011 in Kyoto before travelling to the Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai, near the epicentre of the 11 March earthquake. The museum suffered only minimal damage, so the Vermeer exhibition went ahead. The show is now at Tokyo’s Bunkamura Museum of Art until 14 March.
Ige Verslype, a conservator at the Rijksmuseum, acknowledges that Woman in Blue had “suffered severely since its conception” following several restorations, the most recent of which was in 1962. Yellowed varnish, discoloured retouching and numerous, tiny paint losses interfered with the original blue hues, delicate details and overall legibility of the work.
The picture was first subjected to a detailed examination, which included taking five minute paint samples. Most of the varnish and retouchings were then painstakingly removed. During the treatment, efforts were made to restore the picture as close as possible to its original condition.
An earlier restoration, probably in 1928, mistook three tiny white spots on the sheet of paper on the tablecloth for pearls—a common accessory in Vermeer’s paintings—and small blobs of yellow were added to highlight them. The recent examination suggested that the white dots represented light reflections on the tablecloth and the yellow overpaint was removed.
Two significant changes to the chair in the right corner were made to correct mistakes made during earlier restorations. An 1894 reproduction of the work revealed that the chair’s leg was originally wider, but it was slimmed down during the 1928 restoration. Conservators examined 17th-century Spanish chairs as well as those depicted in other works by Vermeer and used remnants of the original paint as a guide to make the chair leg wider at the bottom and taper slightly at the top. Conservators also uncovered a row of painted brass nails beneath the seat on the chair's frame which had been overpainted.
Another discovery was the presence of a row of painted brass nails just beneath the seat on the frame of the chair. These had been covered with later overpaint and have now been revealed.
Most dramatic is the removal of the varnish which has restored the work's original cool tones and enhanced its visibility. The change is particularly striking in the area of the blue jacket in shadow. It is now also evident that Vermeer used slightly different shades of blue on the jacket and the chair top. Rijksmuseum director Wim Pijbes describes the transformation as “spectacular”.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Leonardo's Lover probably painted the Prado's Mona Lisa]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/127/leonardo-s-lover-probably-painted-the-prado-s-mona-lisa</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/127/leonardo-s-lover-probably-painted-the-prado-s-mona-lisa</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:12:19 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2012--The Prado’s copy of the Mona Lisa was most likely painted by Salaì, Leonardo’s assistant and reputed lover. Salaì, whose nickname means “little Satan”, joined his master’s studio in 1490, at the age of ten, and worked with him until Leonardo’s death.
Giorgio Vasari, the mid-16th century art historian, described Salaì as “a graceful and beautiful youth with curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted”. It has long been believed that Salaì and Leonardo were lovers, although there is no firm evidence of a sexual relationship.
The identity of the studio assistant who painted the Prado’s copy of the Mona Lisa is still being investigated, but Salaì (whose real name was Gian Giacomo Caprotti) has now emerged as the top contender. On 21 February, the newly-restored copy of the Mona Lisa, done side-by-side with Leonardo’s original in his studio, was unveiled in Madrid. The Louvre dates the original to about 1503-06.
If it is confirmed that Salaì was the copyist of the Mona Lisa, then it is unlikely that he once owned the original, as has previously been assumed. The Louvre would then have to reassess the early history of the world’s most famous painting.
In attempting to identify the copyist, curators at the Prado began by eliminating pupils and associates such as Boltraffio, Marco d’Oggiono and Ambrogio de Predis—since they each have their own individual styles. They also eliminated two Spanish followers of Leonardo, Fernando Yáñez and Fernando de Llanos, whose work is distinctively Valencian.
Miguel Falomir, the head of Italian paintings at the Prado, now believes that the copy of the Mona Lisa “can be stylistically located in a Milanese context close to Salaì or possibly Francesco Melzi”. Melzi was an assistant who joined Leonardo’s studio in around 1507, but the Prado’s copy may well have been started earlier. Of the two, Salaì now seems the most likely.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Divinely Beautiful Greek charioteer comes to London]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/126/divinely-beautiful-greek-charioteer-comes-to-london</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/126/divinely-beautiful-greek-charioteer-comes-to-london</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:22:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2012, London--He is called the charioteer and although damaged, with his turning, athletic body and robe so fine and clinging that every muscle is revealed, he is one of the most exquisite surviving Greek sculptures. And the British Museum has managed to borrow him for the duration of the Olympic Games.
From 1 May, the fifth-century BC Auriga (charioteer) of Mozia (where he was found) will be on display in the Duveen Gallery surrounded by the Parthenon Marbles, which are slightly younger by about 30 years. Normally, to see the charioteer you have to make a lengthy pilgrimage to a remote island off the west coast of Sicily, to the little museum set up in memory of the English marsala importer Giuseppe Whitaker, who personally funded decades of excavations there.
In a deal struck with the Sicilian government, the British Museum is sending the Strangford Apollo (see photo below), an almost equally beautiful naked youth, found in the Greek Cyclades Islands, to take the charioteer’s place while he comes north, until 30 September.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fears Grow that Greek Art Market is Riddled with Forgeries]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/125/fears-grow-that-greek-art-market-is-riddled-with-forgeries</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/125/fears-grow-that-greek-art-market-is-riddled-with-forgeries</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:51:35 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2012--Athens, Greece--A legal case brought against Sotheby’s by a major Greek collector could be the tip of the iceberg
A major Greek collector has taken Sotheby’s to court in Athens over two alleged fake paintings attributed to the Greek artist Constantin Parthenis (1878-1967). The case has stoked fears that the Greek art market is riddled with fakes, which may have increased significantly in number during the boom.
The collector Diamantis Diamantides, who owns the shipping firm, Marmaras Navigation, is one of the biggest buyers of Greek art. He bought Still Life Before the Acropolis from Sotheby’s, London, in 2006 and set a record price for the artist when he paid £670,100 for The Virgin and Child in the same saleroom in 2007. Both works are believed to have been consigned by the same two people, although Sotheby’s declined to disclose who they were.
Evidence reviewed 
Doubts were soon raised over the authenticity of the works. Diamantides eventually lodged a complaint against the auction house and Constantine Frangos, the London-based senior director of Greek art at Sotheby’s, in February 2010, saying that they fraudulently induced him to buy forgeries. A spokesman for Sotheby’s denies this vigorously, saying: “It stands to reason that an auction house that sells billions of dollars of art a year, and relies on its reputation to secure consignments and purchasers, would not put its business at risk by knowingly selling forged works.” The spokesman adds: “We are reviewing further evidence that has been submitted concerning the authenticity of the works.” A decision on the case is expected shortly.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ramon Estella: A Purveyor of Modern Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/124/ramon-estella-a-purveyor-of-modern-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/124/ramon-estella-a-purveyor-of-modern-art</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:34:03 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2012--Ramon Estella first made a name for himself as a writer and director for film, television and radio during the 1950s before having his solo exhibition in 1959 at the Philippine Art Gallery. Working together with Hernando Ocampo, Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi, Romeo Tabuena and Victor Oteyza, he became a practitioner of expressionism and cubism and later developed a style characterized by bold lines and strident colors. Estella had always believed that this approach of painting “leads to a healthy movement, to a kind of art which allows the painter the same freedom in paint as music notes allow the composer -- not an imitation of nature but a personal interpretation.” Six of Estella’s children: Regina Estella, Rosemarie Bosque, Cynthia Ormachea, Cecile Lavine, Ricardo Estella and Ramon Estella Jr., provided detailed descriptions of their father’s early, middle and late career and offered important insights into contemporary perceptions of his heritage as an artist. It is hoped that Ramon Estella’s contribution brings the fruits of his artist’s lifetime back into the public eye.
 
Has there been any book written about your father? 
 
Not to my knowledge only articles in newspapers and magazines. Teddy Co is writing a book about Dad as a director. It was supposed to have been finished three years ago.
Your father is a known filmmaker. Was he a filmmaker first and painter second? 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Spanish Treasure Lands After Two Hundred Years]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/123/spanish-treasure-lands-after-two-hundred-years</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/123/spanish-treasure-lands-after-two-hundred-years</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:48:55 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2012---MADRID (Reuters) - Coins worth nearly half a billion dollars finally arrived in Spain on Saturday after lying in a sunken warship for more than 200 years and following a five-year legal battle between the Spanish government and a salvage company.
The Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a 49-gun navy frigate, set sail from the coast of Peru - then a colony of Spain - with coins to help replenish the Spanish treasury's coffers.
In 1804, British warships attacked as the frigate was approaching the Spanish port of Cadiz and the ship went down, with 249 killed, a Spanish government website said.
On Saturday, Spanish military aircraft landed at the Torrejon air force base near Madrid bearing 594,000 gold and silver coins recovered from the wreck by U.S.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Josie Lim Cruz's Vital Gestures]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/122/josie-lim-cruz-s-vital-gestures</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/122/josie-lim-cruz-s-vital-gestures</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:52:11 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2012--Well-regarded by critics, artists, collectors and art students, Josie Lim Cruz began her artistic career in Manila during the mid-1980s but emigrated to America in 1995, where she continues to paint, teach, conduct workshops and curate exhibitions. Her achievement has never received full recognition as a painter in command of her personal style of harmonic abstractions. Her paintings are best appreciated for their subtlety, their directness and her own aesthetic. In this interview, Josie Lim Cruz tracks her growth as a painter from her earlier works to her mature style of painting and makes known how she embraces gesture, experience and emotion with direct and raw energy, for the readers to locate her in the continuum of her times.
 
What batch are you from in the UP College of Fine Arts? 
 
I was a 1991 graduate and unexpected cum laude.  My first course was Health Education where I had mediocre grades so I did not know these were not factored in with my BFA ratings. Had I known earlier, I may have aspired for summa cum laude. 
 
What made you decide to study fine arts?
It was sort of a gift from my husband who sent me to school. I was struggling with fine arts materials and methods so he suggested I enroll for workshops. Later, my workshop professor, Mr. Carlos Valino, advised me to register formally for the degree. It was also my passion from childhood but my parents preferred that I choose more stable and conventional career.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Earliest Copy of Mona Lisa found in Prado]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/121/earliest-copy-of-mona-lisa-found-in-prado</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/121/earliest-copy-of-mona-lisa-found-in-prado</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:56:52 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2012--A copy of the Mona Lisa has been discovered in the Prado which was painted in Leonardo’s studio—created side by side with the original that now hangs in the Louvre. This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture.
 
