Contemporary Arts 1.3

Pre-Colonial Art

Artistic production in the Philippines started even before the colonizers reached the Philippine islands. Art was often used by the people in their daily living. Our ancestors weaved fabrics for dresses, made weapons for battles, and chanted to bring good harvest. Unlike today, indigenous art are not classified strictly into disciplines. Art, for them, had social utility; indigenous people integrated art into their communal ceremonies. Planting and harvesting, weddings, funerals, and rites of passage are examples of communal ceremonies.

**

Rituals played a significant role in the everyday life of Filipino ancestors. The Kashawing ritual in lake Lanao, for example, acts as a prayer for abundance during harvesting season. It involves a reenactment of a legendary pact between ancestors and unseen spirits. A similar type of ritual for planting rice is performed by the Tagbanwas of Palawan.

Filipino ancestors harvest and hunt for a living. Their hunting experience also served as an inspiration to create drama, poetry, music, and dance by imitating the movements of an animal. This is considered a ritual to prepare for hunting.

To accompany these rituals, the indigenous peoples also had their own musical instruments. An example of this is the agung ensemble​. Musical instruments, when played, are usually complemented with dances that imitate the movements of animals. Higaonon and B’laan have banog-banog​, and the Bagobos have the man-manok dances which imitate the movement of the birds. Meanwhile, courtship ritual in Ifugao is represented through the ​talip​.

Mostly, indigenous arts were inspired by animism. Indigenous peoples created statue and symbols for their beliefs. The Ifugaos carved the bulul which they depict as their granary god. Meanwhile, in the Southern Philippines, okir, a curvilinear decoration, is an evidence of Indian and Islamic influences.

Spanish Colonial Art

During the 16th century, upon the arrival of the Spaniards, indigenous art changed. Spanish colonization brought Catholicism and imposed their Western culture. This conversion caused the birth of the religious or Christian and folk arts. Towns or pueblos were created in a structure of plaza complex, with the church at the center of each towns. Churches and government offices were built, and the rise of Hispanic baroque structures were built across the Islands.

With the rise of Catholicism, religious icons like the santos, retablos​, and others became essential for religious rituals. Paintings also focused on visually representing the writings of the Bible, and therefore conveyed religious messages. Music, an essential part of worship, thus focused on liturgical music. Apart from worship music, the pasyon or pabasa​, a narration of Christ’s passion portrayed during Lent season, were also observed in some places. There was also a massive emergence of secular music in Iloilo, Pampanga, Ilocos, and Bicol when the Spanish tradition of awit and korido became popularized. Spanish colonization also marks the rise of the kundiman and the balitao. This development in music also affected theatre arts, and soon the ​sarsuwela, senakulo,​ ​and the ​komedya ​were born in the Philippines.

During then, Filipinos became enlightened of the continuous abuse by the colonial government and the friars. This resulted in a rebellion. Thus, revolutionary and subversive themes became prominent. A popular example of such artwork is Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo​ by ​Dr. Jose Rizal.

American and Japanese Colonial Art

Americans introduced the public education system in the Philippines. Their schools, however, required students to learn English. This brought forth Philippine Literature in English. Initially, these pieces are characterized by a poor use of language as the Filipinos only mimicked their American teachers. Soon, in 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez published the short story Dead Stars​, ​marking the birth of modern Philippine Literature in English.

The Americans also popularized secularism, as evidenced by popular art forms of the century such as the vaudeville or bodabil in theatre. School of Fine Arts, alongside the establishment of the University of the Philippines (UP), was also founded thus giving birth to Filipino artists educated in the Western ways. For example, Fernardo Amorsolo, known for his craftsmanship in the use of light, was educated in UP’s School of Fine Arts and is highly influenced by Western artists.

When the Japanese briefly occupied the Philippines during the 1940s, nationalism became more pronounced. This is the effect of the war and repression on the Filipino people.

Contemporary Arts in the Philippines

When the late former president Ferdinand Marcos started his administration, the birth of Contemporary Arts in the Philippines began. Culture and the arts were given focused in his vision of the “New Society.” Cultural Center of the Philippines was then established and urban planning and architecture were given more focused. However, the declaration of Martial Law (1972 - 1981) gave birth to dictatorship and numerous human rights violations. With that emerged social realism. Underground cultural circles and writers hiding in pen names were popular as censorship was popular during that time. Literary arts, visual arts, and performing arts were used to express dissent. An example of this is the poem Prometheus Unbound written by Jose Lacaba under the pen name Ruben Cuevas. The piece is an acrostic, which means the first letter of each line form a message. The acrostic revealed a strong sentiment against the administration and became a popular slogan against the regime as the piece was published, the editor unaware of its hidden message, was published in Focus Magazine.

When Martial Law was lifted and the Marcos regime ended, democracy was reintroduced to the Filipino people. This new found freedom paved the way for a more diverse and more expressive Filipino artists. No longer did the Filipinos exclusively made art for or against the government; now, art is a tool mainly used for self-expression. With the rapid rise of technology and the popularity of social media, Filipinos find more platforms and ways to express themselves, thereby continuously changing the art scene. Contemporary art is distinct because of how it blurs the lines across artistic disciplines, and how it integrates various elements and principles.