Modern Period: Approaching to Modernism

Modernism- is a period of radical break with the past, and the concurrent search for new
forms of expression. It fostered a period of experimentation in the arts and welcoming
provocative works to express and construct his/her own invention, and expand subject
matter of art into contemporary concerns.

Neorealism- earliest trend of modernism influenced by cubism of school of Paris.

Cubism- emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the
traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro, and
refuting time-honored theories that art should imitate nature.

Most of the works in this period are personal expression, simplified planar or
geometric shapes, and amorphous shapes.

Plastic Art- art form that refers to the ability of an entity to be willfully modeled or altered, a
physical manipulation, such as sculpture or ceramics.

Abstraction- an art form in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part.
All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstractelements of form, color, line,
tone, and texture.

Objective- based on object but visually appears.

Non-objective- non-representational started without any reference to any subject and
assuming the artistic value.

Victor Edades (18951985)-leading modernist, demonstrated his new style his one man
exhibition, since he recognized conservative artists of that time were merely "copying"
each other due to similar themes and limited techniques, then he raised issue on
national identity in art.

13 moderns-Edades(leader), Carlos Francisco, Galo Ocampo,Diosodado Lorenzo, Vicente

Manansala, HR Ocampo, Anita Magasaysay, Cesar Legaspi, Demetrio Diego, Ricarte
Puruganan, Jose Pardo, Bonifacio Cristobal and Arsenio Capili.

Major themes: barong-barong, oppressed works, slum dwellers, beggars, and war
scenes (shift to rural to urban subjects).

Art Association of the Philippines (APP - first dynamic art institution, support system for the
art, triumph of modernism. Founded by Purita Ledesma.

Philippine Art Gallery- founded by Lydia Arguilla, exhibition that held modern works.

(1950s) Struggles between conservative and modernist (APP annual painting

contest) conservatives walkout with their works in protest since the modernists
garnered all the awards.
Mabini Painters (side walk exhibition) academy trained conservatives keeping
the pot boiling. Subjects are indigenous groups portraits, Everyday scene, and
still life.
Napoleon Abueva is the master plastic art, play an important role on shaping modern
sculpture, capable and skillful on manipulating different materials like wood such as narra,
molave, ipil, kamagong and bamboo; stone such as marble, adobe, coral, alabaster; metals
such as bronze, iron and brass, combining them with an appropriate technique. Most of his
works were generalized, reducing it to its basic shapes until it became geometric.

Contemporary and other forms:

Social and political issues were unrest which became an expression in dynamic artists; these
gave room to action painting, social realism and dynamic painting. Concerning on social and
political turmoil

Cartoon and komik(comics)- popular art form, narrative art concerning social commentary
and satirical comments in their times by adding humor and stories, popular artist were Larry
Alcalas Mang Ambo, and Francisco Couchings El Indio, and Mars Ravelos Buhay Pilipino.

Photography- art form medium, well-developed medium for documentation of historical

events or usual scenes using a camera, and use for advertising, publishing and archiving.
Notable photographers were John Chua Jamie Zobel de Ayala.

Genre Painting- a style of painting depicting scenes from ordinary life, especially domestic
situations

Art Installation- Breaks down the distinction of two-dimensional and three- dimensional
forms has also elaborated on the concept of space, time, and space.

Notable Artist:

David Cortez Medalla (performance artist)- bubble machine (kinetic sculpture), art
brut, radical anti-classicism.
Carlos Botong Fracisco - early pioneer of modernism, indigenous aesthetics of line,
form, and colors like cutout images. Subjects are folklore and daily scenes.
Vicente Manansala - pioneer of transparent cubism (kalabaw) with fellow artists,
Legaspi and Tabuena, working Philippine aesthetics like the transparency of parol anf
capiz window. Geometric structures.
Cesar Legaspi- neo-realist style, inspired by theme of mineral and organic form.
Romeo Tabuena- simultaneous Contrast, calligraphic figure, transparent cubism.
Mauro Malang- overlapping cubism.
Hernando Ocampo- homegrown abstraction, textured suggestive of ethnic weave.
Constancio Bernando- geometrism, exploration of the relativity of color perception.
Jose Joya- abstract expressionism, compositions of rounded overlapping shapes
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz-gestural verve with surreal style.
Napoleon Abueva- father of modern sculpture, geometric and simplified images.
Benedicto Cabrera- contemporary dynamic Filipino art