PHILIPPINE ART
HISTORY
As art continues to evolve through the times, it is important for us to remember and take a glimpse back to the past to see the rich history of Philippine Art. Through history, we are able to gain knowledge of the past to see how we ended up from the ethnic period to the contemporary times. Below is a comprehensive timeline that would aid you to understand Philippine Art History.
People commonly use art as a means of free expression. However, for the Philippines, that has not always been the case. The history of Philippine art is composed of 7 eras, namely: the Pre-Conquest period, the Islamic period, the Spanish colonial period, the American colonial period, Post War, and the Contemporary period.
Beginning with the Pre-conquest period, art was expressed through the daily lives of people such as hunting and gathering. Moving on, we have the Islamic colonial period where art centered on Islam, and the Spanish colonial period where art centered on Christianity. A new era of Philippine art was born during the American Colonial Period in the late 19th century to the 20th century where more western elements and forms of art was introduced to the Philippines. During this period, modern art also flourished. A few decades later, it was a dark time in the Philippines when the Japanese came and took away the liberty of Filipinos. During the Japanese colonial period, there was extreme campaign and propaganda by the Japanese which led to some arts commissioned for the regime. After the war, Filipinos gained their freedom once again, and they produced artworks which exposed the “true social conditions” or Neo-Realism. From the 1970s to the present, we call this era as the “Contemporary art” where Social Realism flourished as well as installation art and other contemporary art forms.
El Ilustrados 