Conservators at the Prado in Madrid recently made an astonishing discovery, hidden beneath black overpaint. What was assumed to be a replica of the Mona Lisa made after Leonardo’s death had actually been painted by one of his key pupils, working alongside the master. The picture is more than just a studio copy—it changed as Leonardo developed his original composition.
The final traces of overpaint are now being removed by Prado conservators, revealing the fine details of the delicate Tuscan landscape, which mirrors the background of Leonardo’s masterpiece. Darkened varnish is also being painstakingly stripped away from the face of the Mona Lisa, giving a much more vivid impression of her enticing eyes and enigmatic smile.
In the Louvre’s original, which will not be cleaned in the foreseeable future, Lisa’s face is obscured by old, cracked varnish, making her appear almost middle aged. In the Prado copy we see her as she would have looked at the time—as a radiant young woman in her early 20s.
Leonardo da Vinci, and particularly his masterpiece the Mona Lisa, attracts endless sensationalist theories. However, the discovery of the contemporary copy has been accepted by the two key authorities, the Prado and the Louvre.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rubens masterpiece "made for public" Artist chose "cheap and cheerful" wood]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/120/rubens-masterpiece-quot-made-for-public-quot-artist-chose-quot-cheap-and-cheerful-quot-wood</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/120/rubens-masterpiece-quot-made-for-public-quot-artist-chose-quot-cheap-and-cheerful-quot-wood</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:49:09 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2012--The restoration of a painting by Rubens from London’s Courtauld Gallery has revealed that the work was probably not a commission, but created for the speculative market. Cain Slaying Abel, around 1608-09—one of the most significant works by the artist in the Courtauld’s collection—is due to go back on display next month, following an 11-month project to clean the work and address structural issues. The money for the treatment came from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, which launched a conservation grants programme in 2010.
Although scholars have long known that the painting belonged to a group of works produced following an eight-year trip to Italy, where Rubens studied pieces by Michelangelo and Caravaggio, a dendrochronological analysis of its panels revealed that the work was created almost immediately upon the artist’s return to Antwerp. The fact that the oak boards are made from sapwood (the outermost, younger wood) has led conservators to speculate that the painting was for the art market. “It was typical for a client to buy panels for the artist, and in doing so, [the client] would normally buy the best quality materials,” says the conservator Kate Stonor, who explains that sapwood is not ideal because it is soft and sweet, making it prone to woodworm. “We think Rubens bought the panels himself and chose the ‘cheap and cheerful’ option, knowing that the work was for the art market,” says the conservator Clare Richardson, who also worked on the piece.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The History of the San Agustin Church]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/119/the-history-of-the-san-agustin-church</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/119/the-history-of-the-san-agustin-church</guid><pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:17:15 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2012--Along with its search for wealth, the Spanish colonizers made it a top mission to spread Catholicism in the Philippines. And to broaden the reach of Christianity, a place for worship is needed to bring the congregation together. As a result, churches were built around the country for Christianity to thrive. One of these churches was the San Agustin Church.
The San Agustin church was rebuilt three times due to man-made and natural disasters. Since then, it has withstood natural disasters and has become the oldest church in the Philippines. It is now recognized by the government and UNESCO as a historical landmark. 
 
The History of the Church
The San Agustin Church was under the auspices of the Agustinian Order. The friars took the cudgels in building the church. Like many structures during that time, the church of San Agustin was built with the use of nipa and bamboo. The building of the church started in 1571, it was then officially named as Iglesia y Convento de San Pablo.  
 
In 1574, the Chinese pirate, Limahong invaded Manila. The invasion led to the burning of the city and the San Agustin Church was not spared. This led to the first reconstruction of the church a year later. The second church was made of wooden materials. Because of the choice of the structural material used, it remained risky to fire accidents. True enough, another fire caused the destruction of the church in 1583. 
 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Antonio G. Dumlao: The Forgotten Great]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/118/antonio-g-dumlao-the-forgotten-great</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/118/antonio-g-dumlao-the-forgotten-great</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:04:05 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2011--In the not so distant past, Antonio Gonzales Dumlao was a big name in Philippine art. He was a contemporary of Fernando Amorsolo and Vicente Manansala who began his career during the late the 1930s painting landscapes and figures while maintaining a job in an advertising company and engraving firm. Although he was self-taught, he had the guts and technical dexterity to produce large figurative works that were remarkable and brought insight into his own legacy and life. In this December interview, Marinela Dumlao-Currie, Antonio Dumlao’s daughter and a primary and secondary tutor in Sydney, Australia, sets the history of her father and discusses at length about what her father was in life and his works with the hope that the memory of his name returns to the consciousness of the Filipino art-loving public and reproposes his relevance in contemporary time.
 
You are doing a book on your father, Antonio Dumlao. Tell us some details about your own research and why the family has decided to have a book made on Dumlao.
My father was a generous person when it came to sharing his inborn talent. In fact, he gave some of his artworks to friends. As long as he knew his paintings were valued, kept and appreciated, he was happy seeing them on display in the family  homes.I was the one who initiated publishing a book about Papa. Yes, there has never been a book about him since. He was an extremely good father and provider to his children. There have been hundreds of articles about him and his arts but never a book! Obviously, he was not too keen on publicity. All his life what he always did was to paint, sketch, draw, sculpt and deal with his art patrons. His works were advertised and sold by word of mouth by his friends and[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The History of the Manila Cathedral]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/117/the-history-of-the-manila-cathedral</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/117/the-history-of-the-manila-cathedral</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:55:01 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2011-- The year was 1521, as Ferdinand Magellan set foot in the Philippines, it marked the arrival of Catholicism in the Philippines. The Spanish colonization paved way for the spread of Christianity and the era of Western church architecture in the Philippines. During the three centuries of colonization, it produced grandly design churches; one of these is the Manila Cathedral.
 
The present Manila Cathedral, situated at the heart of the walled city of Intramuros has gone several major reconstructions since its inception. The Neo-Romanesque-Byzantine cathedral has long been the seat of archbishop in the Philippines. And it continuous to be one of the most admired churches in the country. 
 
The Seat of Spain’s Ecclesiastical Rule 
 
The Manila Cathedral of today features Romanesque façade and beautiful cupola but its humble beginning is a far cry from when it was first built. 
 
Mandated with the mission of the sword and the cross, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, occupied Manila in 1571. Then the Spanish conquistador assigned an area for his new settlement for a church. The cathedral was known as Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate under the patronage of the La Purisima Immaculada Conception. 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Devil Found in Detail of Giotto Fresco in Italy's Assisi]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/116/devil-found-in-detail-of-giotto-fresco-in-italy-s-assisi</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/116/devil-found-in-detail-of-giotto-fresco-in-italy-s-assisi</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:42:32 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[November 2011--ROME (Reuters) - Art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in the clouds of one of the most famous frescos by Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, church officials said on Saturday.
The devil was hidden in the details of clouds at the top of fresco number 20 in the cycle of the scenes in the life and death of St Francis painted by Giotto in the 13th century.
The discovery was made by Italian art historian Chiara Frugone. It shows a profile of a figure with a hooked nose, a sly smile, and dark horns hidden among the clouds in the panel of the scene depicting the death of St Francis.
The figure is difficult to see from the floor of the basilica but emerges clearly in close-up photography.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[New Biography Says van Gogh Did Not Kill Himself]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/114/new-biography-says-van-gogh-did-not-kill-himself</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/114/new-biography-says-van-gogh-did-not-kill-himself</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:58:31 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October 2011-- A new biography of Vincent van Gogh and a “60 Minutes” report on it scheduled for Sunday night call into question the long-accepted notion — central to the myth of the troubled artist — that he committed suicide.
In the book, “Van Gogh: The Life,” due out next week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith present evidence that raises doubts about the source of the gunshot wound van Gogh sustained in or near the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, France, in July 1890.
“No physical evidence of the shooting was ever produced,” they write. “No gun was ever found.” Van Gogh, who “knew nothing about guns,” left no suicide note, and the bullet entered his upper abdomen “from an unusual, oblique angle — not straight on as one would expect in a suicide.” The authors hypothesize that he was shot by a friend’s teenage brother, who carried a gun and “had a history of teasing Vincent in a way intended to provoke him to anger.” (The artist, for his part, “had a history of violent outbursts.”)[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Islamic Art in the Philippines]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/115/islamic-art-in-the-philippines</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/115/islamic-art-in-the-philippines</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:01:17 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October-November 2011--Islam as a religion has long been established since the early A.D. 600s. Along with its emergence around the world, it also paved way for the development of its own unique stlye of art. Islamic art place emphasis on creating an artform that is built on the beauty and respect for the teachings of Islam.
 
Islamic art is characterized by designs of flowers, plant forms and geometric designs. It is used in calligraphy, architecture painting, clothing and other forms of fine art. 
As Islam spread around the world, this distinct form of art has become an integral part of the identity of its followers, including the Philippines.   
 
The Development of Islamic Art in the Philippines 
 
 In the 13th century, traders and missionaries have introduced the religion of Islam in the Philippines. Islamic art meshed with ethnic culture and produced a Filipino Muslim art that reflects the ethnic background and Islamic identity of the people. During the Spanish colonization and American occupation, Islam has been concentrated mostly in the South but this did not halt the flourishing of Islamic art.
Global development, however, exposed the Filipino Muslims to its Middle Eastern roots, who have become their main source of representation of Islam’s art.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bob Dylan Paintings Come Under Fire]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/113/bob-dylan-paintings-come-under-fire</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/113/bob-dylan-paintings-come-under-fire</guid><pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:05:16 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October 2011--Bob Dylan faced uncomfortable questions Wednesday over several paintings in a New York exhibition by the prolific singer-songwriter that appear to have been copied directly from other artists' photographs.
The paintings are part of a show at the Gagosian Gallery titled "The Asia Series," billed as "a visual reflection on his travels in Japan, China, Vietnam, and Korea."
According to the Gagosian, the art work, which went on display earlier this month, shows how Dylan "is inspired by everyday phenomena in such a way that they appear fresh, new, and mysterious."
But Dylan watchers and an article in The New York Times highlight another mystery behind the exhibition: that several paintings supposedly reflecting Dylan's globe-trotting artistic career are nearly identical to already published photographs.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trying to understand why art can offend, and why artists should continue to be free]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/111/trying-to-understand-why-art-can-offend-and-why-artists-should-continue-to-be-free</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/111/trying-to-understand-why-art-can-offend-and-why-artists-should-continue-to-be-free</guid><pubDate>Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:55:55 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[      “What in art gives such remarkable power that it can offend?  What makes people susceptible to being offended?”  Thus spoke Prof. Flaudette May Datuin, taking off from WJT Mitchell’s What Do Pictures Want?  I’m glad I attended the UP Arts Studies forum yesterday on the now closed “Kulo” exhibit at CCP.  It was such an intelligent, unemotional exchange of facts and ideas on a wide range of offensive art, audience reaction, culture and legalities.
  
Forum speaker, lawyer and Prof. Alden Lauzon, cited that Article III, Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution pronounces that “[n]o law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.” And in an attempt to define the ever-subjective “obscenity,” he quotes:  (from Miller vs. California/ cited in Bernas)
  
“The basic guidelines for the trier of facts must be: (a) whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest… (b) Whether the work depicts of describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole,lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” 
  
The ongoing controversy however is not about an artwork being prurient or obscene but more about blasphemy and sacrilege in a largely “Catholic” populace. Apparently, there are no legal precedents on such matters when it comes to testing our 1987 Constitution of the Philippines.  So discussion on this did not ensue.  Except I gathered it is best for artists espousing social transformation to test the aesthetics of their art on street folks rather than on May Datuin or Patrick Flores.
  
Before the forum, I told Mideo Cruz that I myself was offended specifically by the oversized crimson phallus placed on the crucifix, and the Jesus image with eyes blackened with dripping ink. The stretched condom hanging on one side of a crucifix was just as odious, I said.  But that I didn't think CCP should close the exhibit.  Politeismo should have been left open for restricted viewing.  Datuin said that we should have seized this as a teaching moment. [...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dina Gadia's Assembling Collage of Contemporary Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/110/dina-gadia-s-assembling-collage-of-contemporary-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/110/dina-gadia-s-assembling-collage-of-contemporary-art</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:51:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2011-- Collage has a short and distinguished history and was firmly established as an art form of novelty in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, the popularity of collage is on the rise again and a new generation of young artists such as Dina Gadia is rediscovering the practice by combining different materials charmingly by hand to isolate and expose choice images and to obtain new effects. A painter and a collage artist, Dina Gadia entered the art scene in 2006 by participating in group exhibitions with other artists of her generation. Her early works are influenced by Pop, Surrealism and Imagism and referenced diverse sources such as advertisements, history, science, fine arts, cinema (B-movie posters in particular), comics, accessories of everyday life and the new globalized pop culture. In this July interview, Dina Gadia introduces herself and her works and points out how time and the element of excitement holds up a mirror to our times.
 
