Filipino Painters And Their Masterpieces

The long list of Filipino painters and their Masterpieces who showcases a visual representation using a variety of mediums and materials will surely captivate the locals and visitors.

Juan Luna was a distinguished Filipino painter born to Joaquin Luna and Laurena Novicio on October 23, 1857 in Badoc, Ilocos Norte. He studied designing at the Academia de Dibujo Y Pintura at the Ateneo de Manila. He entered Escuella de Bella Artes in Madrid while he was on travel in Spain in 1877. The famous masterpieces that made Juan Luna a renowned painter are The Death of Cleopatra, The Blood Compact and The Spolarium. The Death of Cleopatra made him won the gold medal and was sold for 5000 pesetas in 1881. Other remarkable works included:

* Ang Mestisa* Ang Labanan sa Lepanto* Ang Tagumpay ni Lapu-lapu

* Ang Aliping Bulag* Ang Espanya sa Pilipinas

When he returned to the Philippines he was suspected of being a member of the Katipuneros that is why he was captured and imprisoned at Fort Santiago in 1896. Afterwards he went back to Spain and joined with Graciano Lopez-Jaena, Marcrlo H. del Pilar and Jose Rizal. Shortly he died on December 7, 1899 due to sickness. 

Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo was Filipino painter that sprung during the 19th century. He was the third son among the seven children of Eduardo Resurrecccion Hidalgo and Maria Barbara Padilla and was born on February 21, 1853 in Manila. He studied in the University of Santo Tomas and simultaneously enrolled at the Escuella de Dibujo y Pintura. He enrolled at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid. The following are the masterpieces of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo:

* Flora de Filipinas (Plants of the Philippines) - awarded second place for best cover design for de Luxe edition.

* La Siesta (Nap in the afternoon) - a piece which was favorably reviewed in La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana in 1881.

* Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho (The Christian virgins to the Populace) - garnered the ninth silver medal award by the Exposicion General de Bells Artes in Madrid in 1884.

* La Barca de Aqueronte (The Boat of Charon) - received a gold medal in the international exposition in Madrid and was bought for 7500 pesetas by the Spanish government.

* Laguna Estigia (The Styx)

* El Violinista - was accorded a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.

The first Filipino who was distinguished as the Philippines National Artist in Painting was Fernando Amorsolo in 1972. His paintings were exhibited on January 23, 1969 during the inauguration of the Manila Hilton's art center and he was named as the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Arts". Amorsolo's works covered a variety of

subjects but he was especially known for ideal and romantic subjects that portrays the images of life in the countryside of Filipino women such as the Dalagang Bukid or Dalagang Nayon. He also painted historical paintings on pre-colonial and Spanish colonization and events of Filipino customs, fiestas, occupations and cultures.The technique of backlighting and the use of natural light were Amorsolo's trademarks. 

Victorio C. Edades became known as the "Father of Modern Philippine Painting" because of his technique in painting in bold impasto stroke and his advocacy in creative art. The themes illustrated in Edades' works featured laborers, simple folk and factory workers and he preferred to use dark and sad colors contrasting to Amorsolo's technique. He became the Dean of the University of Santo Tomas' Department of Achitecture in the 1930's. He was the one who introduced the liberal arts programs as part of the subjects in foreign languages and art history that will lead to a degree of Bachelor in Fine Arts and this made University of Santo Tomas the first Philippine art school. Edades invited Galo B.

Ocampo and Carlos "Botong" Francisco to teach in the university as professor artists. The three piloted the growth of mural painting in the Philippines and would collectively be known as the astounding "Triumvirate". When he retired from teaching he was recognized as an outstanding "visionary, teacher and artist and was conferred honoris causa of Doctor of Fine Arts. Among his works were:

* The artist and the Model* Portrait of the Professor* Japanese Girl* Mother and Daughter* The Wrestlers* Poinsettia Girl

The poet of Angono Carlos "Botong" Francisco revived the forgotten art of mural painting. He was linked with the "modernist" artist and also turned the rubbish of the historic past into glowing records of legendary courage of the ancestors. Francisco's trademark utilizing lush tropical sense of color and faith in folk values made him known by the townspeople of Angono.

Major works of Carlos "Botong" Francisco include:

* Portrait of Purita* The Invasion of Limahong* Serenade* Muslim Betrothal* Blood Compact* First Mass at Limasawa* The Martyrdom of Rizal* Bayanihan* Magpupukot* Fiesta* Bayanihan sa Bukid* Sandugo 

Feast your eyes on the unique and creative works of Filipino painters may it be on abstract, portrait and landscape.

Andrea VeneracionFamous Filipino Artist in Music Category: Andrea Ofilada Veneracion or "Ma'am OA",

as she is affectionately called was born on July 11, 1928. She is a Filipino choral conductor and a National Artist for Music in the Philippines. She is the Founding Choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers and is internationally recognized as one of the finest conductors, pedagogues and musicians of our time. She was also an adjudicator in numerous international choral competitions and was an active force in choral music before her massive stroke in 2005.

In 1997, Andrea Veneracion was awarded the TOFIL (The Outstanding Filipino) Award for Culture and the Arts For her contributions to the development of choral singing in the Philippines.

Eventually in 1999, Ma'am OA was named National Artist for Music, the highest cultural award bestowed by the Philippine government for an individual. In addition, the Philippine Madrigal Singers was named one of the Resident Artists of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Carlos Quirino Carlos Lozada Quirino was born on 14th of January 1910 and died on the 20th of May 1999 was a Famous Artist in the field of Biography or was a famous Philippine biographer and historian.

Carlos Quirino is best known for his early biography of Jose Rizal. He also wrote several works on Philippine history and biographies of President Manuel Quezon and the painter Damian Domingo. In 1997 he was recognised as a National Artist of the Philippines for Historical Literature.

* Man of Destiny (1935)* The Great Malayan (1940)* Magsaysay and the Philippines (1958)* Philippine Cartography (1959)* Damian Domingo: First Eminent Filipino Painter (1961)* History of the Philippine Sugar Industry (1974)* Filipinos at War (1981)* Amang, the Life and Times of Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr. (1983)

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero A Filipino Famous Artist Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero was bonr on January 1917 and died on May 1995. Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero was a very famous Filipino playwright, director, teacher and theater artist.

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero has written well over a hundred plays, 41 of which have been published. Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero unpublished plays have either been broadcast over the radio or staged in various parts of the Philippines.

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero publications include 13 Plays (first published in 1947), 8 Other Plays (1952), 7 More Plays (1962), 12 New Plays (1975), My Favorite 11 Plays (1976), 4 Latest Plays (1980), Retribution and eight other selected plays (1990) and The Guerreros of Ermita (1988).

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero has been the teacher of some of the most famous people in the Performing Arts at present: Behn Cervantes, Celia Diaz-Laurel, Joy Virata, and Joonee

Gamboa.

