Victorio C.

Edades
December 18, 1985 March 7, 1985
 .
National Artist in Painting in 1976,
Victorio C. Edades was the pioneer in
modernism in the Philippine art
scene. In fact, he is known as the Father
of Modern Philippine Painting. A lot
of his paintings portrayed the hardships of
the working class, using dark and somber
colors and bold strokes.
 Victorio Edades was born on December 13, 1895 to
Hilario and Cecilia Edades. He was the youngest
of ten children. He grew up in Barrio Bolosan in
Dagupan, Pangasinan. He obtained his early
education in barrio schools and went to a high
school in Lingayen.
His artistic ability surfaced during his early years. By
seventh grade, his teachers were so impressed with
him that he was dubbed "apprentice teacher" in
his art class. He was also an achiever from the very
beginning, having won awards in school debates and
writing competitions.
 After high school, Edades and his friends
traveled to the United States in 1919. Before
enrolling in Seattle, Edades incidentally made
a detour to Alaska and experienced working in
a couple of factories. Nonetheless, he moved
on to Seattle and enrolled at the University
of Washington where he took up
architecture and later earned a Master of
Fine Arts in Painting.
 The significant event that stirred Edades, and made him as
what he is known now, was his encounter with the traveling
exhibition from the New York Armory Hall.
New York Armory Hall presented modern European
artists such as Czanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso and
the Surrealists. His growing appreciation to what he saw
veered him away from the conservative academic art
and Realistic schools and thus he began to paint in the
modern manner.
What attracted Edades to the modernist movement was its
principle to go beyond the idealistic exteriors propagated by
Impressionism and Realism.
 During his journey to America,
he participated in art
competitions, one of which was
the Annual Exhibition of
North American Artists. His
entry The Sketch (1927) won
second prize.

The Sketch (1927)

It was also during his stay in the
U.S. that he married American
Jean Garrot, with whom he had
his only daughter, Joan.
 When he returned to the Philippines in 1928, he saw
that the state of art was "practically dead." He
recognized that there was no creativity whatsoever,
and that the artists of that time were merely "copying"
each other.

So in December, Edades bravely mounted a one-man

show at the Philippine Columbia Club in Ermita to
introduce to the masses what his modern art was all
about. He showed thirty paintings, including those that
won acclaim in America.
 Edades joined the University of Santo Tomas in the
1930s where he stayed on for three decades and
became dean of its Department of Architecture.

It was he who introduced the Liberal Arts program

which led to a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts, a
first in the Philippines since art was only taught in
vocational schools then.
 Edades later formed the Triumvirate of Modern Art
with Carlos V. Francisco and Galo B. Ocampo, after
they produced a mural for the lobby of the Capitol
Theater on Escolta Street. This began the growth of
mural painting in the Philippines.
 However, it was also during this period that the
infamous debate between the modernists and the
conservatives, including Ariston Estrada, Ignacio
Manlapaz and Fermin Sanchez, took place.

This was interrupted by the second World War, but

resumed in 1948, with sculptor Guillermo Tolentino
and painter Fernando Amorsolo representing the
conservatives.
 In 1938, Edades, together with Ocampo and
Diosdado Lorenzo, established the Atelier of
Modern Art in Malate, Manila. This resulted in
the formation of the Thirteen Moderns, considered
the pioneers of modern art in the Philippines.

This group was led by Edades and included Ocampo,

Francisco, Lorenzo, Vicente S. Manansala, H. R.
Ocampo, Demetrio Diego, Bonifacio Cristobal, Cesar
F. Legaspi, Jose Pardo, Arsenio Capili, Ricarte
Puruganan, and Anita Magsaysay-Ho.
 Aside from this, Edades co-founded the Mindanao
Ethnoculture Foundation, which focused on the
indigenous culture and heritage of Mindanao. In
his last fifty years, the subject of his paintings had
also become indigenized.

Edades retired from the UST at the age of 70, and he

was bestowed with the degree of Doctor in Fine Arts,
Honoris Causa. He then settled in Davao after
retirement.
 On May 7, 1985,
Victorio Edades passed away
at the age of 89.
Major works
of
Edades
THE SKETCH (1928)
National Museum Collection
 THE BUILDERS
Cultural Center of the Philippines Collection
MARKET SCENE
MORA GIRL
MURAL
THE WRESTLERS
DAVAO SHORELINE
1976
LAVANDERA
(1975)
 Art is ever the expression of mans 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 that 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 ones
rhythmic form.
 Diokno, Debielyn
Fernandez, Zyra Joyce
Javier, Tracy Anne
Masongsong, Myrabeth
Reyes, Chiara Marie
P3B