Tell me about you. 
 
I was born October 28, 1986 in Anda, Pangasinan. I grew up with my aunt. I was with her family since I was two years old. I studied at Lucap Elementary School and Colegio San Jose de Alaminos in high school.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Museum uncovers Van Gogh Painting of His Brother]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/109/museum-uncovers-van-gogh-painting-of-his-brother</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/109/museum-uncovers-van-gogh-painting-of-his-brother</guid><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:46:39 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[AMSTERDAM -- The Van Gogh Museum said its experts now believe one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings previously thought to be a self-portrait actually depicts his brother, Theo.
 
If true, it would be the only known painting of Theo, although Vincent made several sketches of his brother, who supported him financially and was his lifelong confidant and friend. 
 
“People have often thought it was funny that there were no portraits of Theo, given that they were so close,” said museum spokeswoman Linda Snoek. 
 
She said the portrait was made in 1887 while the pair lived together in Paris — a lesser-known period of Van Gogh’s life, since the bulk of information about Vincent is derived from letters he sent to Theo. 
 
The painting has long been in storage, but went on display at the museum in Amsterdam last week as part of an exhibition on new findings about the painter’s time spent in Antwerp and Paris in 1885-1888. 
 
Though the brothers resembled each other physically, scholars determined the painting represents Theo by a number of factors. 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mexico trove of 1,200 Frida Kahlo Works All Forged: Experts]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/108/mexico-trove-of-1-200-frida-kahlo-works-all-forged-experts</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/108/mexico-trove-of-1-200-frida-kahlo-works-all-forged-experts</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:08:18 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MEXICO CITY -- Experts said Thursday that a trove of 1,200 art works displayed at prominent Mexican gallery as the work of famed artist Frida Kahlo are forgeries.
The works, owned by the art dealer Carlos Noyola and his wife, had been on exhibit at a gallery in San Miguel Allende in central Mexico.
But experts said there was no chance that the works could be genuine.
"The works in question are not authentic," Hilda Trujillo, director of the Frida Kahlo museum, told AFP.
"All of the pieces are signed exactly the same way, while Frida used different signatures," she said.
"Nowhere is this trove of works documented -- much less a reserve of this size," said Carlos Phillips Olmedo, another expert affiliated with the Kahlo Museum.
The couple who owns the pieces, which include oil paintings, sketches, letters and other documents, claim to have purchased them in 2005.
Law enforcement officials said no criminal charges had been filed against the couple, because they are alleged simply to have claimed that the works were by Kahlo, and not to have actually created the forgeries.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Seeing Through the Canvas of Simon Saulog]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/107/seeing-through-the-canvas-of-simon-saulog</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/107/seeing-through-the-canvas-of-simon-saulog</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 May 2011 09:27:39 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[June 2011-- I first met Simon Saulog in 1983. I was then a young misfit college student who wanted to become a visual artist. At that time, I thought I have given up on my dream until I met Simon Saulog who rekindled my passion.
Initially, my plan was to train formally but Saulog scoffed at the idea and suggested that I attend art workshops instead since he had an opinion that attending school is a waste of time and money. For a while, this confused me as he sounded bitter but soon I realized that he made some sense. For a man of innate talent, school might have bored him. 
 
Back in his hometown in Imus, Cavite, Simon Saulog chose to adopt a group of hobbyists that included myself and he went on to regularly tutor us. This informal school later adopted a structured module with lessons on freehand drawing, pencil drawing, color rendering, portraits, landscape, still life done in various media. Our group, which later became a socio-civic club called Malayang Sining, was fortunate because we had the opportunity to closely work with Saulog and learn directly from him. The ideas we have learned were simply out of the box since we frequented galleries that ceased to exist now and interacted with Saulog’s former acquaintances and patrons.
 
Naturally, we developed certain closeness with Saulog and soon called him Tata Simon, an expression of respect to elders among barrio folks. Since I was the writer on this group of students, I was requested to write about him.  
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Farewell (Or Underground With) Material Possessions]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/105/farewell-or-underground-with-material-possessions</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/105/farewell-or-underground-with-material-possessions</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2011 10:10:03 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MANILA, Philipines -- Possessors ordinarily ignore the prayerful’s admonition of detachment from material possessions.  With the National Cultural Heritage Act (R.A. No. 10066, signed into Law in March 2010), they won’t. The Law specifically mentions collectors (“any person who or institution that acquires cultural property for purposes other than sale”) and dealers (“natural or juridical persons who acquire cultural property for the purpose of engaging in the acquisition or disposition of the same”). (Sec. 3-g and p)
 
As written, it covers just about everything man-made, since “cultural property” is, “all products of human creativity by which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques, and other places of religious worship, schools and natural history specimens and sites, whether public or privately-owned, movable or immovable, and tangible or intangible.”  (Sec. 3-o) 
 
Specifically enumerated are archival material, books, manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers, libraries, electronic records, movable and immovable cultural property pertaining to Philippine history and heroes.  Also mentioned are the fine arts (e.g., paintings, sculpture, photographs), archaeology, anthropology, botany, geology, zoology, astronomy, languages, performing arts.  (Sec. 31) 
 
How geologists, zoologists and astronomers enter the picture is unclear, but surely Pinoy cooks, fashion designers, furniture makers, woodcarvers, weavers and embroiderers, jeepney painters, etc. creatively reveal aspects of our national identity. Objects designed and/or manufactured abroad (e.g., stamps and coins) could also express Filipino identity.  On the other hand, excavated ceramics, being Chinese (Sung and Ming), Vietnamese or Thai, hardly express Filipino national identity, something that might be argued excludes them from “cultural property” as defined.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Guillermo Estrella Tolentino: A Classic of His Time]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/104/guillermo-estrella-tolentino-a-classic-of-his-time</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/104/guillermo-estrella-tolentino-a-classic-of-his-time</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 May 2011 09:34:26 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[May 2011-- Guillermo Estrella Tolentino was born in Malolos, Bulacan on 24 July 1890.  He was the fourth of eight children.  His father was a tailor, whose only artistic trait is the love of playing the guitar.  Guillermo or Memong, as his family called him, inherited this artistic skill.  Moreover, Memong became one of the three best guitar players in the Philippines during his time. Before his formal schooling, he used to mold horses and dogs in clay, out of the materials from the banks of the fishponds in town.  He studied at the Malolos Intermediate School.  From fifth to sixth grade, his teacher was Mrs. H.A. Bordner who also gave him his first instructions in drawing.
Shortly, he went to Malolos high school for two years.  Then hearing from his cousin that there is an art school in Manila, he transferred to the Manila high school in Intramuros.  In the afternoons, he attended classes at the School of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines.  He took drawing classes under Vicente Rivera.  Later on, he decided to take lessons in sculpture too, under Vicente Francisco.  Soon, he was more interested in scuplture than in painting. In 1911, while he was still in high school, he made a group of drawing of Rizal, Burgos, Antonio and Juan Luna, Regidor and others.  His Tata Pepe, with whom he was living, succeeded in interesting Severino Reyes to have the drawing lithographed.  It was then published in Liwayway, whose editor was Reyes, under the title Grupo de Filipinos Ilustros.  Although Tolentino never made a centavo out of the drawing, he was pleased to see his work in people’s homes everywhere.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jason Moss' Unabashed Narrative]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/103/jason-moss-unabashed-narrative</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/103/jason-moss-unabashed-narrative</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:25:07 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2011--Jason Moss has been around the art circle since 1997. He graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of Santo Tomas and soon started work as an illustrator and then had stints as an animator, TV director, editorial cartoonist and instructor while pursuing his career as a young artist. Slowly, he became an integral part of the contemporary art scene in the country and created a body of work that is absorbing in its seeming simplicity while mirroring the private and secret worlds of his subject or even the artist himself. His figures, sometimes painted as informal portraits and nudes, have an emotional pull to the viewer and quietly exude flickers of melancholy, introspection as well as psychological and sexual desires: security, bliss, youth, body parts, physical strength, companionship, sexual fantasies and freedom—all absurdly rich in meaning. His paintings are executed so confidently and technically that they also reveal Moss as a skillful graphic artist from the start. Today, he continues to produce humurous and spellbinding works with varying themes that continue to excite and engage the viewers. In this April interview, Jason Moss outlines his early life and achievements, his insights and motivations, the work ethics he lives by as an artist and proves why his art continues to be vital and contemporary and why it deserves serious attention.
 