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero has received three national awards: the Rizal Pro-Patria Award in 1961, the Araw ng Maynila Award in 1969, and the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1972.

The U.P. Mobile Theater has been a recipient of two awards when he was its director: The Citizen's Council for Mass Media Trophy (1966) and the Balagtas Award (1969).

In 1997, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero was posthumously distinguished as a National Artist for Philippine Theatre.

Manuel Ocampo Another Famous Filipino is Manuel Ocampo. He was born on 1965. Manuel Ocampo is a Famous Filipino artist. His work fuses sacred Baroque religious iconography with the secular and serious political narrative with the cartoonish. Manuel Ocampo's work has been included in a number of international surveys, including

the 2004 Seville Biennale, 2001 Venice Biennale, the 2001 Berlin Biennale, the 2000 Biennale d’art Contemporain de Lyon, the 1997 Kwangju Biennial, the 1993 Corcoran Biennial, and 1992’s controversial Documenta IX. Manuel Ocampo frequently revisits and makes reference to the art historical canon of political allegorists including Leon Golub, Gericault, Goya, Daumier with allusions to contemporary figures including political satirist R. Crumb Modernist painter Philip Guston. Ocampo’s dark, often disturbing Gothic paintings are attributed with transforming horror into exquisite beauty, history into art history, purgatory into salvation.

Manuel Ocampo's work was featured in many group shows in the 1990s, including Helter Skelter: LA Art of the 1990s, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 1992; Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art at the Asia Society, New York in 1994; American Stories: Amidst Displacement and Transformation at Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo in 1997; Pop Surrealism at the

Aldrich Museum of Artin 1998; and Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2000. Manuel Ocampo has exhibited extensively throughout the 1990s, with solo exhibitions at galleries and institutions through Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In 2005, his work was the subject of a large-scale survey at Casa Asia in Barcelona, and Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Sigean, France.

Manuel Ocampo's has received a number of prestigious grants and awards, including the Giverny Residency (1998), the Rome Prize at the American Academy (1995-96),National Endowment for the Arts (1996), Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1995) and Art Matters Inc. (1991).

Francis MagalonaFrancis Magalona is a Famous Filipino Artist known as the Master Rapper of the Philippines. He was bon on October 4, 1964,

his parents are Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran, both popular actor and actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Francis Magalona married Pia Arroyo and they got 8 offspring’s: Unna, Nicolo, Francis Jr., Elmo, Arkin, Clara, and actresses Maxene and Saab.

Francis Magalona started as a breakdancer in the 1980s; he was cast in many Filipino movies of that decade, including Bagets 2. Francis likewise gained attention as the resident DJ/rapper in the IBC-13 variety show Loveli'Ness. During 1990, he released the groundbreaking Yo! Album, the first Pinoy rap album in the Philippines that was commercially released. Yo! Album is a big success with songs Mga Kababayan Ko (My Fellow Countrymen), Gotta Let 'Cha Know, Cold Summer Nights and Man From Manila. Followed by FrancisM album in 1992 that makes him one of the most Famous Filipino Artists in the field of music.

Francis Magalona died on March 6, 2009 because of multiple-organ failure caused by leukemia.

Joyce E. Bernal Joyce Bernal or known as Binibining (Miss) Joyce Bernal is a film and television director in the Philippines who started as a film editor for Viva Films in 1994.

Bernal is a single mother to her daughter Liam.

TV Series

2009 Ang Babaeng Hinugot Sa Aking Tadyang GMA Network Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes2008 Dyesebel GMA Network Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes2007 MariMar GMA Network Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes2003 StarStruck GMA Network2002 Ang Iibigin ay Ikaw GMA Network Christopher de Leon, Richard Gomez, and Alice Dixon

Isidro Ancheta Isidro Ancheta (October 15, 1882, San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines – 1946) was a Filipino landscape painter. He finished his

Elementary, Secondary and Bachelor of Arts Degree (1904) at the Ateneo de Manila. He also studied at the Liceo de Manila, Escuela de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado and the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura run by Teodoro Buenaventura in the early 1900s. He was represented with 8 paintings in the Philippine Section at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, where his painting titled A Victim of War received an Honorable Mention. He taught at the Philippine Normal School from 1918 to 1926. Before World War II, his landscapes were found in classrooms all over the Philippines. In 1941 his Tienda del Barrio won Second Honorable Mention in the Filipiniana Category at the National Art Competition sponsored by the University of Santo Tomas.

Virgilio S. Almario Virgilio S. Almario, better known by his pen name, Rio Alma, is a Filipino artist, poet, critic, translator, editor, teacher, and cultural manager. He is a National Artist of the Philippines.

Growing up in Bulacan among peasants,

Almario sought his education in Manila and completed his degree in A.B. Political Science at the University of the Philippines. A prolific writer, he spearheaded the second successful modernist movement in Filipino poetry together with Rogelio G. Mangahas and Lamberto E. Antonio. His earliest pieces of literary criticism were collected in Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina (1972), now considered the first book of literary criticism in Filipino. Later, in the years of martial law, he set aside modernism and formalism and took interest in nationalism, politics and activist movement. As critic, his critical works deal with the issue of national language.

Aside from being a critic, Almario engaged in translating and editing. He has translated the best contemporary poets of the world. He has also translated for theater production the plays of Nick Joaquin, Bertolt Brecht, Euripedes and Maxim Gorki. Other important translations include the famous works of the Philippines' national hero, Jose Rizal, namely Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. It was deemed as the best

translation by the Manila Critics Circle.

Almario has been a recipient of numerous awards such as several Palanca Awards, two grand prizes from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Makata ng Taon of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, the TOYM for literature, and the Southeast Asia Write Award of Bangkok.

Carlo J. Caparas Carlo J. Caparas (born March 12, 1945 in Pampanga) is a Filipino comic strip creator/writer-turned director and producer, who is best known for creating Filipino superheroes and comic book characters such as Panday, Bakekang, Totoy Bato, Joaquin Bordado, Kamandag, Angela Markado, and Tasya Fantasya Gagambino, Pieta. amongst others.

Caparas was awarded the 2008 Sagisag Balagtas Award.

Alfredo AlcalaAlfredo P. Alcala (August 23, 1925 - April 8, 2000) was a Filipino comic book artist, born in Talisay, Negros Occidental in the Philippines.

Alfredo Alcala was born with a creative interest in designing. He was hooked on comic books in his early childhood, and his interest continued throughout his life. He was so compelled with art that he would start drawing pictures and begin posting them in his school's hallways. Alfredo Alcala was so determined to pursue his career in art that he dropped out of school as a young teenager to do so. He first received his break by doing various commercials and painting signs. Later, he began working in an ironworker's shop, designing household materials like lamps, household furnitures and showed his excellence in craftsmanship by designing a church pulpit.

The biggest honor of his childhood came when he started drawing cartoons during the Japanese occupation in World War II. He

acted as a spy for the American forces not even having intentions on doing so. Alfredo Alcala would draw pictures and give them to the leader of the American unit which would help them in the war.

