Women in Art

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Greetings to all the women out there, because it's our special month- the month of March. A month-long celebration where women's contributions around the world to different societies were recognized and commemorated. 

The first week of March every year is Women's Week, and March 8 is considered as the Women's Right and International Peace Day, also dubbed as the National Women's Day. So what are we waiting for? Let's go ladies! Let us celebrate and support the advocacy on women empowerment and gender equality...go girl power! 

Image Source: http://pcw.gov.ph/sites/default/files/images/teasers/header_website.png

This year's theme for the National Women's Month Celebration is "Kapakanan ni Juana, Isama sa Agenda!" (Include Women in the Agenda). I can say that this theme would probably give priority to the inclusion of women's rights and their important issues on various agenda, not only to different organizations but most especially, to the government of the Philippines.

And for today, I just want to share with you how I celebrated the National Women's Month together with one of my girl friends :) We actually, visited again the National Museum and see for ourselves the art pieces made by one of our country's greatest National Artist, Benedicto Reyes Cabrera or commonly known as BenCab.

We were really excited to see Bencab's "Sabel" and "Larawan" series exhibited in the National Museum, and since it's National Women's Month, all female visitors could enter the museum just for FREE from March 1-31, 2016. Yey! The perks of being a women :)

Across the globe, women became remarkable in the involvement of making art. Some of them were creators, collectors, sources of inspiration, or whatever role they portray, women continues to become a significant contributor in this creative field. Many artists use different medium of art as a platform for advocating women's right and tackling various women's issues. For this exhibition, I've realized how women became a major inspiration to different artists, including BenCab.

According to BenCab during his message on the opening of his National Museum exhibition, BenCab: Appropriated Souls is his last exhibition of BenCab 50 Creative Years, the celebration of his artistic career during the last half-century. With this, National Museum was honored to showcase a retrospective exhibition of BenCab's Larawan and Sabel series.

Sabel Series

The Sabel series was actually inspired by a real-life female scavenger that BenCab saw when he was only a young man in their home in Bambang, Tondo. This woman who often wrapped herself up with plastic became BenCab's muse and one of his major subjects all throughout his career as a national artist. Here are some of BenCab's art pieces on the Sabel series that I find amazing!

Sabel in Motion (2010)
Pigmented paper pulp on handmade STPI paper

Portrait of Sabel, AP (1976)
Two color plate etching aquatint

Blue Sabel (2005)
Acrylic on canvas

Sabel (Outline) Undated
Ink on paper

Sabel (2015)
Painted resin sculpture

Variations on Sabel (I) (2010)
Pigmented paper pulp on handmade STPI paper

Sabel (2011)
Acrylic on handmade paper



Sabel (1999)
Ink on paper

Larawan Series

For the Larawan series, BenCab started it in 1972, from which he made it as a medium to show his feelings about what was happening during the martial law. According to him, he was showing parallelism between the past and the present with this series. So here are some of the art pieces of the Larawan series.

Larawan (2015)
Painted resin sculpture

Ang Tao (1972)
Acrylic on paper 

Yellow Scarf (2001)
Acrylic on canvas

Women with Winnowing basket (2002)
Acrylic on canvas

So there you go, the BenCab: Appropriated Souls. Better see it for yourself and be inspired with the art pieces exhibited in the National Museum of Fine Arts. I just want to end this with what BenCab have said during his opening message "life is short and art is eternal. The passage of time makes this truth ever more clear. Every line I draw and every stroke of the brush teach me that there is always more to learn."

Revisiting National Museum Part 2 (National Art Gallery)

Hi travel buddies! Great news for all women because National Museum of the Philippines is giving free access to all its female visitors throughout the month of March! Yey! This is in line with the celebration of "National Women's Month". So what are you waiting for girls? Go and grab your shoes and avail this gift from the National Museum with your girlfriends. You could visit the National Museum in Manila, Kiangan, Kabayan, Angono-Binangonan Petroglyph Site, Tabaco, and Butuan to discover the rich culture and history of our country.

So let us now start the second part of our expedition inside the National Museum of the Philippines! I present to you the National Art Gallery, art enthusiasts will surely like this place because it is a home for hundreds of art pieces made by great artists.

National Art Gallery

I remember the first time I visited the National Art Gallery with my friend, we only have 20 minutes to tour around so we didn't have much time to appreciate every piece of art.We're actually running around just to have a glimpse in each gallery and we didn't have the opportunity to tour around the remaining floors of the building cause it's already closing time. And for our second visit last Wednesday we had our comeback and we tour around for 1 hour! yey!  

As we entered the building of the National Art Gallery we were welcomed by the largest painting in our country, Juan Luna's "Spoliarium". And we were really happy that at last we have a souvenir photo with that one of a kind enormous piece of art. 

So to share for some fun facts that I read on the National Museum's official website, "Spoliarium is a Latin word referring to the basement of the Roman Colosseum where the fallen and dying gladiators are dumped and devoid of their worldly possessions. The Spoliarium is the most valuable oil-on-canvas painting by Juan Luna, a Filipino educated at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (Philippines) and at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. With a size of 4.22 meters x 7.675 meters, it is the largest painting in the Philippines. A historical painting, it was made by Luna in 1884 as an entry to the prestigious Exposicion de Bellas Artes (Madrid Art Exposition, May 1884) and eventually won for him the First Gold Medal."  