Graduating from the University of Santo Tomas in 1997, how was your life like during the early phase of your career?
Like any young artist exposed to the scene, I was a eager to learn. I wanted to meet everybody and circulate around different art circles, sit and talk with senior or emerging artists about their philosophies. I spent most of my time regularly attending openings, reading books, and drawing almost everything and anything. I did not employ myself after college, I did freelance work as an illustrator and held exhibits every year. I was trying everything from animation to volunteerism but they are mostly for environmental non-government offices.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Daniel Coquilla's Art of Street Culture]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/102/daniel-coquilla-s-art-of-street-culture</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/102/daniel-coquilla-s-art-of-street-culture</guid><pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:58:07 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February-March 2011-- Daniel Coquilla, fondly called Dansoy, is a painter of whom nothing is known yet his body of work are never derided and ignored by critics, curators, historians and collectors alike. He took interest in reading comic books as a young child and from the age of ten, he knew he wanted to become a comic illustrator. Possessed by this ambition, he moved to Manila from his boyhood home in Panabo City, Davao del Norte to fend for himself and his studies. He found work as a comic illustrator and then as a gallery assistant where he learned the ropes of gallery operations. Here, art was thrown open to him which offered him free play for his imaginative expression. He began to paint while training formally at the UP College of Fine Arts. His early works show a simplification of form and detail and are reminiscent of the works of Dalena, Belleza and Olmedo.
Over the years, crowd has become a theme, in which Coquilla particularly excels for he sees himself an insider in the midst of this boundless human mass. His mature style is characterized by vigorous brushworks, cluttered compositions in top down projection, animated poses of figures with cockeye, open mouths and bulbous heads, appearing like pantomime of fixed postures. Devoid of any flattery, there is no sarcasm and deceit in his works but reflections of the everyday street culture in the Philippines. In this interview, Dansoy Coquilla provides a run through of his childhood, his family and educational background, his thoughts and opinions on certain issues, his various influences and the environment that made his works possible.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A New Theory for "Mona Lisa"]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/101/a-new-theory-for-quot-mona-lisa-quot-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/101/a-new-theory-for-quot-mona-lisa-quot-</guid><pubDate>Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:51:32 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2011-- For centuries, people have been speculating about who modeled for Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Was it Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant? Was it Isabella of Aragon? Was it the artist himself, as some experts believe? Or was it, as new research suggests, none of the above?
An Italian art historian, Silvano Vinceti, believes the model for the "Mona Lisa" was a man named Gian Giacomo Caprotti, better known as Salai, a male apprentice (and possible lover) of da Vinci.
At a press conference in Rome on Wednesday, Vinceti explained his theory. "Salai was a favorite model for Leonardo," Vinceti said. "Leonardo certainly inserted characteristics of Salai in the last version of the 'Mona Lisa.'" Vinceti pointed out the similarities between the noses and mouths as examples.
Following the press conference, Web searches on "da vinci salai" and "gian giacomo caprotti" both soared.
Earlier this year, Vinceti remarked that he discovered some objects in the eyes of the "Mona Lisa." He says he has found the letter "S" in the woman's left eye, the letter "L" in her right eye, and the number "72" under the bridge in the background. The images are not visible to the naked eye. Scientific equipment was used.
Vinceti doesn't necessarily believe that Salai was the only inspiration for the world's most famous painting. At the press conference, the historian said, "the 'Mona Lisa' must be read at various levels, not just as a portrait." In other words, according to Vinceti, there were likely multiple inspirations for the painting.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Daniel de la Cruz's Touchstone of Modern Sculpture]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/100/daniel-de-la-cruz-s-touchstone-of-modern-sculpture</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/100/daniel-de-la-cruz-s-touchstone-of-modern-sculpture</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:49:14 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January-February 2011 -- Many of the artists who emerged in 2006 found themselves pursuing a career in painting. But Daniel de la Cruz, who turned forty that year, actively turned his thoughts towards his dream of becoming a sculptor and debuted his figural sculptures at the Ayala Museum, reaping unbelievable success and adulation. Because of his talent and deepened commitment to his art braided with his professional training as an accomplished product designer and fascination with the creative possibilities of metals, this led him to produce sculptures of graceful and powerful rotund figures of women, eventually becoming his signature style. His searing body of works is viewed with anecdotes, childhood memories, studio notes, fairy tales, fantasy, myths and legends and is thought of as chronicles of his intellectual and practical journeys. Half a decade later, as the range and quality of de la Cruz’s art practice have become acceptable to the art viewing public, he continues to nurture his growing menagerie of works to engulf in the memory and imagination of hard to please critics, curators and collectors. Today, many of his seminal pieces now grace the homes and offices of important private collections and continues to receive series of commissioned works. In this January 2011 feature, Daniel de la Cruz draws a warm and easy going portrait of himself, his family and educational background, his early professional career, the dynamics of his working method and throws a floodlight on how his ever-growing dedication to his art changed his life.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Matisse sets new 49-million-dollar record]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/99/matisse-sets-new-49-million-dollar-record</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/99/matisse-sets-new-49-million-dollar-record</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:25:23 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A large bronze sculpture of a woman's back by Henri Matisse has sold for nearly 49 million dollars in New York, setting a new record for the French impressionist.
Measuring 74.5 inches (189.2 cm), "Nu de dos" was the star of the auction at Christie's. It went under the hammer just a day after rival Sotheby's auctioned an Amedeo Modigliani painting for a record 69 million dollars.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jeho Bitancor's Painted Truths]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/97/jeho-bitancor-s-painted-truths</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/97/jeho-bitancor-s-painted-truths</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:02:16 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[October-November 2010 -- Jeho Bitancor is one of the more important and astute contemporary painters in the country today. In the mid-1980s, he emerged with quasi-surreal paintings as his early explorations in art but has since made a mark as a purveyor of social realist paintings. In his breakthrough works, Bitancor imbues his statements, ironies and epigrams in the hope that knowledge and awareness may serve as an impetus for change. His mature works, often of a personal and contemplative nature, have engaged the themes of society, the Filipino diaspora and other nexus of issues, experiences and thoughts. Yet taken together, Bitancor’s works put the viewer’s attention to those aspects of migratory experience that shatter or reinforce the Filipinos attachment to its homeland and its readiness to adapt to a new country. After three decades of achieving a fairly notable position, patronage and approval, Jeho Bitancor continues to improve himself as a painter and works harder for his works to address larger segments of its wider audience. In this November feature, Jeho Bitancor provides an account of his life and painting career, his artistic process and ethics and accompanies the lively discussion with his thoughtful body of works, giving a vivid portrait of himself as both an individual and a painter.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Painting is by Rembrant, not his Pupil -Confirms Museum in Rotterdam]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/96/painting-is-by-rembrant-not-his-pupil-confirms-museum-in-rotterdam</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/96/painting-is-by-rembrant-not-his-pupil-confirms-museum-in-rotterdam</guid><pubDate>Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:07:21 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[THE HAGUE (AFP) -- A painting attributed for 300 years to a pupil of Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn was in fact the work of the 17th century master himself, a Rotterdam museum said Wednesday. "Up to now, we thought that the canvas was painted by a student of Rembrandt," Boijmans van Beuningen museum spokeswoman Carola de Groen told AFP of the work entitled "Tobias and His Wife". But Dutch Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering presented a report this week with evidence that the work was of the master himself. "We have just been informed that Museum Boijmans van Beuningen has a new Rembrandt in the collection," said a statement.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Keiye Miranda's Moving Waters]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/93/keiye-miranda-s-moving-waters</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/93/keiye-miranda-s-moving-waters</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:43:21 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[September- October 2010-- Keiye Miranda has burst upon the art scene in 1998 roaming freely among photography, gallery assisting, art teaching and painting. But despite her  various activities in this period, she immersed herself in modern art and experimented with photography as a starting point for her early works. Her practice and exposure has then led her to produce paintings based on the theme of underwater pool. To her many followers, this series of painting is a celebration of what it is to be alive – perpetual sunshine, relaxed atmosphere, carefree days at the pool and all year summer vacation. But while a few of her critics observe that her images of pool water is completely her own, the gradual changes in her style as well as the stories she has told in these works have received considerable attention among many of her followers. Her principal paintings have entered notable private collections and have since been fast becoming one of the more independent female artists of the contemporary period. Keiye Miranda, in this interview, tells the beginning years of her career, the milieu in which she was formed, her visual intelligence and her artistic integrity in creating her body of work that invites the viewers’ investigation.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Mastery of Mia Herbosa]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/92/the-mastery-of-mia-herbosa</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/92/the-mastery-of-mia-herbosa</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:19:31 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July-August 2010-- Mia Ongpin Herbosa has a unique standing in the history of Philippine art. Coming from the bloodlines of Jose Rizal and Damian Domingo, she proves with her talent in painting and erudition that the apple has not fallen far from her forefathers’ trees. Her career commenced after graduating from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1991 but it was in the Art Students League in New York that she spent some of her most productive years, learning a range of theoretical and technical skills, bagging major and important student awards and producing some of her more memorable works. Whether in her portraits, nudes or still lifes, Mia Herbosa’s engagement in the act of painting is becoming more discernible, privileging inventiveness over grand statements. In the course of her young and promising career, her art has won her respect, increased recognition and a substantial following, making her one of the more relevant artists of her generation. In this July interview, Mia talks about her schooling and early influences, her training in the Art Students League, her first job, her family life and how living and Manila and New York have helped her in more ways than one.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Kitty Taniguchi's Quintessential Feminine Aesthetic]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/91/kitty-taniguchi-s-quintessential-feminine-aesthetic</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/91/kitty-taniguchi-s-quintessential-feminine-aesthetic</guid><pubDate>Sun, 09 May 2010 19:06:04 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[May-June 2010--Kitty Taniguchi is among the few female painters who had successfully trespassed upon a male-controlled territory. For the past thirty years, she has faithfully explored themes of femininity and feminine modes of representations that challenge and reinterpret some existing social and cultural conventions. Many of her works are drawn from her own experiences and her portraits of women may be read as the truth, reality, challenges and sufferings of women through centuries of spiritual and physical oppression and even more so her personal struggle to define her own artistic identity. Symbolism likewise pervades in her works  as a way of replacing  traditional representations and to give substance to her content. Kitty Taniguchi tells in this interview the beginning of her artistic career, the sources of her artistic style and production and why her works hold a place in the history of Philippine art.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Yasmin Sison's Unflinching Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/90/yasmin-sison-s-unflinching-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/90/yasmin-sison-s-unflinching-art</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:46:50 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[April 2010 -- In the early years of her artistic direction, Yasmin Sison began experimenting with abstract expressionism. Utilizing a rich knowledge of form and color, her gestural paintings included bright and splashy colors, expressionist interiors and figures that are rob of identity and individuality. What Sison aims to achieve during this phase is to paint subjects that would complement her growing concern with form, space and color. Sison then moved toward representational imagery and has since made a mark with her unflinching portraits of children, capturing them in their sad, happy, curious and playful states as well as their physical and psychological transitions. Over the years, her perceptive reading of her subjects, her strong and polish technique and her ability to connect with the viewers made her works memorable and even disquieting to critics, collectors and her peers. Despite her modest success, Sison continues to foster her budding artist’s knowledge, experience and skills to make way for a more conceptual approach to her works. In this interview, Yasmin Sison tells her rich educational background, her stint as a pre-school teacher, her early years as a member of the group, Surrounded By Water and how she finds joy and freedom in straddling the images of instinctive abstract gesture and representational subject matter in her growing body of works.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cris Villanueva Jr.'s Bubble Wrap Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/89/cris-villanueva-jr-s-bubble-wrap-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/89/cris-villanueva-jr-s-bubble-wrap-art</guid><pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:46:54 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2010--Considered to be one the most hardworking and innovative artists of today, Cris Villanueva Jr.’s works draw ideas from commonplace objects, classical and popular culture, literature, art,  history and his own life. He disregards the non-objective representation of subjects but concentrates instead in creating works of iconic power. In the early stage of his artistic career, he began to introduce a signature style of painting bubble wrap over his finished painting as a layer effect. Cris Villanueva also goes beyond the limits of paintings and can paint “any style and subject I find challenging and interesting.” While his works in the last five years are less serious in tone, many of his exhibited works and those found in private collections reveal his knowledge of art theory and his talent in painterly details. In this interview, Cris Villanueva tells his stint as an art director, his student years as a Political Science major at the Philippine Christian University then as a Fine Arts student at the University of the Philippines, his early years as a member of the Salingpusa and the Madruguada, the two winning works he received from the Philip Morris Art Competition and how these two works have pushed him to go on.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code: One False Louvre]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/88/dan-brown-s-the-da-vinci-code-one-false-louvre</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/88/dan-brown-s-the-da-vinci-code-one-false-louvre</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:34:21 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Allan Cameron, the production designer of the 2006 movie,  The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou,  had an interesting task at hand. His job was to recreate the Louvre museum  for Ron Howard’s movie even if they were  given the permission from the Louvre director Henri Loyette to shoot inside the museum itself.
 
As he reasoned that they were unable to shine artificial light on the paintings, pour fake blood on the floor or have the actors rip Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings off the wall, Cameron and his crew set about recreating the Grand Gallery on a sound stage in Great Britain.  One of his most challenging task was maintaining the room’s scale. His staff not only photographed every wall in the gallery, they also measured each painting’s frame and its distance from the floor. Cameron also hired James Gemmill to recreate 150 paintings to place on the set by using digital photographs of each work as a base. Gemmil overpainted and glazed each work on aged boards or silk, adding layers of paint to match the craquelure of the originals. “The Mona Lisa itself was almost totally painted from scratch,” says Cameron, adding that his team made three versions to use in multiple takes. “Even the frames took time to accomplish. Some of them were very ornate and had very complicated wood carvings. The gold leaf, burnishing and aging each frame took weeks to finish. We even went far as putting wood-worm holes in them.”
 