By 1990's, his booming career and popularity led him to different projects including drawing animations for films. Alcala also took part with the novel Daddy Cool written by the late Donald Goines, which featureed some of Alcala's artworks. He also worked on the Swamp Thing for DC, which marked his return to the comics business. His contributions spanned on several artistic genres including superheroes, horror, and fantasy.

Vicente Manansala Vicente Silva Manansala (January 22, 1910- August 22, 1981) was a Philippine cubist painter and illustrator.

Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga. From 1926 to 1930, he studied at the U.P. School of Fine Arts. In 1949, Manansala received a six-month grant by

UNESCO to study at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Banff and Montreal, Canada. In 1950, he received a nine-month scholarship to study at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris by the French government.

Vicente Manansala, a National Artist of the Philippines in Visual Arts, was a direct influence to his fellow Filipino neo-realists: Malang, Angelito Antonio, Norma Belleza and Baldemor.[1] The Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Lopez Memorial Museum (Manila), the Philippine Center (New York City) and the Singapore Art Museum are among the public collections holding work by Vicente Manansala.

Manansala's canvases were described as masterpieces that brought the cultures of the barrio and the city together. His Madonna of the Slums is a portrayal of a mother and child from the countryside who became urban shanty residents once in the city. In his Jeepneys, Manansala combined the elements of provincial folk culture with the congestion issues of the city.

Manansala developed transparent cubism, wherein the "delicate tones, shapes, and patterns of figure and environment are masterfully superimposed". A fine example of Manansala using this "transparent and translucent" technique is his composition, Kalabaw (Carabao).

Jericho Rosales Jericho Vibar Rosales or also known as "Echo" (born on September 22, 1979 in Quezon City, Philippines) is a Filipino actor. He has notable performances in Filipino soap operas, especially in the 2001 hit Pangako Sa'yo with Kristine Hermosa via ABS-CBN. In movies, year 2006 when he had his critically acclaimed portrayal as the international boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. Recently, he started to join the music industry and had his own album.

Kahit Isang Saglit (lit. Even For Just One Moment, also called A Time For Us) is a drama television series produced by ABS-CBN and Double Vision. It is currently airing in the Philippines in primetime every Monday through Friday and will be aired

soon both in Malaysia and Singapore in primetime every Saturdays and Sundays in full high-definition 1080i format.

This series will mark the very first Asianovela production of 2 Asian Countries.

Rocky Santillan's (Jericho Rosales) father is a policeman who was murdered & his mom suffered from a fatal heart attack when she saw her husband’s lifeless body along the beach. Margaret/Garie (Carmen Soo) was very happy to see her father named Ronaldo Dimaandal (Albert Martinez) again and was excited to spend time with her mom & dad, but she woke up the next morning to find out he has left again. Garie & her mom lived with a relative who didn’t too think much of her dad.

Dennis Trillo Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho (born May 12, 1981 in Quezon City, Philippines), or more famously known as Dennis Trillo is a television and film actor in the Philippines. His film debut Aishite Imasu (Mahal Kita) 1941 which skyrocketed him into a matinee

idol status. He is currently an artist of GMA Network, his rise to fame was proven in 2006 when he won the Best Actor trophy thrice that same year defeating heavy contender, Piolo Pascual, Making him the only non-veteran actor to defeat Piolo Pascual in the said feat.

On 200, Dennis is now doing Kulam with Judy Ann Santos for Regal Films also. On August 21, Dennis started in taping his fantaserye of GMA-7's Zaido, where he stars with Raymart Santiago, Marky Cielo, Aljur Abrenica, and Lorna Tolentino, at a studio in Marilao, Bulacan.

On April 29, 2008, 5,000 tourists and residents at the Mactan, Cebu Shrine, viewed the "Battle of Mactan" play, where Manny Pacquiao acted as Lapu-Lapu, while Dennis Trillo played Ferdinand Magellan.

On May 12, 2008, Dennis Trillo's newest starrer, afternoon soap, called locally as a "Sine Novela," Pablo Gomez's "Magdusa Ka" premiered to good ratings. It is still enjoying great success. Sine Novela: Magdusa Ka,

also stars Iwa Moto, Jackie Lou Blanco, Emilio Garcia, Gabby Eigenmann, and his leading lady Katrina Halili in a very different role. In the said soap, Dennis Trillo played a macho dancer character. His macho dancing act in "Magdusa Ka" created buzz in the Philippines because the soap is shown on an afternoon time slot. It is also a daring career move for Dennis Trillo.

Gagambino (Philippine television series based from the graphic novel of Carlo J. Caparas and produced by GMA Network) stars Dennis Trillo in the title role. The series will be aired starting mid-2008. On June 2, 2008, the teaser was officially shown at "Chika Minute" segment of 24 Oras, where Dennis Trillo was formally introduced in his lead role as Gagambino.

Arnold Arre Arnold Arre (born on September 2, 1971 in Metro Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino comic book writer and artist.

Arre has won National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle for his graphic

novels The Mythology Class (1999), a four-part action-adventure miniseries that was re-released as a Special Collected Edition by Adarna House in 2005 and Trip to Tagaytay (2000), a one-shot future fiction short story. Both were released under his self-owned Tala Comics Publishing. His other titles include the romantic comedy After Eden (2002), published by Adarna House, and the self-published Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat (2006).

Aside from his comics work, Arnold has done numerous design and illustration jobs for various clients such as The San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts and Sony BMG Music Entertainment Philippines. He has also taken part in local and international group exhibits and has had a one-man fantasy-themed show, Mythos in 2000.

Arnold resides in Quezon City and is married to graphic designer Cynthia Bauzon.

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Vic SottoMarvic Castelo Sotto (born April 28, 1954), also known as Vic Sotto, is a Filipino actor, comedian, and film producer working for GMA Network and stars on noon-time variety show Eat Bulaga. He is known all through out the industry as Bossing. He has won three consecutive titles for Philippine Box Office King (2004, 2005, and 2006).

He then joined his brothers Tito, Val in a gag show back in the early 1970s “OK Lang” under IBC 13. This is where he met another comedian Joey De Leon. Joey became a co-host of about to be axed weekly variety show Discorama (GMA Network) and eventually invited the brothers to join him. The trio of Tito, Vic and Joey (TVJ) was born.

Vic is the V of the trio. They were casted with more shows like Iskul Bukol and Eat Bulaga!, TVJ: Television's Jesters, Rock and Roll 2000 and countless movies.

He then joined his brothers Tito, Val in a gag show back in the early 1970s “OK Lang” under IBC 13. This is where he met another comedian Joey De Leon. Joey became a co-host of about to be axed weekly variety show Discorama (GMA Network) and eventually invited the brothers to join him. The trio of Tito, Vic and Joey (TVJ) was born. Vic is the V of the trio. They were casted with more shows like Iskul Bukol and Eat Bulaga!, TVJ: Television's Jesters, Rock and Roll 2000 and countless movies.

