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Mabini ArtHistorical Background of Mabini Art and the second generation of Mabini Artists


Mabini Art derives its name from Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila, where artists opened art shops after World War II.  Existing records show that in 1930 there were none yet of these art shops…  The history of the so-called “Mabini school,” which was established after the 1955 walkout by the “conservatives,” can be traced back to their idol, Maestro Fernando Amorsolo.  As the first practitioners of Mabini Art, the “conservatives” carried on their style of painting, then called the “Amorsolo school.”  The “Amorsolo school”  was identified with the “realism” of Amorsolo in contrast to the “modernism” espoused by Victorio Edades and his followers.

   

The second generation consisted of those who began actively painting in the 1960s and were mostly born twenty or thirty years later than those belonging to the first generation.  Among them were Paco Gorospe, Roger San Miguel, Asing Wong, Emy Lopez, Rick Gonzales, Rexi Gonzales, Salvador Cabrera, and Leonardo Zablan.


The second-generation Mabini artists had a number of things in common…. This post will be continued over the next Thursdays with the kind of art of the Second Mabini Artist Generation, the artists and the differentiation of the artworks of the second generation.. 


Except for minor revisions, the contents of this article are excerpted from the author’s M. A. thesis, Tan, Pearl  E.  Mabini Art: History, Practice and Aesthetics.  Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines, 1992.  She conducted the research for her thesis between March 1988 and October 1990.


Pearl E. Tan is Associate Professor of Art Studies at U.P. Diliman and has a Ph.D. in Philippine Studies.  Her doctoral dissertation is entitled Pahiyas: San Isidro Ritual as Tradition and Touristic Festival.






























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