The last destination of our field trip to different museums in Manila is the

Metropolitan Museum of Manila. This is where the two paintings we are required to
critique is located. Most of us were disappointed during the introduction for we are
restricted to take photos of paintings and that was been effective exactly just that day. I
have been more disappointed after seeing what my camera would miss. The museum
contains tons of paintings and other exhibits, each with their own story. But of course,
we wont let the day pass without examining the paintings required to be analysed.

The first required painting that came into our view was Jose Santos IIIs
Crossover. It was found on the first floor. The painting was quite peculiar and mysterious
yet the figures in the painting were impressive for me. The message conveyed by the
painting was but a mystery to me and my friends. The painting is shown below (right).
Jose Santos IIIs Crossover was painted and finished on 2001 using oil on canvas. The
most prominent element in Santoss painting is texture. His figures in this painting the
bull with the hands with five fingers and horns of horns used in cars, especially their
clothes, the boxes, and others, were painted in a way as if they have texture. He uses
surrealism on most of his paintings and artworks like Promenade (2002) and A La
Memoria (2004). Santos subjects of paintings are mostly related to the Filipinos and the
country and he created these paintings that somewhat boggles our mind and force us to
think what these meant. He was drawn to the style of Francis Bacon, Robert
Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Joyce Tenesson (De la Paz, 2010).

Jose John Santos III was a graduate of BFA (Fine Arts) from the University of the
Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1997. Though BFA was not his first choice but sport
science at the College of Human Kinetics, he still managed to end being a well-known
artist, he even exceeded the maximum residency allowed and finished his college with a
span of ten years. His first paintings were made of mixed media collages, and other
form of art. The year 2000 marked the boom of his career. Santos was chosen as one of
the Thirteen Artists Awardees by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). His
artworks were chosen to be auctioned in Hong Kong and Singapore for contemporary
Asian art. Still in the same year, his artworks are part of a group show in Singapore.
Singapore had viewed most of his artworks since the following year, he had a one-man
show there entitled Journey. Another exhibit was held in 2009 entitled {Un} Common.
His paintings were again included in Christies Spring Auctions (Hong Kong) in 2010
and 2011. He had a recent exhibit last May year 2012 entitled Clockwise. Santos is a
part of the group of painters called Salingpusa and is a founder of the website called
Art Informal. (De la Paz, 2010) (Art Informal 2012)

The next painting was located at the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of
Manila. The painting was entitled House of Incest by Pacita Abad. It is shown in the
picture below (left). The painting was like just scribbles made of different paints and
media when I first saw it. We tried counting the human figures in the panting and we
counted five (based on the set of eyes). I was never a fan of abstract paintings,
especially those that are not pleasurable to the eyes but I still tried to think of what the
message of the painting was. The title of the painting conveyed a rather complex school

of thoughts about incest and taboo. The painting maybe shows a family, not necessarily
brothers or sisters but maybe cousins, practicing incest. But, the members of that family
have different opinions about it, as seen in their supposedly faces. The painting was
finished on 1991. It was made using oil and mixed media on canvas. Pacita Abad
creates abstract artworks that convey social and political issues. She makes use of
beads, traditional cloth, and other objects in this painting and this technique was
developed by her called trapunto painting.