Robin PadillaRobinhood Fernando Carino Padilla (b. November 23, 1967, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino action star who earned the showbiz monicker "The Bad Boy of Philippine Action Movies" during the '90s when he played cold-blooded gangster roles in movies like "Anak ni Baby Ama", "Grease

Gun Gang". and the title-roler, "Bad Boy 2". He is the younger brother of Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Edition housemate Rustom Padilla.

He was one of Viva Films' top hitmakers alongside Sharon Cuneta and Andrew E. However, his reign as "Bad Boy" was cut short when he had been convicted in the mid 1990s of illegal possession of firearms and spent time in jail. He was released in 1998. A self-confessed former addict, he converted to Islam while in jail. A controversy arose recently when Padilla's bodyguard alias "Kumander Kosovo" was tagged by the Philippine authorities as an Abu Sayyaf leader. Kosovo died in a firefight with special forces during the attempted escape of Abu Sayyaf leaders from the heavily fortified prison facility, Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Shortly after his release from jail, he had reinvented himself as a versatile actor who can do justice to different film genres ranging from action to drama and comedy. His first film after his release from jail was

"Tulak ng Bibig, Kabig ng Dibdib", where he was paired with Maricel Soriano. After his comeback film, he opted out of his exclusive contract with Viva Films and was allowed to do movies for other film outfits including Star Cinema Productions, FLT Films , Millennium Cinema and GMA Films.

Robin crossed over to television via the ABS-CBN comedy show "Pwedeng-Pwede", which teamed him with Kris Aquino and Redford White. Again, setting a trend among Philippine action stars, he was the first action star to topbill a daily action-drama series, "Basta't Kasama Kita" opposite Judy Ann Santos. In 2005 he did two movies: the horror thriller "Kulimlim" and the comedy "La Visa Loca". He got rave reviews in the latter movie and received Best Actor honors in the 2006 Urian Awards.

Padilla is currently a contract artist of GMA Network and starred in the top rating TV series Asian Treasures (which ended on June 29, 2007) with Angel Locsin, the series was shot all over Asia, the first Philippine TV series to do so. He has also signed a two

film contract under GMA Network's film outfit GMA Films; first was Till I Met You with Regine Velasquez and was a blockbbuster hit, the second one will be a dramedy with Mega Star Sharon Cuneta, under the direction of Jose Javier Reyes, and is scheduled to begin filming this October for a 2nd quarter of 2008 release.

Robin, an anti-malaria advocate since 2004 appealed for media support for his cause against the dreaded disease, to help his Muslim brethren (in the press briefing of Department of Health’s Movement Against Malaria). As MAM spokesperson, Robin said he engaged television networks in the campaign for the use of mosquito nets. His MAM posters are now being sent to rural health clinics all over the country. Robin also collected 1 million Philippine pesos for the Muslim cemetery in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

Padilla flew to Turkey to attend a conference concerning the Liwanag ng Kapayapaan Foundation, a free preschool he built for Muslim children in Quezon City,

which opened in 2007. Meanwhile, after his top-rating action-adventure series, Asian Treasures ended, Robin is set to do a Jose Javier Reyes film opposite Sharon Cuneta.

On September 15, 2007 he donated 2.5 million Philippine pesos to the Muay Association of the Philippines. On March 7, 2008 Robin Padilla suffered minor injuries while taping a motorcycle stunt for Joaquin Bordado, in Subic Bay, Zambales.

He has four children, a son named Ali and three daughters Queenie, Kylie and Zhen-Zhen. He owns a house at posh Pines Ville Street, Greenview Executive Village, Barangay Sauyo, Novaliches, Quezon City, where thieves stole his Motorola cellular phone and a 357 Luger, a German-made handgun loaded with 6 bullets, on May 3, 2008.

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

Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (May 30, 1892 - April 26, 1972) is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the

Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. Born in Paco, Manila, he earned a degree from the Liceo de Manila Art School in 1909.

During his lifetime, Amorsolo was married twice and had 14 children. In 1916, he married Salud Jorge, with whom he had six children. After Jorge’s death in 1931, Amorsolo married Maria del Carmen Zaragoza, with whom he had eight more children. Among her daughters

are Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo and Luz Amorsolo. Five of Amorsolo’s children became painters themselves. Amorsolo was a close friend to the Philippine sculptor Guillermo Tolentino, the creator of the Caloocan City monument for Philippine hero Andres Bonifacio.

Victorio C. EdadesVictorio C. Edades (December 13, 1895 - March 7, 1985) is a Filipino painter who was the leader of the revolutionary Thirteen Moderns who engaged their classical compatriots in heated debate over the nature and function of art. He was named a National Artist in 1976.

Victorio Edades was born on December 23, 1895 to Hilario and Cecilia Edades. He was

the youngest of ten children (six of whom died of smallpox). He grew up in Barrio Bolosan in Dagupan, Pangasinan. His artistic ability surfaced during his early years. By seventh grade, his teachers were so impressed with him that he was dubbed “apprentice teacher” in his art class. He was also an achiever from the very beginning, having won awards in school debates and writing competitions.

Edades helped organized the University of Sto. Tomas Department of Architecture in 1930 and was its acting head. In 1935, he was appointed as Director of the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts, which he organized under the wing of Architecture. He was guided by the existing American curricula when he made the Fine Arts curriculum for UST. Alongside standard subjects like drawing, painting and composition, he also included Western and Oriental art history, foreign languages and optional science subjects such as zoology and botany. Because of Edades, UST became the forerunner of Modern Art, while

the University of the Philippines remained the precursor of conservative art.

Levi CelerioLevi Celerio (April 30, 1910 - April 2, 2002) was a Filipino composer and lyricist who was born in Manila, the Philippines. Celerio was a prolific song-writer, with over 4,000 songs to his credit. He is perhaps best-known for being a leaf-player, a feat for which

he was put into the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1997, he was named National Artist of the Philippines for Music. He died on April 2, 2002.

Levi Celerio was born on April 19, 1910 in Tondo, Manila. He received a scholarship to the Academy of Music in Manila and became the youngest member of the

Manila Symphony Orchestra. He wrote a great number of songs for local movies, which earned for him the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Film Academy of the Philippines. Celerio has written lyrics for more than 4,000 Filipino folk, Christmas, and love songs, including many that became movie titles.

On October 9, 1997, pursuant to Proclamation No. 1114, President Fidel V. Ramos proclaimed him a National Artist for Music and Literature. His citation read that his music "was a perfect embodiment of the heartfelt sentiments and valued traditions of the Filipino."

In his old age, Levi

occasionally appeared in public, usually at a concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He was also playing at a Quezon City bar from time to time. Levi was a poor man, so poor in fact that he could not pay for his hospital bills.

