Built Heritage Tradition of the Minor Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel in Tayabas City, Quezon Province

In celebration of National Heritage Month and for this week’s Art Stroll Sunday feature, we present National Artist Vicente Manansala’s 1948 oil painting, “I Believe in God”, from the National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC) on display at the GSIS Northwest Hall.

This oil on masonite was created in 1948 when Manansala was around 37 years old. This oil painting is a significant part of the national collection, being one of the artist’s early works in this style before he introduced transparent cubism, wherein geometric shapes and layers of colors were used in rendering figures and objects. This painting also shows Carlos “Botong” Francisco’s influence, being one of the painters that Manansala admires the most. “I Believe in God” depicts a family pausing from pounding rice grains to pray the Angelus. The Angelus is a prayer recited by Roman Catholics at noon or at 6 in the evening. It is also noteworthy that this was completed three years after the end of the Second World War, when Filipinos were still picking up and trying their best to rise from the horrors of the war, and the artist himself, was one of those who survived it. This oil painting is apt as we celebrate National Heritage Month with the theme “Pamanang Lokal: Binhi ng Kulturang Pilipino,” highlighting the importance of preserving and promoting local heritage within a community.

Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga on January 22, 1910. He spent his childhood in Intramuros, Manila, and grew up with fellow artists Antonio Dumlao and Jose Alcantara. He worked as a newsboy, a distributor of programs in movie houses, and a billboard painter. He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1930. In 1949, he received a UNESCO scholarship grant to study at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Montreal, Canada for six months. In 1950, he went to France and studied at the University of Paris under a French government scholarship. His mentor, a French artist, and filmmaker Fernand Léger, taught him cubism. He was declared National Artist for Painting (1981). Manansala passed away on August 22, 1981, in Makati City.

You may view this painting inside the GSIS Northwest Hall, Gallery XXIII of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Other masterpieces of the National Artist are displayed in the other galleries on the Third Floor, namely: The International Rice Research Institute Hall (Gallery XXII) and the Philam Life Hall (Gallery XXIV).

We have numerous activities and programs this National Heritage Month! Click https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/national-heritage-month/ or https://ncca.gov.ph/nationalheritagemonth/ for more information

Text by NMP-FAD
Photo by Bengy Toda

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

The deep is truly a dark and scary place to live- but for other marine animals, it is their home. Welcome again to our #WildlifeWednesday featuring a deep-sea living fossil echinoderm known as the Sea Lily.

Sea lilies or stalked crinoids have stems emanating from underneath their crown with the bottom end attached to a hard substratum such as rocks. They are known as the ancestors of feather stars, which have no stems, can swim freely, and live on shallow warm waters.

Because sea lilies are attached firmly to a hard surface, scientists thought that they cannot move from one place to another. Interestingly, they found out that sea lilies could relocate themselves by detaching their segments anchored on the sea bed, then settle themselves in a new location. They regenerate their lost parts as they live in their new settlement. To prove that they can also move, scientists were able to capture a video of a sea lily “running” away from a predator. Sea lilies spread their arms to filter the seawater that passes through to capture and feed on plankton.

Fossil records of sea lilies indicate that they existed and became abundant in the shallow parts of the sea before the age of dinosaurs. But as time passed, they became less abundant, with only their unstalked offspring dominating the shallow tropical seas to this day. Now, most of the stalked crinoids reside in the deep parts of the ocean ranging from 1,000 to 9,000 meters.

You may visit Gallery 4 – Life Through Time exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History and see the actual specimen of the Sea Lily from the Philippines.

Text and photo by NMP Zoology Division

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus et nibh porta, tempus lectus in, faucibus purus. Vivamus venenatis ligula a lectus bibendum, nec aliquam augue euismod. Maecenas tincidunt, orci eu lacinia aliquam, nisi dolor varius libero, eget tristique urna lectus id nisl. Aenean vel interdum erat. Vestibulum interdum facilisis rutrum. Maecenas quis diam ut ex efficitur varius. Donec elementum orci vitae nibh laoreet, vitae molestie felis elementum. Praesent ut quam eget dui tempus mattis a vitae dolor. Vivamus vitae elit dui. Etiam tellus magna, malesuada non mi a, porta scelerisque ex. Nam fermentum ipsum enim, at molestie ipsum egestas vel. Quisque gravida odio a egestas pretium. Aliquam in fringilla odio. Vestibulum sit amet nisl nunc. Mauris luctus urna at rhoncus lacinia. Donec vel ornare felis, non convallis augue.