Cameron added that certain parts of the movie were shot inside the Louvre and they were all “military maneuver.” They were extra careful when the lights and cables were carried around so they won’t go anywhere near the paintings. The curator and the Louvre security were there all the time. “To avoid scratching the floor, we used mats, put rubber balls on tripods, and made the bare-bones crew of 15 instead of the usual 150, wear soft shoes." Allan Cameron hopes that while watching the movie, people won’t know which is the set and which is the real Louvre.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jose John Santos III's Subconscious Upwellings]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/87/jose-john-santos-iii-s-subconscious-upwellings</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/87/jose-john-santos-iii-s-subconscious-upwellings</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:21:34 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2010 -- While many of the ideas of the young artists today swirled in chaotic orbits, Jose John Santos’ paintings remain simple and fantastic and are always governed by thought. In many of his outputs, he challenges his viewer’s intellect and assumptions about reality by putting forward his subconscious upwellings and conjunctions of seemingly unrelated objects which gives new meanings to many familiar things. His art also juxtaposes the classic and the contemporary (note that even his first two names marry the old and the new), the iconic and the everyday as well as painting and photography. He uses the former to explore how the latter constructs or represents reality. While some collectors proclaim his achievements both truthful and beautiful; others salute his talent as an embodiment of greatness and a token of quality. In this interview, Jose John Santos tells his emergence as a young painter, the phases of his works, his wit and sensibility and why he continues to be one of the most sought young artists of today.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Picasso's "The Actor" Painting Accidentally Ripped by A Woman at the Met]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/86/picasso-s-quot-the-actor-quot-painting-accidentally-ripped-by-a-woman-at-the-met</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/86/picasso-s-quot-the-actor-quot-painting-accidentally-ripped-by-a-woman-at-the-met</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:25:36 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Art and Thought of Raul Arellano ( Original )]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/85/the-art-and-thought-of-raul-arellano-original-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/85/the-art-and-thought-of-raul-arellano-original-</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:35:25 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Anuncio Especial]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/83/anuncio-especial</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/83/anuncio-especial</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:54:36 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[March 2010 -- Artes de las Filipinas is conducting a survey to record the Filipino artists since the seventeenth century to the present day. Each of the entry includes the middle name, place of birth as well as the birth and death year of the painters, sculptors and printmakers. The selection of artists conducted and compiled by Artes de las Filipinas include not only the Old Masters, the National Artists, the contemporary artists but also those who might be less familiar to the art-loving public. Fill in the form below to notify us for entries that need to be included and corrected.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Igan D' Bayan's Silent and Macabre Art]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/82/igan-d-bayan-s-silent-and-macabre-art</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/82/igan-d-bayan-s-silent-and-macabre-art</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:35:43 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2010 -- The art of Igan D’ Bayan is a modern tale of fantasy and domination. It shares many similarities to the works of Tim Burton, Stephen King, Robert Bloch and Alfred Hitchcock whose interests are macabre and quirky--themes, science fictions, mystery, crime and suspense. His noteworthy efforts and trademark of painting ribcages and skeletal bones which can repel and send shudders to viewers sets him apart from his contemporaries as he chooses to focus on painting certain disorders of the skeletal system as well as the psychological problems that live inside the heads. While Igan D’ Bayan’s works in the last five years have dealt heavily on fantasy and fantasy, his style and trademark of interacting light and darkness, subjects being caught between two irreconcilable worlds, have slowly gained him approval and recognition among curators and collectors. Igan D’ Bayan, in this interview, tells his early life as a musician and writer and his third career as a visual artist.
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Private Collections Art Book Launch]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/81/private-collections-art-book-launch</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/81/private-collections-art-book-launch</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:32:18 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[If art journalism is in trouble, what about publishing?]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/78/if-art-journalism-is-in-trouble-what-about-publishing-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/78/if-art-journalism-is-in-trouble-what-about-publishing-</guid><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:26:16 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Jamie Camplin is the managing director of Thames & Hudson, a publishing firm based in London, England. He wrote an opinion piece for the June 2009 Art Newspaper that may interest general art readers and museum publishers. Camplin raises the question: if art book publishing is to remain vital, how do we keep producing fresh, thoughtful publications at a reasonable price point? He begins: Is there a crisis in art book publishing?
 
Most people who love art—collectors, gallery-goers, curators, critics, dealers and artists themselves—understandably take it for granted that there is an audience for books about it. There’s a touch of arrogance about this, though an engaging version of arrogance because of the positive emotions involved. If your passion is Greek bronzes or Winslow Homer or Olafur Eliasson, you needn’t worry whether your enthusiasm is shared—unless, of course, you publish art books.
 
Art-book publishers also love art. Currently, they tend to be suffering not from arrogance but from amnesia about their trump card. In any other business, this amnesia would be called “lack of confidence in the product”. In publishing it tends to involve too much muttering about the recession, instead of a vigorous focus on marrying the practical (conceiving, creating and bringing to market the books) with the precious (their subject matter—art). 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ian Quirante: A Postmodern Artist]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/75/ian-quirante-a-postmodern-artist</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/75/ian-quirante-a-postmodern-artist</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:53:26 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[July 2009--In Philippine contemporary art, very few young artists have been the subject of much interest than Ian Quirante, a progressive young artist of his generation, who employs surrealism and automatic painting in his works. Quirante’s treatment of space was not crowded; his compositions encompass the entire picture surface equally in all places and his use of strongly graphic and biomorphic shapes, phantasmagoric and cartoon-like figures all reveal his psychological ideas and personal visions. In this July 2009 interview, Ian Quirante shares his growing up years in Cagayan de Oro, his college years at the University of the Philippines, shifting from one course to another, the early phase of his career as an artist as well as his personal hobbies and interests.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Modern Graffiti Artist: HEPE]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/71/modern-graffiti-artist-hepe</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/71/modern-graffiti-artist-hepe</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:18:30 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[February 2009--Graffiti is from the Italian word graffiato which means scratched. It has a long history that goes back to the figure drawings found in the walls of ancient ruins in  Rome and monuments in Egypt. Since then, the art, style and usage of graffiti has evolved as a means to communicate social and political messages and is linked with punk rock and the hip hop culture. Today, graffiti art is a global phenomenon viewed and opined by young and old alike. In this interview, Hepe, one of Manila’s prolific taggers and a visual artist expresses his bold opinions, narrates the beginning of his interest and tells how tagging has been a driving inspiration in his artistic career.
 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Modern and Contemporary Artist: Roma Valles]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/63/modern-and-contemporary-artist-roma-valles</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/63/modern-and-contemporary-artist-roma-valles</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[January 2009 -- It has become a commonplace in contemporary art that a work has to be compositionally busy or wisecracks in a variety of forms. In Roma Valles' case, her technically ambitious but masterfully works, much of whose content seems to be an exploration of her personal history, proves that command in technique is never forsaken as it is one of the qualities she knows that endures. While her art is viewed as mellow and conservative, it is never sheltered from contemporary art. They are gorgeously sensual, thoughtful and powerful which gradually won her substantial following and inclusion in important exhibitions. In this interview, Roma Valles talks about her student years, her influences, her method in painting, her family, her interests and the joys of being a mother and an artist at the same time.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Deviant Artist Costantino Zicarelli]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/62/the-deviant-artist-costantino-zicarelli</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/62/the-deviant-artist-costantino-zicarelli</guid><pubDate>Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[December 2008 - - Costantino Zicarelli belongs to the new generation of artists whose paintings are difficult to like but harder to ignore. His art differs from the standards as he chooses to paint the deviant and morose. With his art, Costantino Zicarelli hopes to change how viewers look with disfavor and antipathy paintings that are not eye candies. His works reflect his belief that an artist must be bolder in his stance and subjective feelings and emotions must be given priority than reality or nature objectively. In this interview, Costantino Zicarelli talks about his art, his boredom with his brief stint as a graphic artist, his way to success and his views and adventures as a young artist.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Photo-Art Artist: Alvin Villaruel]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/61/photo-art-artist-alvin-villaruel</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/61/photo-art-artist-alvin-villaruel</guid><pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[OCTOBER 2008 Alvin Villaruel belonged to that generation of young artists who excites and intensifies the Philippine contemporary art. He began his career in 1998 after receiving his diploma from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. He re-introduced the idea of photo-paintings as well as smudges and blurs in his works. A decade later, he made a mark as a young painter eventually becoming one of the leading artists of his generation. In this interview, Alvin Villaruel talks about his struggles, his early beginnings, his joys and sentiments and the activities that young artist like him goes through in the early stage of their careers.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[PEDRO ABRAHAM JR.: UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPINES Pedro Abraham, Jr.]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/55/pedro-abraham-jr-university-of-the-philipines-pedro-abraham-jr-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/55/pedro-abraham-jr-university-of-the-philipines-pedro-abraham-jr-</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Prof. Pedro Abraham, Jr., or Sir Edru to his students, is a known figure in the University of the Philippines. He was the founder of the Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino (Kontra-GaPi, the Resident Ethnic Music and Dance Ensemble of the College of Arts and Letters in UP Diliman). Kontra-Gapi also has a meaning on its own: kontra (against) gapi (to shackle) means to be against the restriction of stereotypes and of Westernization. In 1996, the Kontra-GaPi was awarded the U.P. Diliman Chancellors signal plaque for Outstanding Achievement in the Performing Arts[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Marcel Belleza Antonio: The Son, The Man, The Painter (Second of Two Parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/54/marcel-belleza-antonio-the-son-the-man-the-painter-second-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/54/marcel-belleza-antonio-the-son-the-man-the-painter-second-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Do you ever include your personal experiences in your works? I do sometimes. I cant recall which ones but I know Ive done a series of works that are biographical in nature. Your paintings had some air of adultery in them Well, the problem with paintings is people tend to overanalyze them. Is there a certain painting that has given you satisfaction? Oh yes! I dont remember the title but its in my mind, its a small work and red in color. There is a garden and there are just two figures. They are kissing, embracing, very representative of what I call my intuitive phase. Its no longer mine. Its an old work and I missed it. Do you ever repeat your subject? Definitely. Not the same compositions but same subjects. How do you do that? Definitely in the way of composition but the idea is there. Like I got tired of doing harlequins, when I started doing that I thought it was always just paying homage to Picasso.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Marcel Belleza Antonio: The Son, The Man, The Painter (First of Two parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/53/marcel-belleza-antonio-the-son-the-man-the-painter-first-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/53/marcel-belleza-antonio-the-son-the-man-the-painter-first-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The works of Marcel Antonio belong to an expressive and non-literary tradition of storytelling. He began his career in 1983 while still a sophomore at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. He was talented and his art had a sense of magical realism, brimming with quirky contemporary mythologies through a feminine point of view. Much later, he very much impressed his professors and others with whom he came into contact.Through the years, Marcel Antonios career soared high and his works became deeply embedded in the viewers collective consciousness. Now at age 41, Marcel Antonio in this interview talks about his beginnings, his art, his progress and development as a young artist of note and his private life.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shouting in Bronze: The Lasting Relevance of Andres Bonifacio and His Monument in Caloocan]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/52/shouting-in-bronze-the-lasting-relevance-of-andres-bonifacio-and-his-monument-in-caloocan</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/52/shouting-in-bronze-the-lasting-relevance-of-andres-bonifacio-and-his-monument-in-caloocan</guid><pubDate>Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Amidst the concrete jungle in the middle of the city of Caloocan, amongst the smog of pollution, stands the dignified figure of Andres Bonifacionational hero, Founder of the Katipunan, Father of the Filipino Nation, the great plebeian who spearheaded the Filipino revolution against the Spaniards. The Bonifacio Monument is mute, but Bonifacios eyes made of bronze were shouting, reminding us for a moment to stop from the gray and frenzied hurly-burly of city life, and reflect on the greatness of the "Supremo." Andres Bonifacio (b. 30 November 1863, d. 10 May 1897), was a self-taught orphan who became a theater actor and an employee of two international companies in Manila.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Gallery Owner: Vic Salta of Artistree Gallery]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/51/gallery-owner-vic-salta-of-artistree-gallery</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/51/gallery-owner-vic-salta-of-artistree-gallery</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 May 2007 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Vic Salta is a legendary art collector in the seventies who opened Artistree gallery in Shangri la Plaza to make first-rate works of art available to learned collectors. He chose not to deal with ordinary pieces and decided instead to carry paintings by the Old and Modern Masters in Philippine art whose provenance were from prominent families in the country. He went to great lengths to get hold of many great masterpieces to give his clients choice works high in aesthetic and commercial value. In this interview, he talked about the journey he took prior to his rise in becoming a formidable art dealer in the country and his unique experiences in dealing artists.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Manunggul Jar as a Vessel of History]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/50/the-manunggul-jar-as-a-vessel-of-history</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/50/the-manunggul-jar-as-a-vessel-of-history</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2007 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA["…the work of an artist and master potter."--Robert Fox
 
27th April 1995—I was 11 years old when I visited the National Museum -- the repository of our cultural, natural and historical heritage. I remembered the majesty of climbing those steps and walking past the Neo-classical Roman columns until I was inside the Old Congress Building. 
 