He died at the Delgado Clinic in Quezon City on April 2, 2002 at the age of 91, just two days after

the death of a fellow National Artist, Lucio San Pedro (who wrote the music for Sa Ugoy ng Duyan). But his death was overshadowed by the death of Rico Yan, a popular matinee idol thus, his death was received with little attention. He was buried with full military honors at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Nationa

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

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

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

Some of his major works include Kaganapan (1953), Kiss of Judas (1955), Thirty Pieces of Silver , The Transfiguration, Eternal Gardens Memorial Park (1979), UP Gateway (1967), Nine Muses (1994), UP Faculty Center, Sunburst (1994)-Peninsula Manila Hotel, the bronze figure of Teodoro M. Kalaw in front of National Library, and murals in marble at the National Heroes Shrine, Mt. Samat, Bataan. One masterpiece he dedicates to the Boholanos is the Sandugo or Blood Compact shrine in Bool, Tagbilaran City, a landmark at the site of the first international treaty of friendship

between Spaniards and Filipinos. This is now a tourist attraction in Bohol province. This shrine is an expression of Abueva's awareness of his roots, and a manifestation of his artistic talents.

Abueva also performed the death mask procedure of the late Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004, as well as that of Ninoy Aquino in 1986. Both masks are now displayed at the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac. Incidentally, he also made a death mask of Cardinal Sin.

Fernando Poe, Jr. (August 20, 1939 – December 14, 2004), born as Ronald Allan Kelley Poe

and colloquially known as FPJ and Da King, was a Filipino actor and later politician, having

run an unsuccessful bid for President of the Philippines in the 2004 presidential elections

against the incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was honored on May 24, 2006 with the

title of Philippine National Artist through an executive order called Philippine Proclamation

No. 1065, despite controversies surrounding his nomination.

Poe dropped out of high school to work in the Filipino film industry as a messenger boy,

and was given acting roles in subsequent years. Starting as a stuntman for Everlasting

Pictures, he was given a break and landed his first starring role in the movie Anak ni

Palaris (Son of Palaris) at the age of 14. The movie was not a big hit. In 1957, the movie Lo

Waist Gang made him popular, and the film was such a big hit that low-waist pants became

a fad.

Known also as FPJ from his initials, Poe acted in a number of movies which depicted him as

the champion of the poor and downtrodden. He also directed nine movies, under the

pseudonym Ronwaldo Reyes. Reyes originated from the surname of his paternal

grandmother, Martha.

He established FPJ productions in 1961 and later organized other film companies such as

D'Lanor, JAFERE, and Rosas Productions. In 1963, he and Joseph Estrada testified against

criminal gangs who extorted money from the film industry. In 1965, he shared the lead in

The Ravagers, a film depicting the United States and the Philippines working together

against Japanese war time occupation. The film is considered one of the most influential

Filipino films, and it helped establish Fernando Poe, Jr.'s status as a movie icon.

Poe became an award-winning actor and garnered the most best actor awards at the

FAMAS. Among the movies that received awards were Mga Alabok ng Lupa (1967),

Asedillo (1971), Durugin si Totoy Bato, Umpisahan Mo, Tatapusin Ko (1983), and Muslim

Magnum .357 (1987).

Poe was dubbed as the "Da King" of Philippine movies because of his box office hits. He

made over 200 films in his lifetime and ran a successful movie production firm. Among his

famous movies include the Ang Panday series, Kahit Konting Pagtingin, Dito sa Pitong

Gatang and Aguila. His last movie was Pakners which also stars 9-ball billiards champion

Efren "Bata" Reyes.

Dolphy

Dolphy (born Rodolfo Quizon on July 25, 1928 in

Pampanga though raised in Tondo, Manila), is a comedian actor in the Philippines. Better

known as the Philippine's "King of Comedy", his career has spanned for more than 5

decades. He used the screen names Golay and Pidol under Sampaguita Pictures.

He was raised by his parents Melencio Espinosa Quizon, a Chinese Filipino, and Salud de la

Rosa Vera. He is currently living with his domestic partner Zsa Zsa Padilla. He has 18

children by five different women.

He started as a struggling performer onstage during the Japanese occupation of the

Philippines. The late Fernando Poe, Sr. gave him his first break as a character actor. His

comic talents became well known in the films, Jack en Jill and Facifica Falayfay. Soon, he

made many comedy films, alongside fellow comedians, Pugo, Tugo, Babalu, Panchito, Ike

Lozada and German Moreno. In 1966, as part of the comedy duo Dolphy and Panchito, he

opened for the Beatles at Rizal Stadium in Manila. Even though their show was in Tagalog,

Paul McCartney has said he was amused by their act.

He is best known for his character John Puruntong in the comedy sitcom John En Marsha

with Nida Blanca. The series lasted for 17 years and ended in 1990.

After John En Marsha, he returned on TV to play Kevin Kosme (a play on the name of actor

Kevin Costner) in the sitcom Home Along da Riles, of ABS-CBN, which was reinvented into

Home Along da Airport.

In 2001, Dolphy and his sons Eric and Jeffrey Quizon all won the Prix de la Meilleure

Interpretation (the equivalent of a Best Actor Award) in Brussels, Belgium for playing

Walterina Markova in the movie Markova: Comfort Gay.

He currently appears in a show called John En Shirley which is a spin-off of John En Marsha

with Maricel Soriano the only returning cast member from the show.

Television Shows

Buhay Artista (ABS-CBN)

Tantarangtang (ABS-CBN)

John En Marsha (RPN 9)

Gabi Ni Dolphy (RPN 9)

Plaza 1899 (RPN 9)

Purungtong (RPN 9)

Home Along Da Riles (ABS-CBN 2)

Home Along Da Airport (ABS-CBN 2)

Quizon Avenue (ABS-CBN 2)

John En Shirley (ABS-CBN 2)

Napoleon AbuevaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Napoleón Isabelo Veloso-Abueva (born January 26, 1930), more popularly known asNapoleón Abueva, is

a Filipino artist. He is a sculptor given the distinction as the Philippines' National Artist for Sculpture. He is also

entitled as the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture". He is the only Boholano given the distinction

as National Artist of the Philippines in the field of Visual Arts.[1]

Contents

  [hide] 

1     Biography and career   2     Exhibits   3     Cultural Missions   4     Organizations   5     Awards   6     References   

[edit]Biography and careerNapoleon Abueva, nicknamed Billy, was born on January 26, 1930 in Tagbilaran, Bohol to Teodoro Abueva, a Bohol congressman and Purificacion

(Nena) Veloso, president of the Women’s Auxiliary Service. His father was a friend and contemporary of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas and Ambassador Narciso Ramos. He was a member of the Provincial Board, and later became the Provincial Governor of Bohol. He ended his career as a Congressman in 1934. Both of Abueva's parents died serving their country.Abueva has six other brothers and sisters: Teodoro (Teddy), Jr., now based in New York, USA; Purificacion (Neny -deceased), married to Atty. Ramon Binamira (dec.) of Tagbilaran City; Jose Abueva (Pepe), former president of the University of the Philippines; Amelia Martinez (Inday), now living in Chicago; Teresita (Ching) Floro, now living in Sydney, Australia; and Antonio (Tony), a landscape artist who met a tragic fate

