Serenata by Ramon Estella

As we continue with our celebration of the #NationalArtsMonth2022,  this week’s  #ArtStrollSunday features “Serenata,” a 1949 oil on canvas by Neo-Realist painter and filmmaker Ramón Estella (1911-1991) from the National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC). 

Ramón Estella was born in Hong Kong in 1911 and grew up in Cebu City.  He finished his Bachelor of Arts degree at San Beda College in 1933 and completed his Masters in Mass Media Communications at the University of Santo Tomas. The artist was most identified with the Neo-Realist group (post-war modernists), whose original members were Victor Oteyza, Romeo Tabuena, Hernando Ocampo, and Cesar Legaspi, the latter two declared National Artists for Visual Arts. Neo-realism is an art movement that came to rise in the 1950s. The subject matter is being distorted, fragmented, or deconstructed to a “new reality” — based on the inner visions of the artist and not on how they are naturally seen. 

Found in the southeastern part of the Pillars of Philippine Modernism Gallery is one of his significant works, “Serenata” or Serenade. Serenata in Italian or “harana” in Filipino is an old Philippine tradition of courtship wherein a man (or a woman) conveys their feelings through a song or a serenade. This painting, replete with lines and intersecting geometric shapes colored in tones of blue, black, brown, yellow, and green, shows two figures, one standing, mouth opened, and seemed to be singing a song. Another figure on the bottom right part of the canvas, with eyes closed, may be interpreted as listening to the serenade.

In 1959, Estella held his first solo exhibition at the Philippine Art Gallery at Arquiza Street, Ermita, Manila. Aside from painting, he also directed and produced films here in the country and abroad and was recognized as one of the luminaries in Philippine cinema.  

Ramón Estella died on May 4, 1991, in Florida, USA.

‘Serenata” may be viewed at the Pillars of Philippine Modernism Gallery, Gallery XVIII, Third Floor, of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Visit us by booking through this website.

Text by NMP-FAD

Photo by Bengy Toda

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