Today, if the Metropolitan Museum’s identifying piece was the painting Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas Al Populacho by Felix Resurrecion Hidaldo and the GSIS Museum its Parisian Life by the painter Juan Luna, the National Museum’s, El Spoliarium, Luna’s most famous piece. Many people come to the museum just for this painting. But another less-popular but quite significant piece was the Manunggul jar. 
 
The Manunggul jar was one of the numerous jars found in a cave believed to be a burial site (Manunggul, was part of the archaeologically significant Tabon Cave Complex in Lipuun Point, Quezon, Palawan) that was discovered on March 1964 by Victor Decalan, Hans Kasten and other volunteer workers from the United States Peace Corps. The Manunggul burial jar was unique in all respects. Dating back to the late Neolithic Period (around 710 B.C.),  Robert Fox described the jar in his landmark work on the Tabon Caves:
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Gallery Owner: Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz of Galleria Duemila]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/48/gallery-owner-silvana-ancellotti-diaz-of-galleria-duemila</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/48/gallery-owner-silvana-ancellotti-diaz-of-galleria-duemila</guid><pubDate>Sat, 03 Feb 2007 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Italian-born beauty Silvanna Ancelloti-Diaz has spent the last thirty-two years in the Philippines promoting and exhibiting the works of the countrys blue-chip and contemporary artists. After settling in Manila following a long stay in New York, she tried her hands on organizing exhibitions for Miladay gallery, together with pilot-artist Lino Severino, and eventually moved on to open her own gallery. On December 5, 1975, three years after the Martial Law, Diaz opened Gallerie Duemila in Vermida building in Makati City. Duemila, in Italian, means twentieth century contemporary modern art. In a country that cherishes its past, Gallerie Duemila has truly become an unlikely landmark. She introduced modern art to Filipino and foreign collectors and has brought our local artists to international fame and recognition. She also holds the distinction of running the oldest gallery in existence in the country. In this interview, Silvanna Diaz talks about her experiences, roles and responsibilities as founder and artistic director of Gallerie Duemila.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Quintessential Artist-Storyteller Emmanuel Garibay]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/47/the-quintessential-artist-storyteller-emmanuel-garibay</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/47/the-quintessential-artist-storyteller-emmanuel-garibay</guid><pubDate>Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Emmanuel Garibay was born on November 23, 1962 in Kidapawan, North Cotabato by a father who worked as a pastor in a Methodist church and a mother who worked in the city engineers office. His family moved to Davao city where he spent a secure and happy childhood. In 1968, then only six, Garibays mother provided the earliest significant encouragement for his artistic talent. His work even as a young boy showed a grasp of human character, particularly of soldiers. "Young boys are always fascinated with men in uniform," he says. "I then went to a phase of doodling robots, tanks, and make-believe characters." He recalls with great relish as a child growing in Davao that he was taken in by the awe of owning a bicycle. The bicycle spelled freedom and fun that took him around the neighborhood and the lakes with his friends. The young Garibay would always set off on his bicycle and pedalled up the drive with his friends to explore new places and meet new people. "I love Davao," he muses, describing it as "charming and wild in so many senses of the word."[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[HGallery Owner: Evita Sarenas of Finale Art Gallery]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/46/hgallery-owner-evita-sarenas-of-finale-art-gallery</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/46/hgallery-owner-evita-sarenas-of-finale-art-gallery</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Dec 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The most respected and most experienced among gallery owners in the Philippines, Evita Sarenas has earned the reputation for launching the careers of many young and promising artists in the Philippines. She started specializing in the works of the Modern Masters in the early eighties and was the recognized gallery to sell Ang Kiukoks works. Her sharp eye, perseverance, and passion have helped many connoisseurs focus develop a strategy and encourage a well-informed and sophisticated approach to acquisitions. In this interview, Evita Sarenas gives an insight of her early beginnings as a student of Fine Arts to stumbling a job of managing a gallery in 1983 and becoming the Philippines most sought gallery of modern and contemporary art.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Book Review: Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and the Marcos State Architecture by Gerard Lico]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/45/book-review-edifice-complex-power-myth-and-the-marcos-state-architecture-by-gerard-lico</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/45/book-review-edifice-complex-power-myth-and-the-marcos-state-architecture-by-gerard-lico</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Nov 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The book is about Marcosian Architecture. The author started each chapter with quotes from different scholars as an introduction to his discussions. The book is very much influenced by Michel Foucaults discourse on power and knowledge. Lico says that Marcos regime recognized the nexus of architecture and society, its potential for influencing the community, and wielded this weapon to promote the aesthetics of power in the built form. The book seeks to contribute to theoretical work on the relationship between architecture and power. It documents some of the socio-historical dimensions of the Marcos regimes major architectural accomplishments which include the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Folk Arts Theater, PHILCITE, Philippine International Convention Center, Philippine Trade Pavillons, Tahanang Pilipino (Coconut Palace), and the Manila Film Center. Through this book, Lico hopes to generate awareness of the unrecognized power of architecture.
 
The book investigates how state architecture functioned as one of the authoritarian regime’s legitimizing mechanism for socio-political control. He hopes to introduce a novel way of writing Philippine architectural history, which has been plagued by formal rules and stylistic canons (include issues of power relations). He, however, asserts that there is no absolute view, concentrated on the socio-historical narrative of buildings situated at the reclaimed foreshore development in Manila Bay.
 
Chapter 1 (Architecture and Society) starts with a quote from Norris Kelly Smith about architecture revealing that "not only the aesthetic and formal preferences of an architect/client but also the aspirations, power struggles and material culture of a society." The author said that architecture implicates "space" and its utilization as "place" by its occupants. He called on Michel Focault’s "hybrid concept of power-knowledge" to explain how space is created and arranged "to gain control over knowledge" through "surveillance and asymmetrical visibility"( the gaze). Foucault introduces the term "panopticon" or knowledge tied to systems wit human beings as objects of disciplinary knowledge.
 