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

As a young boy, Billy studied at the Tagbilaran Elementary School, and later at University of Southern Philippines, Holy Name College (nowHoly Name University), and Rafael Palma College (now the University of Bohol) before making it as a sculptor.A home-grown talent, he was given a break in 1951 when he won the Pura Villanueva-Kalaw Scholarship. He then took up a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines where he graduated in 1953. This was followed by a Fulbright-Smith Mundt Scholarshipin 1954-55, after which he got a foreign Students Scholarship at the University of Kansas (1955–56). At the same time, he won another scholarship at the Instituto de Allende in Mexico City which he did not avail due to conflict in schedule. It was also in 1955 that he finished his

Masters in Fine Arts at the Cranbook Academy of Arts, U.S.. In 1956, he attended Harvard University for another scholarship grant.At U.P, one of his mentors was Guillermo Tolentino, also a national artist, who created the oblation at the university entrance . Tolentino later relegated to him the task of replicating the sculpture for the Campus of U.P. Los Banos.Abueva has helped shape the local sculpture scene in the Philippines. Being adept in both academic representational style and modern abstract, he has utilized almost all kinds of materials from hard wood (molave, acacia, langka wood, ipil, kamagong, palm wood and bamboo) to adobe, metal, stainless steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron, alabaster, coral and brass.

In 1976, he was proclaimed as National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts by then President Ferdinand Marcos. He was the youngest recipient of the title at age 46.Some of his major works include Kaganapan (1953), Kiss of Judas (1955), Thirty Pieces of Silver, The Transfiguration, Eternal Gardens Memorial Park (1979), UP Gateway (1967), Nine Muses (1994), UP Faculty Center, Sunburst (1994)-Peninsula Manila Hotel, the bronze figure of Teodoro M. Kalaw in front of National Library, and murals in marble at the National Heroes Shrine, Mt. Samat, Bataan. One masterpiece he dedicates to the Boholanos is the Sandugo or Blood Compact shrine in Bohol, Tagbilaran City, a landmark at the site of the first international treaty of

friendship between Spaniards and Filipinos. This is now a tourist attraction in Bohol province. This shrine is an expression of Abueva's awareness of his roots, and a manifestation of his artistic talents.Abueva also performed the death mask procedure of opposition leader Ninoy Aquino in 1983, as well as that of Fernando Poe, Jr. in 2004. Both masks are now displayed at the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac. Incidentally, he also made a death mask ofCardinal Sin.[2]

He is married to Cherry Abueva, a psychiatrist, and has three children, Amihan,Mulawin, and Duero. Before his stroke, he used to teach at the Industrial Design department of the De La Salle-

College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts.[3]

[edit]ExhibitsHe has made exhibits of his work in Cebu Plaza,[4] University of Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Vermont, U.S..

[edit]Cultural Missions Century 21 Exposition in Seattle,

Washington (1962) Cultural mission to India Cultural mission to Taipei Arts Council in England (1964) - special

guest Venice Biennale  (1964) Fifth International Congress of Art

in Tokyo (1966) - delegate

Sixth International congress of Art in Amsterdam (1969).

Biennale de Sao Paulo, Brazil (1969). art exhibit of the Philippine Pavilion in

Expo 70, Osaka, Japan

[edit]OrganizationsAbueva is a member of the Ceramic Council of the Philippines; Rizal Center; International Institute of Arts and Letters (1959–61); Art Education Committee (1961); and the National Commission on Culture (1964–65). He was President of the Art Association of the Philippines (1965–66) and President of the Society of Philippine Sculpture (1967–68).

[edit]Awards First Prize, Sculptural Exhibition by the

Art Association of the Philippines (1951)

First Prize in the Fifth Annual Art Exhibition (1952)

First Prize and Special Award on the Fourth Sculptural Exhibition (1952)

Awardee, "The Unknown Political Prisoner" in the International Sculpture Competition by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London(1953)

First Prize and Special Award, Kaganapan (Marble), in the Semi-Annual Art Exhibition by the Art Association of the Philippines (1953)

First Prize, "Kiss of Judas" (Wood) in the Religious Art Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, USA (1955)

Purchase Prize, "Water Buffalo" (Marble), in the Annual Show, at St. Louis, Missouri, USA (1956)

First Prize, "Figure" (Wood) in the Annual Show of the Art Association of the Philippines (1957)

Most Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Fine Arts, U.P. Golden Jubilee (1958)

Republic Award for Sculpture (1959) Ten Outstanding Young Men of the

Philippines (TOYM) Awardee in Sculpture (1959)

Winner, U.P. Gateway Design Competition (1962)

Winner, Cultural Heritage Award (1966) ASEAN Awards for Visual Arts in

Bangkok (1987) Fourth ASEAN Achievement Award for

Visual Arts in Singapore (July 1995).

[edit]References

Antonino R. BuenaventuraMusic (1988)

Antonino R. Buenaventura has vigorously pursued a musical career that spanned seven decades of

unwavering commitment to advancing the frontiers of Philippine music. In 1935, Buenaventura joined Francisca Reyes-Aquino to conduct research on folksongs and dances that led to its popularization. Buenaventura composed songs, compositions, for solo instruments as well as symphonic and orchestral works based on the folksongs of various Philippine ethnic groups. He was also a conductor and restored the Philippine Army Band to its former prestige as one of the finest military bands in the world making it "the only band that can sound like a symphony orchestra".

This once sickly boy who played the clarinet proficiently has written several marches such as the "Triumphal March," "Echoes of the Past," "History Fantasy,"Second Symphony in E-flat, "Echoes from the Philippines," "Ode to Freedom." His orchestral music compositions include Concert Overture, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, Philippines Triumphant, Mindanao Sketches, Symphony in C Major, among others.

The 1996 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

 BIOGRAPHY of Nick Joaquin He was the greatest Filipino writer of his generation. Over six decades and a half, he produced a body of work unmatched in richness and range by any of his contemporaries. Living a life wholly devoted to the craft of conjuring a world through words, he was the writer’s writer. In the passion with which he embraced his country’s manifold being, he was his people’s writer as well.

