Famous Filipino Painters: Victorio C. Edades (December 13, 1895 - March 7, 1985) is a Filipino painter who was the leader of the revolutionary Thirteen Moderns who engaged their classical compatriots in heated debate over the nature and function of art. He was named a National Artist in 1976.
By introducing modern ideas into the Philippine art scene, Victorio Edades managed to destroy the conventions of domestic art and also got rid of the clichéd ideology which he believed have stunted the development of Philippine art. His defiance to what the Conservatives structured as ‘art’ was a conscious call for real artistic expression. He attested that “art is ever the expression of man’s emotion, and not a mere photographic likeness of nature. Thus to express his individual emotion, the artist is privileged to create in that distinctive form which best interprets his own experience. And the distortion of plastic elements of art such as line, mass and color – is one of the many ways of expressing one’s rhythmic form.” That was the reason why his disproportionate figures are made that way – for the sake of composition.
Through his continuous propagation of modern art as shown in his works and teachings, Edades proved that modernists were not fooling people as Guillermo Tolentino asserted. Dialectically, Edades explained that Modern Art is not anti-Classicist. He said, “From the technical point of view, Modern Art is an outgrowth of Classical Art. Modern Art is the interpretation of the Classical concept conditioned by the artist’s new experience with the aid of improved means of aesthetic expression.” Not conforming to the academic perception of art, he made art available to the common man. Through his determination to stand by his ideology, he became a bridge between the past and the present.
Major Works:
The Sketch (National Museum Collection)
The Builders (CCP Collection)
The Artist and the Model
Portrait of the Professor
Japanese Girl
Mother and Daughter
The Wrestlers
Poinsettia Girl