Let us now start entering the galleries on second floor, which was originally the Old House of Representatives Session Hall.

Gallery I: Luis I. Ablaza Hall

It features religious art from 17th to 19th centuries when Philippines was still under the Spanish colonial rule.

"Retablo" or altar piece from the Churcch of San Nicolas de Tolentino in Dimiao, Bohol

These two are examples of carved wooden saints made by unknown artists.

Gallery II: FCCP Hall

This gallery exhibits the earliest Philippine paintings depicting a historical political event, The Basi Revolt series by Esteban Villanueva of Vigan. Painted in 1821, fourteen paintings, together declared as a National Cultural Treasure.

Gallery III: Academic and Romantic Art

So obviously this gallery exhibits paintings that are academic and romantic.


"La Natividad" by Unknown Artist of Bohol

"Portrait of Three Ladies" by Unknown Artist

 Gallery IV: Fundacion Santiago Hall

It exhibits academic and neoclassical sculptures

"Figure of a Lion" by Vidal A. Tampinco

 Gallery V: Homage to Dr. Jose Rizal

This gallery honors our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. It features his life artworks and works by other national artists to pay tribute for our great hero.

"Portrait of Dr. Jose Rizal" (1950) by Tomas Bernardo

 So the image on the left side is entitled "Roundel Relief Portrait Bust of Dr. Jose Rizal" (Circa 1910)  made by Isabelo Tampinco Y Lacandola with Plaster of Paris as his medium. On the right side is the "Bust of Dr. Jose Rizal" (1926)  a wooden sculpture made by Graciano T. Nepomuceno.


Gallery VI: Far East Bank and Trust Company-Andres and Grace Luna de San Pedro Memorial Hall

This gallery exhibits paintings of "Los Dos Pintores" Juan Luna and Felix R. Hidalgo.

Gallery VII: Classical Art from the 20th Century

This gallery still features the works of Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo. Also, the works of other artists like Fernando Amorsolo, Ireneo Miranda and many other artists who developed the Philippine art.

"Portrait of a Lady" (1952) by Ireneo L. Miranda

Gallery VIII: Silvina and Juan C. Laya Hall

This gallery exhibits the hardships of Filipinos during the World War II. Filipino artists used their talent to pay tribute to the victims of the Bataan Death March and the destruction of Manila.

"The Burning of Manila" (1942) by Fernando C. Amorsolo
Oil on Masonite

 So the picture on the left is made out of wood and metal entitled the "Bataan Death Marcher" (undated) by Gene Cabrera. The picture on the opposite side is a painting made by Diosdado M. Lorenzo in the year  1947 entitled " Rape and Massacre in  Ermita". These artworks tells a lot about the history of World War II and I felt sad while looking at those pieces of art, cause it made me realize how hard the Filipinos suffered during that era.

Gallery IX: Works of Portraiture

This gallery exhibits portraits made by Filipino artists of the classical realist school. This kind of medium was dominated by our National Artist Fernando Amorsolo together with numerous other artists including, Fabian de la Rosa, Jorge Pineda, Romeo Enriquez and a lot more.

"Portrait of a Lady (unfinished)" by Fernando Amorsolo (circa 1972)
This painting was actually being worked upon by the artist, but due to a heart failure he died on April 24, 1972 at the age of 79.

"Portrait of Manual L. Quezon (1878-1944) as President" (1948) by Romeo B. Enriquez

Gallery X: MFP Hall

This hall is dedicated to the Progress of Medicine in the Philippines, a set of four large-scale paintings by National Artist Carlos "Botong" V. Francisco (1912-1969).

Gallery XI: SPPC Hall

This hall exhibits the drawings of Fernando C. Amorsolo. It contains over 100 drawings by Amorsolo, who made a series of black-and-white pencil and ink sketches.

Gallery XII: Security Bank Hall

This gallery features National Artist Guillermo E. Tolentino (1890-1976) who dominated Filipino sculpture during 1920s to 1970s.

Bust of President Ferdinand E. Marcos

Bust of President Manual L. Quezon

Okay so that's all for the second floor of the National Art Gallery building, let us now go upstairs for more historical and artistic adventure. So the third level of the building was actually the Old Senate Session Hall, and if you want to know its historical background just check the picture down below.

 We're really happy that at last we stepped in the Old Senate Session Hall, a historical site where senators during the early centuries do their debates for the greater good of our country. 


So in the third floor you can also see different galleries that mainly features Philippine Abstraction and Modernism. There were a lot of art pieces made by various artists. Such as National Artists Victorio C. Edades who spearheaded the modernism in the Philippine Art, Benedicto "BenCab" Cabrera, Vicente S. Manansala, Hernando R. Ocampo, Lao Lian-Ben, Ang Kiukok, Nunelecio Alvarado and a lot more of creative and artistic minds.

We were really thrilled to see the masterpieces of the greatest artists that ever lived in the Philippines and as we walk over the galleries and saw their beautiful artworks, we were really amazed and dumbfounded by the strokes made by their brushes and the way they made those kind of art. How I wish I was also blessed by that kind of talent. hahaha!

Revisiting the National Museum and seeing different works of art and artifacts made by Filipinos made me more proud of being a Filipino and these are the things that we Filipinos should be proud of, because these masterpieces were all proudly Filipino made and with these all I can say is that, I am Shenemar Esteban and I am proud to be Pinoy :)