The young Joaquin dropped out of school. He had attended Paco Elementary School and had three years of secondary education in Mapa High School but was too intellectually restless to be confined in a classroom. Among other changes, he was unable to pursue the religious vocation that his strictly Catholic family had envisioned to be his future. Joaquin himself confessed that he always had the vocation for the religious life and would have entered a

seminary if it were not for his father’s death. After he left school, Joaquin worked as a mozo (boy apprentice) in a bakery in Pasay and then as a printer’s devil in the composing department of the Tribune, of the TVT (Tribune-Vanguardia-Taliba) publishing company, which had its offices on F. Torres Street in Manila’s Santa Cruz district. This got him started on what would be a lifelong association with the world of print. Through this time he pursued a passion for reading. Sarah K. Joaquin, Nick’s sister-in-law, recounts that in his teens Nick had a "rabid and insane love for books." He would hold a book with one hand and read while polishing with a coconut husk the floor with his feet. He

would walk down a street, on an errand to buy the family’s meal, with a dinner pail in one hand and an open book in the other. Both his parents had encouraged his interest in books. When he was around ten, his father got him a borrower’s card at the National Library (then in the basement of the Legislative Building in Luneta) and there he discovered Bambi and Heidi and the novels of Stevenson, Dumas, and Dickens (David Copperfield was his great favorite). He explored his father’s library and the bookstores of Carriedo in downtown Manila. He was voracious, reading practically everything that caught his fancy, from the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Vachel Lindsay to the stories of Anton Chekhov,

to the novels of Dostoyevsky, D. H. Lawrence, and Willa Cather. He read American magazines (Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Magazine) and discovered the fiction of Booth Tarkington, Somerset Maugham, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. Joaquin’s choice of early readings was not exceptional. Joaquin and other writers of his generation who were schooled in the American era discovered Dostoyevsky and Hemingway before they did such Tagalog writers as Lope K. Santos and Rosauro Almario. Yet, it can be said that Joaquin never really lost his sense of where he was. He read Manila’s English-language newspapers and magazines for what Filipinos themselves

were writing. (He had read the Jose Rizal novels in the Charles Derbyshire translation before he was thirteen, Joaquin said.) He always had a strong sense of place, a virtue that was to become a hallmark of his body of work. "When I started writing in the late 1930s," he would recall many years later, "I was aware enough of my milieu to know that it was missing from our writing in English. The Manila I had been born into and had grown up in had yet to appear in our English fiction, although that fiction was mostly written in Manila and about Manila." His first short story dealt with the vaudeville of Manila, "The Sorrows of Vaudeville," and was published in Sunday Tribune Magazine in 1937. (The editors changed its title to "Behind

Tinsel and Grease.") Earlier, in 1934, he published his first poem in English, a piece about Don Quixote. The story is told that when this poem appeared in the Tribune, Serafin Lanot, the Tribune’s poetry editor, liked the poem very much and went to congratulate the poet when he came to collect his fee, but the shy and elusive Joaquin ran away. Very early, Joaquin was set on crafting his own voice. Writing in 1985 on his early years as a writer, he said that it appeared to him in the 1930s that both an American language and an American education had distanced Filipino writers in English from their immediate surroundings. "These young writers could only see what the American language saw." It was "modern" to snub anything that wore the name of tradition

and, for the boys and girls who trooped to the American-instituted schools, Philippine history began with Commodore Dewey and the Battle of Manila Bay. "The result was a fiction so strictly contemporary that both the authors and their characters seemed to be, as I put it once, ‘without grandfathers.’" He recalled: "I realize now that what impelled me to start writing was a desire to bring in the perspective, to bring in the grandfathers, to manifest roots." This was Nick Joaquin recalling in 1985 what it was like in the 1930s. Back then, the young Joaquin was just beginning to find his way into a literary life. He was gaining notice as a promising writer, publishing between 1934 and 1941 a few stories and over a dozen poems in

the Herald Mid-Week Magazine and the Sunday Tribune Magazine. The literary scene was vibrant in the Commonwealth years, as writers and critics debated the role and direction of Philippine writing and formed feuding groups such as the Philippine Writers League and the Veronicans. Joaquin stood at the periphery of this scene. He probably had little time to be too reflective. He was already trying to fend for himself while quite young. He was also growing into a world that was marching toward the cataclysm of a world war. The period of the Japanese occupation was a difficult time for the Joaquins who, at this time, had moved from Pasay to a house on Arlegui Street in the historic San Miguel district of Manila, where

Malaca�ang Palace is located. Like other residents in the enemy-occupied city, Joaquin scavenged for work to help support the family. The Japanese had closed down the Tribune and other publications at the onset of the occupation. Joaquin worked as a port stevedore, factory watchman, rig driver, road worker, and buy-and-sell salesman. Seeing corpses on the street, working for a wage in rice, demeaned by fear and poverty, Joaquin detested the war. He later said in an interview that the experience of the war so drained both his body and spirit that when it was over, he was filled with the desire to leave the country and go somewhere far. He dreamed of pursuing a religious vocation by going to a monastery in Spain or somewhere in Europe, "somewhere where you could clean up."

 Through the war years, he continued writing when and where he could. He finished "The Woman Who Felt Like Lazarus," a story about an aging vaudeville star, and the essay "La Naval de Manila." Both appeared in the wartime English-language journal Philippine Review in 1943. A monthly published by the Manila Sinbun-sya and edited by Vicente Albano Pacis and Francisco Icasiano, the Review also published Joaquin’s story "It Was Later Than We Thought" (1943) and his translation of Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios (1944). Readers were beginning to take notice. He cultivated a persona inaccessible and mysterious. When he was asked to fill up a biographical form for the Review, he

simply wrote down: "25 years old, salesman." "La Naval de Manila" tells of a Manila religious celebration built on the tradition that the Blessed Virgin had miraculously intervened in the Spanish victory over a Dutch invasion fleet in 1646. Already it sets forth a major theme Joaquin would develop in the years ahead: that the Filipino nation was formed in the matrix of Spanish colonialism and that it was important for Filipinos to appreciate their Spanish past. He wrote: "The content of our national destiny is ours to create, but the basic form, the temper, the physiognomy, Spain created for us." The article triggered an angry response in a subsequent issue of the Review from Federico Mangahas, then a leading intellectual, who testily

inquired why theReview was "building up" this young writer who would have readers believe that precolonial Philippine society was just a primeval "drift of totem-and-taboo tribes" and that Catholic saints can be the country’s unifying national symbols. Joaquin declined to reply but he had raised an issue that would continue to be debated after the war. After the Americans liberated Manila in February–April 1945, Joaquin worked as a stage manager for his sister-in-law’s acting troupe and dreamed of getting away. In the meantime, he continued writing and publishing. He obviously did not sleepwalk through the years of the war but was writing out stories in his head. In heady years right after the war, he published in rapid succession such

stories as "Summer Solstice," "May Day Eve," and "Guardia de Honor." These stories have become Nick Joaquin’s signature stories and classics in Philippine writing in English. The opportunity to leave the country came in 1947 when he was accepted as a novice at Saint Albert’s College, a Dominican monastery in Hong Kong. The story is told that the Dominicans in Manila were so impressed by his "La Naval de Manila" that they offered him a scholarship to Saint Albert’s and had the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas award him an honorary Associate in Arts certificate so he would qualify. His stay at Saint Albert’s schooled him in Latin and the classics. He enjoyed the pleasant diversions of the scenic port city and the occasional

company of his brother Porfirio (Ping) who was in Hong Kong on a stint as a jazz musician. It seemed, however, that he was too restless for life in a monastery. He stayed less than two years and returned to Manila. Back in the Philippines in 1950, he joined the country’s leading magazine, Philippines Free Press, working as a proofreader, copywriter, and then member of the staff. At this time,Free Press was so widely circulated across the country and so dominant a medium for political reportage and creative writing, it was called "the Bible of the Filipinos." Practically all middle-class homes in the country had a copy of the magazine. 

