Birth Anniversary of Hernando R. Ocampo
On the occasion of his 111th birth anniversary, the #NationalMuseumPh honors National Artist HR Ocampo, born #OnThisDay in 1911, through his works at the National Museum of Fine Arts’ Pillars of Philippine Modernism Exhibition.
Better known as HR Ocampo, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo was born to parents Emilio Ocampo and Delfina Ruiz in Sta Cruz, Manila on April 28, 1911. He took up several courses in college, including pre-law at the Letran College (1928-29), commerce at the Far Eastern University (1929-1930), and creative writing at the Valenzuela School of Journalism (1930-1931).
Ocampo is a self-taught artist who learned to draw and paint from magazines. He is considered one of the three significant figures of neo-realism in the country, together with Vicente Manansala and Cesar Legaspi. He was listed among Victorio Edades’ Thirteen Artists who rebelled against the conservative style of painting and introduced modern art in the Philippines in the early 20th century. Throughout the five decades of his artistic career, he stayed true to his principles of searching for unity, coherence, and emphasis in his works.
Throughout the 1960s, his art shifted from being a neorealist to an abstract non-configurative painter. His works were then characterized by biomorphic shapes vividly colored in hues of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, and black which he humorously depicted as paint by number. His usual painting process is to outline and put a number on each section or shape on the canvas. He would then fill each shape with a specific color corresponding to his assigned numbers. His meticulous and diligent artistic process is demonstrated in his five-part work entitled “Creating Cierna” (1968, mixed media on paper). This series of drawings is currently at the Pillars of Philippine Modernism Exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts.
Ocampo passed away in Caloocan City in 1978. He was posthumously conferred with the National National Artist for Visual Arts Award in 1991.
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Text and photo by NMP FAD
