My kids woke up late yesterday and we had brunch at Sincerity, known among locals for their Chinese fried chicken. I think we got to the National Museum for the Arts around noon.
It was a good day to be out; not too hot, not rainy. There were no long lines of children on a school trip, it’s just families taking time to see national treasures.
The last time we were here was in 2018 and the building was being renovated so we didn’t see much.
I thought I saw Spoliarium in Malacañang Palace but my memory is faulty. It was one of Juan Luna’s Blood Compact, not the Spoliarium that I saw.
Anyway, I fell in love with Luna’s boceto and that of Fernando Amorsolo’s. Twin A remarked that Amorsolo’s hand sketches are beautiful. We both know that it’s hard to draw hands.
Luna stayed in Japan briefly and he made paintings and sketches of daily life in Japan. His sketches and paintings were looser compared to his European ones like this below.
Given that his European/classical subjects require more details, he produced so many bocetos for me to ogle at.
I love seeing artists’ sketches and studies because I get a glimpse of their thought process.
Meanwhile, Felix Hidalgo is equally talented but we do not have as many boceto and paintings as Luna in the national collection.
Twin A is enamoured of Fernando Amorsolo. She fell in love with his color palette and fluidity of movement.
Amorsolo was a prolific artist. Aside from commissioned portraits, he left behind a lot of sketches and studies.
Twin A loves Amorsolo. I, on the other hand, think that he’s ok but not really charmed because he paints idealized scenes. Look at this painting of Bataan during WW2. Death and destruction shouldn’t be this beautiful. I hardly feel that ugliness of war. I don’t feel anything at all. And art is supposed to evoke emotions in me. Sadly, most of Amorsolo’s paintings don’t.
Another national artist I introduced to my children is Carlos “Botong” Francisco. I told them, Botong Francisco uses happy colors, whatever the subject is.
My heart aches whenever I see a Vicente Manansala painting because it reminsmds me of the Manansala mosaic that I lost. 😭
I never thought I will like cubist-esque style of arrlt but here we are, gravitating towards Mananasala’s happy colors.
He wasn’t always a cubist. Look at his pen/pencil drawings, it shows his versatility.