Joaquin’s Free Press years established him as a leading public figure in Philippine letters. In its pages appeared the stories and essays that made him known to a wide national audience. The publication of Prose and Poems (1952), a collection of short stories, poems, a novella, and a play, cemented his reputation as an original voice in Philippine literature. He mined a lode of local experience that no one had quite dealt with in the way he did. He summoned ancient rites and legends, evoked a Filipino Christianity at once mystical and profane, and dramatized generational conflicts in a modern society that had not quite come to terms with its past. His was a vision that ranged through a large expanse of history in an English so full-bodied and a style sensuous and sure.

 In 1955, his first play, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes, was premiered on stage at the Aurora Gardens in Intramuros, Manila, by the Barangay Theater Guild. He had written the play sometime around 1950 upon the urgings of Sarah Joaquin, who was active in Manila’s theater circles. Though it had been published in Weekly Women’s Magazine and Prose and Poems in 1952 and had been aired on radio, the play was not staged until 1955. It proved to be an immense success. It was made into an English-language movie by the highly respected Filipino filmmaker Lamberto V. Avellana in 1965, translated into Tagalog, adapted in other forms, and staged hundreds of times. No Filipino play in English has been as popular.

 Using the flashback device of a narrator who recalls the sad fate of a prewar family as he stands in the ruins of postwar Manila, the play sets itself not only in the divide of war but that of past and present in Philippine society. Tracing the disintegration of an old and proud family in the transition from past to present, Nick Joaquin explored what had been abiding themes in his writing across the years. He did not see the premiere of the play since, in 1955, Joaquin left the country on a Rockefeller Foundation creative writing fellowship. The prestigious award took him to Spain, the United States, and (with a Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship from the publishers of Harper’s Magazine) Mexico. In this

sojourn, which lasted more than two years, he worked on his first novel, The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961), a short and early version of which had appeared in Prose and Poems. The Woman Who Had Two Navels is a many-layered and less-than-perfect novel that teases out universal antinomies of truth and falsehood, illusion and reality, past and present, and locates them in the context of the Filipino search for identity. Though Joaquin had been criticized for a romantic "nostalgia for the past," this novel and his other works, including Portrait, showed that he looked at the past always with the consciousness of the need for engaging the present world in its own terms. 

Joaquin enjoyed his travels. He traveled all over Spain, lived in Madrid and Mallorca, visited France, stayed a year in Manhattan, went on an American cross-country trip on a Greyhound bus, crossed the border to Laredo, and had fun exploring Mexico. Spain and Mexico fascinated him ("my kind of country," he says). He would, in the years that followed, take trips to Cuba, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Australia. Yet he was clearly in his element in his homeland and in Manila, the city that has been his imagination’s favorite haunt. From the time he rejoined Free Press in 1957 until he left it in 1970 (during which time he rose to be the magazine’s literary editor and associate editor), Joaquin was as prominent in his

persona as Quijano de Manila (a pseudonym he adopted for his journalistic writings when he joined the Free Press in 1950) as he was the creative artist Nick Joaquin. He churned out an average of fifty feature articles a year during this period. He wrote with eloquence and verve on the most democratic range of subjects, from the arts and popular culture to history and current politics. He was a widely read chronicler of the times, original and provocative in his insights and energetic and compassionate in his embrace of local realities. One of his contemporaries remarked: "Nick Joaquin the journalist has brought to the craft the sensibility and style of the literary artist, the perceptions of an astute student of the Filipino psyche,

and the integrity and idealism of the man of conscience, and the result has been a class of journalism that is dramatic, insightful, memorable, and eminently readable." He raised journalistic reportage to an art form. In his crime stories—for example, "The House on Zapote Street" (1961) and "The Boy Who Wanted to Become ‘Society’" (1961)—he deployed his narrative skills in producing gripping psychological thrillers rich in scene, incident, and character. More important, he turned what would otherwise be ordinary crime reports (e.g., a crime of passion in an unremarkable Makati suburban home or the poor boy who gets caught up in a teenage gang war) into priceless vignettes of Philippine social history.

arlos “Botong” Francisco (Picture from ([1]).

Isinilang si Carlos "Botong" Francisco sa Angono, Rizal noong 4 Nobyembre 1913 at yumao noong 1969. Nagsimulang magtrabaho bilang layout artist at ilustrador sa Philippine Herald at Manila Tribune si Botong. Kabilang siya sa unang hanay ng mga guro sa bagong tatag noong UST School of Architecture and Fine Arts. Si Botong ay isa sa mga modernistang pintor na lumihis sa itinakdang kumbensiyon ng pagpipinta ni Amorsolo, at nagpasok ng sariwang imahen, sagisag, at idyoma sa pagpipinta.

Kasama sina Victorio C. Edades at Galo B. Ocampo, nagpinta siya ng sari-saring

mural, gaya sa Bulwagan ng Lungsod Maynila; Capitol Theater; The Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco; State Theater; at sa mga tahanan ng mga sikat na tao, tulad nina Ernesto at Vicente Rufino at Pang. Manuel L. Quezon. Makalipas ang Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig, si Botong ang naging pangunahing pintor ng mural sa Filipinas.

Noong 1952, nagwagi ng komisyon at humamig ng pambihirang paghanga sa iba't ibang bansa ang kaniyang higanteng mural para sa First International Fair na ginanap sa Maynila, at may paksang na pinamagatang 500 Taon sa Kasaysayan ng Filipinas.

Ilang mga Obra

Kaingin Camote-Eaters Filipino Struggles through History Pageant of Commerce Life and Miracles of St. Dominic, 1954 Stations of the Cross, 1956 Rising Philippines, kasama si Victorio Edades at Galo B. Ocampo

Nagdisenyo rin siya ng mga kasuotan para sa Romeo at Julieta, Prinsipe Teñoso, Ibong Adarna, Siete Infantes de Lara (Seven Devils) at Juan Tamad.

Gawad at Parangal

Kabilang sa mga natamong gawad ni Botong ang una, ikalawa, at ikatlong gantimpala sa Botica Boei-Kalibapi

Painting Contest. Nagwagi rin ng unang gantimpala si Botong noong 1948 sa timpalak ng Art Association of the Philippines, dahil sa kaniyang obrang Kaingin. Ginawaran siya ng Republic Cultural Heritage Award noong 1964, at itinanghal sa Orden ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining noong 1973.