Praesent dictum efficitur turpis a dictum. Aenean dignissim neque vitae libero mollis, quis aliquam tellus consequat. Donec vitae enim ut orci vulputate tincidunt. Aenean condimentum nisl nec nulla commodo sollicitudin. In mattis felis et magna ultricies tincidunt. Sed malesuada, purus et luctus sollicitudin, tortor risus tristique urna, ut condimentum nunc risus feugiat elit. Aliquam odio nibh, dignissim vitae lobortis eu, rutrum non mauris. Mauris imperdiet semper iaculis. Fusce tincidunt justo sem, in varius ipsum mattis at. Sed ultricies, nunc id ultrices pellentesque, risus metus sodales sapien, at interdum ante nisl viverra lacus. Praesent ornare tincidunt nisi. Sed et massa pretium, ultrices turpis vel, aliquam diam. Vestibulum sed augue sit amet urna molestie lacinia. Vestibulum lobortis ornare ipsum quis luctus. Aliquam eu.

Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. During the Eid al-Fitr, Muslims hold communal prayers in mosques or open spaces, which are often adorned with special lamps, drapes, and mats. They also wear their finest clothes as they visit other households and create and renew bonds by sharing local delicacies specially prepared for Eid al-Fitr.

Joining today’s celebration, the #NationalMuseumPH features the mosque, a place of worship for our Muslim brothers and sisters. There are 2 types of mosques in the Philippines, the ranggar or langgal, and the masjid. The ranggar is a small structure accommodating a few individuals for daily prayers in rural areas. The masjid is a permanent structure facing the holy city of Mecca. Its architecture is inspired by Western influences such as the presence of minarets (tall towers attached to or adjacent to the mosque), mihrab (a niche indicating the direction of Mecca), minbar (a pulpit on which the imam or prayer leader stands when delivering a sermon), and a place of ablution. During prayer, the floor is covered with a tepo (prayer mat) or carpet. In most mosques, men and women have different entrances and also separate prayer rooms. There are, however, mosques wherein both men and women can enter together but women would pray behind men.

The Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque located in Tubig Indangan, Simunul, Tawi-Tawi is the oldest mosque in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. It is believed to have been constructed in 1380 by Sheikh Makhdum Karim, an Arab trader who introduced Islam to the country. The 4 pillars found inside the mosque are the oldest Islamic artifacts in the country and date back to the 17th century.

The Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque was declared a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in May 2013.

#EidAlFitr
#HappyEid
#EidMubarak
#MuseumFromHome

Text by the NMP Ethnology Division

Photo courtesy of Mr. Paul Quiambao

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

The #NationalMuseumPH salutes all the Filipino working men and women in the country and around the world this Labor Day, May 1, 2022, featuring a painting by National Artist Ang Kiukok entitled “Men at Work” (1979).

“Men at Work” is a large-scale triptych oil on canvas painting created in 1979 by Ang Kiukok (1931-2005). This semiabstract painting depicting solid, heavy, and muscular human limbs and torso in tones of black and white and engaged in physical work represents the strength of the labor force. It was created in 1979 as a commissioned painting for the National Manpower and Youth Commission (NMYC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). This was before the NMYC merged with the Bureau of Technical and Vocational Education (BTVE) of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). The Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) of DOLE formed the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA in 1994. The painting used to be displayed at the auditorium entrance of the TESDA-NCR Office in Taguig.

The painting is currently loaned to the National Museum of the Philippines by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and can be viewed at the Spoliarium Hall. In 2021, Ang Kiukok’s “Men at Work” (1979) was declared a National Cultural Treasure (NCT) and Important Cultural Property (ICT) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). 

Ang Kiukok (1931-2005) was born on March 1, 1931 in Davao City. His parents were Chinese immigrants. He attended a Chinese high school where he learned Chinese calligraphy. A commercial artist also taught him how to make charcoal portraits. In 1952, he flew to Manila and took art classes at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). While studying at UST, his work “Calesa” was awarded third place at the Shell National Students Art Competition in 1953. In 1954, he was forced to stop his studies due to financial constraints. He then ventured to produce watercolor works and held his first one-man exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1954, where he featured more than twenty watercolor pieces. Ang Kiukok’s proficiency in this medium was noticed by one of his mentors at UST, National Artist Vicente Manansala (1910-1981), who even showed Ang Kiukok’s watercolors to his students. In the succeeding years, he earned awards at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Competition, such as the first prize for “The Bird” (1959), third prize for “Still Life in Red” (1963), second prize for “Fish” (1963), and second prize for “Geometric Still-Life Fish” (1963). His works in the 1960s gained popularity with a distinct style that combines influences from cubism and expressionism. 

His contribution to Philippine art was recognized with the conferment of the National Artist for Visual Arts in 2001. Four years later, Ang Kiukok passed away due to cancer on May 9, 2005. 

The National Museum of Fine Arts is now open for walk-in visitors! For visitor guidelines, please visit www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph. You may also view the 360 degrees virtual tour of selected NMFA galleries on the link https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nmfa360/HTML5/NMFA360.html. See you at your National Museum!

#AngKiukok
#LaborDay
#BeatCOVID19

Text and photo by NMP FAD

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines