PHILIPPINE

NATIONAL ARTISTS
(Literature, Film, &
Architecture)
Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions
Learning Objectives

At the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Explain Filipino artists’ roles in literature, film, and architecture,

• identify their contribution to contemporary arts, and
• interpret and relate the significance of arts forms from the regions
National Artists for Literature
Literature is an art form of language through the combined use of
words, creating meaning and experience. It is usually a representation of
the culture’s language and history. This part of the lesson focuses on the
contributions of the different National Artists for Literature.

CANON – in literature, this is the collection of works considered

representative of a certain genre and period.

CANONICAL AUTHORS – writers whose works have been well

appreciated and considered representatives of certain genres of
literature. Take note: When we study canonical authors and their works,
we can glean new appreciation for them in modern perspective.
Edith L. Tiempo
(April 22, 1919 – August 21, 2011) National Artist for Literature (1999)

She founded the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced
some of the country’s best writers. Tiempo is a teacher, poet, literary critic, and fictionist she is one
of the best Filipino writers in English. Her language has been
marked as “descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing.” Based on the description
provided by NCCA, her works are characterized by “a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of
craftsmanship and insight.” Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant
experiences.
Edith L. Tiempo
(April 22, 1919 – August 21, 2011) National Artist for Literature (1999)

• As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as

“descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing.” She is an influential tradition in
Philippine literature in English. Together with her late husband, Edilberto K. Tiempo,
she founded and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City,
which has produced some of the country’s best writers.

• Tiempo’s published works include the novel A Blade of Fern (1978), The Native Coast
(1979), and The Alien Corn(1992); the poetry collections, The Tracks of Babylon and
Other Poems (1966), and The Charmer’s Box and Other Poems(1993); and the short
story collection Abide, Joshua, and Other Stories (1964).
NVM Gonzales
(September 8, 1915 – November 28, 1999) National Artist for Literature (1997)

Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez is a teacher, fictionist, essayist, and poet. He represented the
Filipino spirit in rural and urban landscapes. Gonzalez was successful in appropriating the English
language “to express, reflect and shape Philippine sensibility and Philippine culture.” He became a
member of the Board of Advisers of the U.P. Creative Writing Center and U.P.’s International-Writer-
In-Residence. In 1987, U.P. conferred on him its highest academic recognition, the Doctor of
Humane Letters, honoris causa.
NVM Gonzales
(September 8, 1915 – November 28, 1999) National Artist for Literature (1997)

• Among the many recognitions, he won the First Commonwealth Literary Contest in
1940, received the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1960 and the Gawad CCP
Para sa Sining in 1990. The awards attest to his triumph in appropriating the English
language to express, reflect and shape Philippine culture and Philippine sensibility

• Major works of N.V.M Gonzalez include the following: • The Winds of April • Seven
Hills Away • Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and Other Stories • The Bamboo
Dancers • Look Stranger, on this Island Now • Mindoro and Beyond: Twenty -One
Stories • The Bread of Salt and Other Stories • Work on the Mountain • The Novel of
Justice: Selected Essays 1968-1994 • A Grammar of Dreams and Other Stories.
 Nick Joaquin
(May 4, 1917 – April 29, 2004) National Artist for Literature (1976)

Nick Joaquin enriched and utilized the English language in most of his works. This made literary critics to
coin the term “Joaquinesque” to describe his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms and his baroque
Spanish-flavored English. He is known as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English. According to his
profile on the NCCA, Nick Joaquin’s significance in Philippine literature involves his probing into the
psychology of social changes as seen by the young and his exploration of the Philippine colonial past under
Spain. Nick Joaquin has written short stories, poems, plays, novels, and essays including reportage and
journalism. As a journalist, Nick Joaquin uses the nom de plume Quijano de Manila.
Carlos P. Romulo
(January 14, 1899 – December 15, 1985)National Artist for Literature (1982)

Carlos P. Romulo‘s multifaceted career spanned 50 years of public service as a soldier,

educator, university president, journalist, and diplomat. He was the first Asian president of the
United Nations General Assembly, then Philippine Ambassador to Washington, D.C., and later
minister of foreign affairs. Romulo was very much into writing: he was a reporter at 16, a newspaper
editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He was the only Asian to win America’s coveted
Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for a series of articles predicting the outbreak of World War II. Romulo,
in all, wrote and published 18 books.
Jose Garcia Villa
(August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997) National Artist for Literature (1973)

Jose Garcia Villa is considered as one of the finest contemporary poets regardless of race or
language. He used Doveglion (Dove, Eagle, Lion) as pen name, the very characters he attributed to
himself, and the same ones explored by e.e. cummings in the poem he wrote for Villa (Doveglion,
Adventures in Value). Villa introduced the reversed consonance rhyme scheme, including the
comma poems that made full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative, poetic way. The first of
his poems “Have Come, Am Here” received critical recognition when it appeared in New York in
1942.
National Artists for Film

Film is a technological translation of theater; special

effects are utilized to enhance the story telling. Film plays
a very essential role in Philippine arts, it represents the
state of the society, it gives voice to the oppressed, and it
sparks awareness among Filipinos.
Lino Brocka
(April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991) National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts (1997)

Catalino “Lino” Ortiz Brocka, director for film and broadcast arts, espoused the term “freedom of
expression” in the Philippine Constitution. As a social activist, he made 66 films which represent life
and hope for the marginalized sectors of society. He also directed for theater (Philippine Educational
Theater Association). Lino Brocka has left behind his masterpieces, bequeathing to our country a
heritage of cinematic harvest; a bounty of stunning images, memorable conversations that speak
volumes on love, betrayal and redemption, pestilence and plenty all pointing towards the recovery
and rediscovery of our nation.
 Ronald Allan K. Poe
(August 20, 1939 – December 14, 2004)National Artist for Cinema (2006)

Popularly known as Fernando Poe, Jr., he was a cultural icon of tremendous audience impact and
cinema artist and craftsman–as actor, director, writer, and producer. He dropped out of the University of the
East in his sophomore year to support his family after the death of his father. The image of the underdog
was projected in his films such as Apollo Robles(1961), Batang Maynila (1962), Mga Alabok sa Lupa (1967),
Ako ang Katarungan (1974), Totoy Bato (1977), and Ang Probisyano (1996), among many others. The
mythical hero, on the other hand, was highlighted in Ang Alamat (1972), Ang Pagbabalik ng Lawin (1975)
including his Panday series the action adventure films adapted from komiks materials.
Ishmael Bernal
(September 30, 1938 – June 2, 1996)National Artist for Cinema (2001)

Ishmael Bernal was a filmmaker of the first order and one of the very few who can be truly
called a maestro. Critics have hailed him as “the genius of Philippine cinema.” He is recognized as
a director of films that serve as social commentaries and bold reflections on the existing realities of
the struggle of the Filipino. He manages to send his message across to fight the censors, free the
artists, give justice to the oppressed, and enlighten as well as entertain the audience. Among his
films are “Nunal sa Tubig” (1976), “City After Dark” (1980), “Himala” (1982), “Broken Marriage”
(1983), and “Pahiram ng Isang Umaga” (1989).
 Kidlat Tahimik
Birthday: 3 October 1942 National Artist for Film (2018)

His debut film, Mababangong Bangungot (1977), is considered by many as a pioneering postcolonial
essay film. It was praised by filmmakers and critics from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Kidlat’s
“imperfect” film is an exemplar of what is worldwide known as “Third Cinema,” a cinema that is critical of
neocolonial exploitation and state oppression. But, unlike other Third Cinema films, Kidlat’s work does not
glory in ugliness. As written on his profile on the NCCA archive, his films, even those that focus on injustice
and violence, “are premised on the hope of possible, though yet unrealized, triumph.” His constant claim is
that whatever “progress” has relegated to the realm of sadness and poverty should never remain self-
referentially sad or poor.
National Artists for Architecture, Design, & Allied Arts

Architecture is an art form that is based on the need of people to

seek beauty while achieving value and practicality. It is made up
of structures that are meant to be used as shelter, its art relies on
the design and purpose of the structure.
Juan F. Nakpil
(May 26, 1899 – May 7, 1986) National Artist for Architecture, 1973

Juan F. Nakpil, architect, teacher, and civic leader is an innovator and pioneer in Philippine
architecture. In essence, Nakpil’s greatest contribution is his belief that there is such a thing as
Philippine Architecture, espousing architecture reflective of Philippine traditions and culture. It is
due to his representation and efforts that private Filipino engineers and architects, by law, are now
able to participate in the design and execution of government projects. He designed the 1937
International Eucharistic Congress altar and rebuilt and enlarged the Quiapo Church in 1930
adding a dome and a second belfry to the original design.
Juan F. Nakpil
(May 26, 1899 – May 7, 1986) National Artist for Architecture, 1973
Leandro V. Locsin
(August 15, 1928 – November 15, 1994)National Artist for Architecture, 1990

He believes that the true Philippine Architecture is “the product of two great streams of culture,
the oriental and the occidental… to produce a new object of profound harmony. Leandro V. Locsin
reshaped the urban landscape with a unique architecture reflective of Philippine art and culture.
The Istana Nurul Iman, the palace of the Sultan of Brunei is Locsin’s largest single work. The CCP
Complex itself is a virtual Locsin Complex with all five buildings designed by him — the Cultural
Center of the Philippines, Folk Arts Theater, Philippine International Convention Center, and The
Westin Hotel (now Sofitel Philippine Plaza).
Leandro V. Locsin
(August 15, 1928 – November 15, 1994)National Artist for Architecture, 1990
Pablo S. Antonio
(January 25, 1902 – June 14, 1975) National Artist for Architecture (1976)

Pablo Sebero Antonio pioneered modern Philippine architecture. His basic design is grounded
on simplicity. The lines are clean and smooth, and where there are curves, these are made integral
to the structure. For him, “function comes first before elegance or form.” The other thing that
characterizes his structure is the maximum use of cross ventilation and natural light. Antonio
believes that buildings “should be planned with austerity in mind and its stability forever as the aim
of true architecture, that buildings must be progressive, simple in design but dignified.”
Pablo S. Antonio
(January 25, 1902 – June 14, 1975) National Artist for Architecture (1976)