 
[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art Restorer: June Poticar Dalisay June Poticar Dalisay]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/44/art-restorer-june-poticar-dalisay-june-poticar-dalisay</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/44/art-restorer-june-poticar-dalisay-june-poticar-dalisay</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[I love my job because it challenges my person, says artist and art restorer, June Dalisay. Its a relationship between myself and the object infront of me. I have always wanted to become a doctor but we could not afford it back then so to me my job challenges my skills in handling tools. It gives me so much joy and pride after seeing what I have done with the object restored. The practice of scientific art conservation is a fairly young field of knowledge in the Philippines, despite the large amount and variety of great artworks requiring restoration and conservation. To meet this need, Art Conservation and Restoration Specialists, Inc. (ACES) was organized and incorporated in 2000 by a group of scientific conservators which include Amelita Guillermo, Louella Revilla, Roberto Balarbar, Willie Estonanto, Larry Cruz, Raymundo Esguerra, and June Dalisay. June Dalisay talks about her job and the skills, knowledge, and abilities required. She provides insights on some of the art objects she has restored and the great deal of enjoyment out of restoring them. She also informs collectors of the preservation of artworks, their protection from future damage, and the importance of creation, understanding, and maintenance of material culture.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Qualifying for the Guinness World Record]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/43/qualifying-for-the-guinness-world-record</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/43/qualifying-for-the-guinness-world-record</guid><pubDate>Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Have you heard of the Guinness World Records? The Philippines had been included in the Guinness Book of Records as the Biggest Pair of Shoes the city of Marikina ever had been made out of leather and these shoes have been exhibited around the country for people to see. This year, the OTSAA (On The Spot Artists Association, Incorporation) is presently attempting to break the Guinness World Records for the longest painting on a continuous canvas. Around 300 participants participated and each participant was allowed a portion (approximately 1 meter) of the canvas to paint. OTSAA was first launched on April 22, 2006 at SM Fairview. I was part of the first batch of artists to participate. Aside from professional artists, OTSAA had been actively inviting even children at least 10 years of age to participate. This event is a contribution to commemorate the mid-decade celebration of the 2001-2010 International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Journey to Art of Joven Ignacio]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/42/the-journey-to-art-of-joven-ignacio</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/42/the-journey-to-art-of-joven-ignacio</guid><pubDate>Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[There is something beguiling about painting new and spectacular flora. They infiltrate our reception of images and they carry particular poignancy. The sweetness of a nightingale and the tranquility of white orchids create an airy ambience displaying a shared sensibility: tender, delicate, sensual, graceful, almost reflecting natures simple perfection. The works of up and coming artist, Joven Ignacio, contribute a visual poetry of their own. The Malaguena (2004), with magnolia flowers and a woman that lie beneath the leaves strike a sweet note of bashfulness. The Palawan Peacock (2003) parades the artists ability to capture the aura and personality of the colorful peacock and bashful orchids --this piece is a moment captured in the birds life.Either from external circumstances or personal choice, Ignacios oeuvre is devoted exclusively to floral and fauna. His subjects are skillfully executed that it is difficult to believe that they reflect anything other than the artists visual imagination.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Book Review: Philippine Ancestral Houses Fernando Zialcita and Martin Tinio]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/41/book-review-philippine-ancestral-houses-fernando-zialcita-and-martin-tinio</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/41/book-review-philippine-ancestral-houses-fernando-zialcita-and-martin-tinio</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The two hundred and sixty-three pages of the coffee table book, Philippine Ancestral Houses, is a richly illustrated history and analysis of the bahay na bato - - how it came about, where, when, and how it did. It explains its architectural evolution and why particular architectural ideas occurred. There are several other authors who have discussed the same subject: (Gilda Cordero-Fernando (1978), Felice Sta.Maria (1983) but a reader could easily gain a strong understanding of the fascinating and challenging subject from Zialcita and Tinios book, which describes Philippine bahay na bato architecture in twelve chronological chapters. Zialcita and Tinio successfully provided a framework of a Filipino architecture and it guides the reader to evaluate the influence of its foreign ancestry (Baroque, Gothic, Spanish Renaissance, French, Italian), the environment, and the materials available during those times. It also provided the readers the basis for understanding the never-ending search for an authentic Philippine architectural style.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Long Tradition of Hand Embroidery in Taal, Batangas ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/40/the-long-tradition-of-hand-embroidery-in-taal-batangas</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/40/the-long-tradition-of-hand-embroidery-in-taal-batangas</guid><pubDate>Sun, 02 Jul 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The town of Taal, Batangas had a long tradition of hand embroidery since the turn of the century. Its intricate, well-embossed hand embroidery made it increasingly a refined art of society. It boasts of its highly callado (a kind of filigree work wherein yarn in painstakingly pulled off from the cloth) as one of the finest in the world. Pina and jusi are the traditional fabrics used by the bordadoras. Pina is a soft, fine, flexible, and durable off-white fabric about two to four inches in length. It is derived from the finest mature leaves of the red Spanish variety of pineapple. During the Spanish period, pina was the most expensive and highly sought fabric worn for barong Tagalog by the illustrados on very rare special occasions It is a very delicate material, too difficult and expensive to embroider. Jusi (the Chinese term for raw silk), on the other hand, is a lightweight, flimsy, and ecru colored fabric regarded by the bordadoras as the best material for embroidery.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art for a cause: ICA's "With Grateful Hearts" ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/39/art-for-a-cause-ica-s-with-grateful-hearts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/39/art-for-a-cause-ica-s-with-grateful-hearts-</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Jun 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Last Feburary 4, 2006, the Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) celebrated its seventieth anniversary with the theme, "Excellence and Service Towards a Transformed Society." The ICA Alumnae Association in partnership with the Parent Auxiliary of Batch 2005, are pleased to present a limited edition of collectibles from renowned artists to support the Grant-In Aid Program of ICA and the Search for Most Outstanding Teachers Award. This endeavor is an essential component in the academic environment to encourage both students and faculty to foster high quality eductaion.National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon, National Artist for Visual Arts Arturo Luz, Anita Magsaysay-Ho and Ramon Orlina are among the kind-hearted artists who have committed to support the fund-raising efforts of the Alumnae Association and the Parent Auxiliary of ICA.National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon Abueva created limited edition display the special bond between mother and child at play. of beautiful sculptural pieces of Mother and Child casted in bronze that display the special bond between mother and child.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE PASTILLAS PAPER CUT TRADITION ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/58/the-pastillas-paper-cut-tradition</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/58/the-pastillas-paper-cut-tradition</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 Jun 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The art of making the pabalat or pastillas wrappers has transformed in recent years from being a local, folk tradition into a popular art. Besides adding flair to the sweet pastillas de leche made from fresh carabaos milk, the pabalat has also become a compelling icon/symbol of the peoples creativity, not only of the town of San Miguel but the entire province of Bulacan. Bulacan fiestas are not complete without the elaborate papercut designs often used as decoration, table centerpiece, and souvenirs. The pastillas wrapped in pabalat have also become popular gifts during birthdays, weddings, and other occasions and pasalubong among local tourists and balikbayans.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Antiquity: The Hapao-Hungduan Bul-ul ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/37/antiquity-the-hapao-hungduan-bul-ul</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/37/antiquity-the-hapao-hungduan-bul-ul</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jun 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The Hapao bul-ul is normally carved in a standing position. Its knees are slightly flexed with its hands resting on the kneecaps. Each year, for about a century now, the bul-uls real life family-- the Bumatangs of Magoc, Hungduan, sponsors a village festival in honor of the bul-uls as well as the appeasement of it. The family was convinced that unless it gave the annual party which involves the butchering, roasting, and dispensing of several pigs, sickness would strike the household. This is an old and strictly followed tradition the family observed.Another Hapao example is the binakle, which has imparted to these bul-ul their distinctive white-blotched surface. This is a religious observance they follow once a year at harvest time in some parts of Ifugao.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Philippine Churches: The Ermita Church in Balayan, Batangas]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/36/philippine-churches-the-ermita-church-in-balayan-batangas</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/36/philippine-churches-the-ermita-church-in-balayan-batangas</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jun 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[During the Spanish era which covers a period of 300 years, important events happened in Balayan, Batangas. It was in 1575 that the Agustinian missionaries arrived in Balayan, Batangas. After three years, 1578, Balayan was officially founded as a municipality by Fr. Esteban Ortiz and Fr. Juan de Poras. It was recognized under the Spanish Crown from a region already known as Balayan created by Datu Balensuela in 1394 and inherited by Datu Kumintang on or before 1521. From 1570 to 1578, Balayan was also known as Kumintang. The coastal towns of what is now Nasugbu, Lian, and Calatagan together with Tuy which was the former pilot barrios of Balayan were founded in the later part of 1578. In 1578, the formal evangelization of the town was started by the Agustinian missionaries followed by the Franciscan missionaries under Fray Juan de Placencia.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art Commentary: They Come and Go ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/35/art-commentary-they-come-and-go</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/35/art-commentary-they-come-and-go</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 May 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[I just realized that I have been teaching for almost eight years now. In the beginning, I thought it would be easy as I promise myself that I would only be teaching for five years. I was wrong, I never thought I would stay this long. The hardest thing for me to do was letting go of my students. Before I entered this teaching career, my professor told me that teaching needs dedication and sacrifices. He was right. My life was turned up-side-down. I dedicated more of my time teaching art than painting an artwork--a passion that I love. Every year students come and go and each class is different from the other. For all the times I have spent time with them, I always learn something new. In school, I handled one of the hardest subjects: Thesis, but I enjoyed it. But last semester, I never thought that it would change my life again. The Painting Batch of 2006 was one of the most difficult classes I had handled. They were all enthusiastic, ingenious, ground-breaking, daring, and forthright. They did not limit themselves with paint but indulged themselves by playing with other media. Some artists I met told once that "Sometimes rules cannot be broken but can be bent." This batch proved it to be true.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Young and Emerging Artist Adler Llagas]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/34/young-and-emerging-artist-adler-llagas</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/34/young-and-emerging-artist-adler-llagas</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 May 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Landscape artists invariably have a love of their environment and this is clearly seen in the works of young artist, Adler Llagas. The rolling hills and mountains of Rizal and Laguna figure largely in his works. The yellow rice fields and the mountains are his favorite subjects as his childhood memories are full of details that chime again and again with these imageries that is almost like a story found in fairy tale books. "Ang palayan ang aming naging palaruan, (The rice fields became our playground.)" he begins. Born on June 12, 1977 as the son of a poor farmer living in a small village alongside the rice fields in Baras, Rizal, the young Adler grew up in a rather huge family with nine other siblings. He was the ninth child and fifth son of Delfin and Caridad, whom Llagas describes as "the most hardworking and persevering people I know." Llagas recalls that his family was in tremendous financial difficulties that they were all asked to help in the field and become farmers at their young age. "Di kami katulad ng ibang bata, kailangan kaming tumulong sa magulang para magsurvive. Mahirap ang buhay namin sa bukid talaga, (We were not like other kids. We need to help our parents in order to survive. Our life in the farm was difficult.)" he said.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Antiquity: Bul-ul: A Mythical Piece of Ifugao Sculpture ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/33/antiquity-bul-ul-a-mythical-piece-of-ifugao-sculpture</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/33/antiquity-bul-ul-a-mythical-piece-of-ifugao-sculpture</guid><pubDate>Sun, 26 Mar 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The beauty that one can exalt in seeing the seemingly never-ending terracing of rice fields, remarkable long-stretching successive lines of rice paddies hand-contoured in several edges of Cordillera mountain is really a historical dictate in our conscience and to the minds of our foreign visitors and a part of this monumental achievement by our brother Ifugao there is another cultural identity that exhibits their greatness this is the Ifugao Bul-ul sculpture. These sculptural objects considered as an indigenous kind that deserves the right to be marked intrinsically important for the Ifugaos cultural existence. If history told that rice terraces belong to the essential nature or constitution of an Ifugao living it is by the same degree, that Bul-ul sculpture be acknowledged as an integral part of this festive agriculture drama. Rice agriculture in ifugao mountainous area of fertile land is the primary reason for their physical survival. This fact in anyway obliges the Ifugao people to invent a preventive or defensive instrument to protect their environs and its agricultural produce. This dream by the Ifugao gave raise to a tangible image that will magically bring the assurance of protecting their primary source of living from any physical or natural adversaries.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Art and Thought of Raul Arellano]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/32/</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/32/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Film actor, scriptwriter, and visual artist, Raul Arellano gives voice to the tumultuous emotions of many artists troubled by the war and the deeper feelings that remain with us all throughout life. From lovers intertwined to naked bodies of a family to a man in bondage, Arellanos works reflect the different aspects of who he really is. His willingness to break new grounds is his most precious gift. Incorporating his own ideas and experiences has given him a work that is uniquely his own. Now based in Los Angeles, California, he is starting to make his mark with works that certainly do not pass unnoticed but the gaze and soul of those who stop to observe them. Nearly all of his works are open to multiple meanings and rich in specific messages. Each work is open to the personal reflection of the viewer who is being pulled to give a voice and meaning to each individual creation.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Art and Life of Baidy Rico Mendoza ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/31/the-art-and-life-of-baidy-rico-mendoza</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/31/the-art-and-life-of-baidy-rico-mendoza</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[She is truly mystical. Of herself she declares, I am as old as the hills and as young as the clouds, and somebody said, as the mist. Baidy Rico Mendoza fashions her clay people out of disparate thingsit may be from a passage from the Scriptures, a word, an interesting face, a place shes seen, or even a remembered snippet of conversation. With quick, deft fingers, she patiently molds each piece into shape, even as she adjusts to its plastic possibilities, smoothing and investing each inch of the clay with thought and care. All these years of working with the medium has taught her that a tiny air bubble carelessly left in the clay is enough to cause damage to the piece once it is fired in the kiln. All this experience, too, of working with the materials and tools, as well as the temporal demands of her art, has given her a philosophical view of life, and imbued her with an ageless wisdom borne out of being constantly in touch with her instinctive nature. Baidy Mendoza is spiritual even as her philosophies on life and art are also deeply rooted in natureliterally embedded in the red soil where she derives her creativity.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Master of Genre: Fabian Cueto de la Rosa (1869-1937)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/30/master-of-genre-fabian-cueto-de-la-rosa-1869-1937-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/30/master-of-genre-fabian-cueto-de-la-rosa-1869-1937-</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Fabian de la Rosa (May 5, 1869- December 14, 1937) was the brightest name in Philippine painting after Luna and certainly the leading master of genre in the first quarter of the century. Particularly noted for being an outstanding painter of womens portraits, alongside Juan Luna and his nephews, Pablo and Fernando Amorsolo. Fabian Cueto de la Rosa was born on May 5, 1869 in Paco, Manila, the second child of Marcos de la Rosa and Gregoria Cueto. He had apprenticed with his aunt, Mariana de la Rosa, and later with Simon Flores for his first art lessons. Prior to receiving any formal academic training in the arts, he painted La Perla de Lucban, his first known masterpiece and oldest existing work, at the age of twenty-two. In 1893, he enrolled in Escuela Superior de Pintura, Grabado y Escultura under the directorship of Don Lorenzo Rocha (1837-1898). He left the Academy and frequented studios of simple unknown painter in Quiapo and Sta. Cruz to look for new ways to forge his ideas. Later on, he also received lessons from Lorenzo Guerrero and Miguel Zaragoza.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Old Master of the Visual Arts Antonio Austria (second of two parts)]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/29/old-master-of-the-visual-arts-antonio-austria-second-of-two-parts-</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/29/old-master-of-the-visual-arts-antonio-austria-second-of-two-parts-</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Oct 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Austria started his teaching career in the University of Sto. Tomas in 1969. Students who knew Austria when he was still a professor describe their experience with Austria, Takot kami ma-late sa klase ni Sir Austria. Very strict si Sir. Kaya pasok kami talaga ng maaga sa 7 AM class nya. (Were scared to be late in Austrias class. He was very strict so we make it a point to be early in his 7 AM class.) Sometimes, wed even test his punctuality by looking out the window to see if hell beat the clock and be in our 7AM class. Then 3 minutes before the clock ticks at 7, makikita na namin sya (we would see him) clad in all the way blue outfit --blue polo shirt, blue pants, even blue socks arriving with his very famous neon orange Beetle car. Then wed all go to our seats and get ready for his class, Austrias students recall.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Brief History of Balayan, Batangas]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/27/a-brief-history-of-balayan-batangas</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/27/a-brief-history-of-balayan-batangas</guid><pubDate>Sun, 21 Aug 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[BALAYAN, the name of an old town and of vast province Batangas in 1581, which has been figured out here as the center of the ancient country Mai-I, is probably derived from Bai or bai i.e housethe tagalog term bai for the Batangas area was replaced by the Visayan people under the leadership of Datu Balensucla and Datu Dumagsil in the middle of the 13th century, as told in tradition or in the Maragtas. The old province of Batangas from Balayan to the far eastern region in Laguna including part of Camarines Norte was the most prosperous and civilized area in the Philippines. When the Spaniards first came, Nasugbu, Balayan, Batangas, Taal, Cavite, Bacoor, Pasig, Marikina, Cainta, Nagcarlan, Lilio, Pilar, Bai, Pangil, Majayjay, Paracale, etc. were the first towns and centers of commerce and industries in the island.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Old Master of the Visual Arts Antonio Austria]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/26/old-master-of-the-visual-arts-antonio-austria</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/26/old-master-of-the-visual-arts-antonio-austria</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Filled with beautiful memories and happy moments, Antonio Austrias house in Bonifacio street in San Juan is an expression of his diverse fascination from antique bottles varying in different shapes and sizes to old santos and capiz windows adorned with colorful antique glass to memorabilia and some of his original works, Austrias house has something just about for everyone. A few distance from the historical Santuario del Santo Cristo church and the Dominican College, his house and studio is a light-filled space surrounded with canvases waiting for him to complete. Inside his den are antique chests where he keeps his books and newspaper clippings and in which rare pieces of gin antique bottles are found. This is the place he has called home for the last sixty-eight years. Meeting Antonio Austria for the first time is truly an unforgettable experience. Everything you needed to know about him was in his face.The eyes were warm. The mouth loved to wrestle all at once[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art Collector Amaryllis Torres]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/25/art-collector-amaryllis-torres</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/25/art-collector-amaryllis-torres</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A former Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of the Philippines, currently Professor of Community Development, consultant, trainor, gender equality advocate, and head of various civic organizations, Amaryllis Torres or Amar takes all these roles in stride and embraces them with a grace that only a few could manage. But among the many roles she has had in her life, the one that she is proudest of is her being a mother to four highly successful children and a grandmother to six adorable grandchildren. Now leading a quiet and simple life with her ever growing family, Torres welcomes me into a house filled with kids, art, color, and creativity. In the idyllic surroundings she fashioned for her children and grandchildren to enjoy, it is easy to understand how even mundane activities can be such a pleasure. Amar has created for them an environment that truly reflects her love for the arts and simple things that she collected through all her different roles in life.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The San Sebastian Church --Gustave Eiffel's Church in the Philippines ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/24/the-san-sebastian-church-gustave-eiffel-s-church-in-the-philippines</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/24/the-san-sebastian-church-gustave-eiffel-s-church-in-the-philippines</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 May 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Just recently, I was trying too hard to identify a place with unique features that is not only worthy of admiring but also considered artistic. Then I asked myself, What place has not been much written but holds of great significance? I was bothered, staring blankly at nothing until my father offered me this-- Why bother go far? Try considering the San Sebastian Church. Then I asked him, Whats with it? My father then replied, Well, Its just sad that many people didnt know that the San Sebastian Church is the only Gothic church ever built in the Philippines - or perhaps, in the whole of Asia.If only for that, it is worth visiting. I got excited by the idea of writing about this historical landmark and before any books can be used for my reference I asked my father to share his knowledge of San Sebastian.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Santacruzan Festival ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/23/the-santacruzan-festival</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/23/the-santacruzan-festival</guid><pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In spite of the glare and blare of the demanding city life lies a moment wherein the only thing you can't help but do, is to breath in the scent of May. One such example is the Flores de Mayo, also known as Flowers of May, held in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every afternoon in May, people within the community gather together in their Church to offer their prayers, as well as their exotic assortment of flowers to the Blessed Mother. These flowers are collected together for the numerous festivities all together known as the "Flores de Mayo". Generally, parishes end the celebration in a procession to the church where the Evening Mass will be held. This procession is also known as the "Santacruzan", loosely translated as Festival of the Holy Cross.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[May 15 -- The Pahiyas Festival of Lucban, Quezon ]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/22/may-15-the-pahiyas-festival-of-lucban-quezon</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/22/may-15-the-pahiyas-festival-of-lucban-quezon</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The Season of Festivals is celebrated on the merry month of May. One extravagant festival that everyone is excited to see is the Pahiyas Festival in Quezon Province, which is celebrated on the 15th of May. Quezon, formerly known as Tayabas, is the second largest province in the Southern Tagalog region. The Pahiyas festival is simultaneously celebrated in the towns of Tayabas and Sariaya. Nevertheless, people go to Lucban because of its extravagant preparations which by tradition started during the 16th century as a way of thanksgiving for the peoples bountiful harvest. The Pahiyas festival transforms the small towns of Quezon province from ordinary to exquisite sight. Originally a pagan harvest festival, it is now commemorated in honor of San Isidro Labrador the patron saint of farmers, peasants, laborers used to be a farmer in Madrid. According to legend, white oxen magically plowed his fields whenever he went to church.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Artist Commentary Robert Ko]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/21/artist-commentary-robert-ko</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/21/artist-commentary-robert-ko</guid><pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Born on June 5, 1951 in Tondo, Manila, he was the third of seven children of Luis Ko and Rosalina Ho. A year after he was born, the family moved from Binondo to Caloocan where his mother ran a sari-sari store. Ko began showing an interest in art when he was just three years old, sketching with crayons and filling up the walls and doors of his mothers store with chalk drawings. It was when he turned nine that Ko began a more realistic approach to art and, in 1963, his artworks began to be displayed at the school lobby. During this year, he also entered a United Nations art competition and won first place during the 1964 Caloocan Foundation Day celebration with Belen, made of plaster of Paris, wood, and paper. Ko enrolled at FEU for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and studied impressionism and plein-air painting under Ibarra de la Rosa, while at the same time playing guitar in a roving band. He won awards in FEATIs annual student exhibitions and eventually obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Higantes of Angono]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/20/the-higantes-of-angono</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/20/the-higantes-of-angono</guid><pubDate>Sun, 17 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Have you ever seen giants? Do you have the slightest idea how they looked like? Our parents read to us fairy tale stories when we were young and occasionally see them in movie theaters. But to tell you the truth, I have seen the giants or the higantes. I never actually believed they existed in real life but I realized that they do when I came to visit a town in Angono. Let me tell you the story. It was a sunny afternoon when my family and I came across Balaw-Balaw, a gallery-restaurant that offers exotic foods for the adventurous diners. Owned by the late Lakeshore artist Perdigon Vocalan, this restaurant is becoming popular among foreign and local tourists alike. Diners can wander in the gallery while waiting for their food to be served. Upon entering the restaurant, you will see the Mag-anak,-- the family of higantes that consist of the father, mother, and child, looking closely at the people passing by. As I remember, I asked him regarding the higantes. He told me about the annual festival of Angono -- the Higante Festival in honor of St. Clement, the patron saint of the fishermen. This festival is celebrated on the 23rd of November.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Angono Petroglyphs]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/17/the-angono-petroglyphs</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/17/the-angono-petroglyphs</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art Collector Reggie Quimbo]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/5/art-collector-reggie-quimbo</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/5/art-collector-reggie-quimbo</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[I interviewed Reggie Quimbo over the phone a few days before this conversation. When we met in his residence, he took me to the two-floored space, which serves both as his familys ancestral house and his daily retreat. Reggies dimly lit and airy garret resembles a gallery with its pristine white walls and ceiling spotlights. The white walls create a subtle but eye-catching backdrop in his space. His pieces are huge, almost murals. They are carefully enhanced by the location in which they are placed. Looking closely at his pieces, they dont come out as very powerful but looking at them from a distance, his pieces serve as artifacts that are displayed on fixed sites that make them very significant.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Paete's Taka]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/6/paete-s-taka</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/6/paete-s-taka</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Beautiful flowers of scarlet red adorn her from head to toe. Big, round, expressive dark eyes govern her proud head and a red stiff tail enhances her powerful back. A small horse; my first taka toy I received from my father. A work of art and a loving gift from a Paetenian. Paete, Laguna is one of the Philippines last remaining artistic strongholds and may be accessed either by passing through the picturesque zigzag of the Eastern Rizal route or through the long stretch of the South Luzon Expressway. The town is known for two things: fine woodcarvers and the golden sweet fruit of lanzones. Paete, Laguna is one of the Philippines last remaining artistic strongholds and may be accessed either by passing through the picturesque zigzag of the Eastern Rizal route or through the long stretch of the South Luzon Expressway. The town is known for two things: fine woodcarvers and the golden sweet fruit of lanzones.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Emerging Artist Robert Deniega]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/7/emerging-artist-robert-deniega</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/7/emerging-artist-robert-deniega</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Hindi lahat nakukuha sa experience. Kung saan ka masaya at kung ano ang gusto mong ipakita sa tao, nasa sa iyo yon. On my side, hindi pa ako nakakarating sa Baguio o Sagada pero tuwang-tuwa ako i-paint ang mga ethnic tribes natin. Nagreresearch ako. Lahat na ata ng library napuntahan ko para magbasa ng tungkol sa kanila. Pero ang rinerelyan ko talaga ay ang imahinasyon. Malayo ang puede mong marating sa imahinasyon. Isang pikit lang ng mata, marami kang puedeng makita . (Not everything can be gained from experience. Whatever makes you happy and whatever you want to show to people, it's up to you. I have never been to places like Baguio or Sagada but I find happiness painting the ethnic tribes of the Philippines.[...]]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Art Collector Patrick Syling]]></title><link>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/8/art-collector-patrick-syling</link><guid>http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/8/art-collector-patrick-syling</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:00:00 +0800</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Patrick Syling was never taught to appreciate art as a young boy. As a Chinese-Filipino growing in the busy town of Binondo, he was trained early on to help in the family business and art was not something you would expect his family to discuss. It was only when he was a grade school student in Ateneo where the basic techniques in charcoal, watercolor, and oil were introduced to him by still life painter, Araceli Dans. Syling recalls that Dans cultivated a love of art among her students which made him look forward to attending each session of art class. In high school, his love for arts grew even more as art teachers, Pandy Aviado and Brenda Fajardo, encouraged his artistry and started his life long journey to art appreciation. Continuing his studies abroad, Syling came home after completing his MBA degree in Santa Clara University in California to focus on his familys business and start a family.[...]]]></description></item></channel></rss>

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