Isidro Ancheta

Isidro Ancheta (October 15, 1882, San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines – 1946) was a
Filipino landscape painter. He finished his Elementary, Secondary and Bachelor
of Arts Degree (1904) at the Ateneo de Manila. He also studied at the Liceo de
Manila, Escuela de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado and the Academia de Dibujo y
Pintura run by Teodoro Buenaventura in the early 1900s. He was represented
with 8 paintings in the Philippine Section at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904,
where his painting titled A Victim of War received an Honorable Mention. He
taught at the Philippine Normal School from 1918 to 1926. Before World War II,
his landscapes were found in classrooms all over the Philippines. In 1941 his
Tienda del Barrio won Second Honorable Mention in the Filipiniana Category at
the National Art Competition sponsored by the University of Santo Tomas.

Isidro G. Ancheta drew his subjects with firm lines, solidly defined shapes and a
realistic but dark palette. He also painted seashore scenes of fishing boats at sea. He
received an honorable mention at the Universal Exposition in St Louis, Missouri in 1904
for his A Victim of War. His Tienda del Barrio (Barrio Store) won second honorable
mention in the Filipiniana Category of the National Art Competition sponsored by the
University of Santo Tomas in 1941.

Biography

Ancheta was born on 15 October 1882 in San Miguel, Manila. He was an alumnus of
Ateneo de Manila, having studied there from elementary until he obtained bachelor of
arts in 1904. He was reared in the academic tradition. In the early 1900s, he studied art in
Escula de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, and the Acadamia de Dibujo y Pintura run by
Teodoro P. Buenaventura . He was a professor at the Philippine Normal School from
1918 to 1926. He died in 1946.

PABLO CUETO AMORSOLO

AMORSOLO, PABLO CUETO b. Daet, Camarines Norte, 26 Jun 1898 d. Antipolo, Raal 1945,
Painter His

parents were Pedro Amorsolo and Bonifacio Cueto, When he was eight, his family went to Manila
where he

studied drawing under his uncle, Fabian de la Rosa, the well known master. He completed
elementary and

secondary schooling at the Liceo de Manila, and graduated from the University of the Philippines
(UP) School
of Fine Arts in 1924. Two Years later he was appointed assistant instructor in the school. where he
taught until

WWII broke out.

An admirer of classical art, Amorsolo was also a strong advocate of modern art. In the 1930s he
was one or

the most prolific editorial illustrators in pen and ink for such publications as the Graphic,
Tribune, La

Vanguardia, Herald, and others, He also served as artist for the Manila Times His illustrations,
which

portrayed a wide variety of domestic and social situations, contributed to the rise of genre art in
the country.

When portraits were in vogue during the prewar years, Amorsolo was one of the best portrait
painters. His

skilled brushwork could breathe life into his subjects, which he painted truthfully and without
idealization. He

painted subjects from all social classes and age levels, It was in these portraits that he showed his
deep

understanding of the individual human personality, Historical subjects also interested him, as in
his painting

Magellan and the Natives and in his large-scale masterpiece The Discovery of the Philippines,
painted in 1944.

Few of Pablo Armsolo's paintings are extant because a large number of his works were destroyed
in a fire in

1945.

Pablo sincerely advocated the Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere and served as a colonel in
the Kempetai.

When the Americans returned, he was captured by Philippine troops and was killed by a guerilla
firing squad

in Antipolo.
Pacita Abad (1946-2004) was born in Basco, Batanes, a small island in the northernmost
part of the Philippines, between Luzon and Taiwan. Her more-than-thirty-year painting career
began when she journeyed to the United States to undertake graduate studies. After that
trip, Pacita never stopped traveling or painting. She studied painting at the Corcoran School
of Art in Washington D.C. and The Art Students League in New York City, and then started
to “paint the globe”, living on 5 different continents and working in more than 80 countries.
Pacita’s extensive travels to exotic destinations like Guatemala, Mexico, India, Afghanistan,
Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Indonesia had a major impact on
her life and art, and were the inspiration for many ideas, techniques and materials in her
paintings.

Pacita’s painting is characterized by constant change, experimentation and development

from the 1970’s, right up until her passing. Her early paintings were primarily figurative
socio-political works of people and primitive masks. Another series was large scale
paintings of underwater scenes, tropical flowers and animal wildlife. Pacita’s most
extensive body of work, however, is her vibrantly, colorful abstract work - many very large
scale canvases, but also a number of small collages - on a complete range of materials from
canvas and paper to bark cloth, metal, ceramics and glass. A disciplined and prolific
painter, Pacita created over 3,500 artworks and even painted a 55-meter long bridge in
Singapore and covered it with 2,350 multicolored circles.

Pacita constantly experimented with ideas that moved her beyond the confines of the
traditional two-dimensional surface by developing trapunto painting, a technique of stitching
and stuffing her painted canvases to give them a three-dimensional sculptural effect. She
then began an almost magical process of transforming the surface of her paintings with
materials, such as traditional cloth, mirrors, beads, shells, plastic buttons and other objects,
which she synthesized with bold colors to create uniquely individualistic pieces of art.
Underlying all of Pacita’s work is a vivacious spirit, vibrant originality and a volcano of color.
Her works are all about life and pursuing dreams, they are full of purpose, nothing tentative,
and they are drawn from her personal experiences. Like the artist’s life, Pacita’s paintings
are a celebration of pure passion, joy and color that come straight from her heart.

A truly global artist, Pacita had over 40 solo exhibitions at museums and galleries in the
U.S., Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. She also participated in more than 50 group
and traveling exhibitions throughout the world. Pacita’s work is now in public, corporate
and private art collections in over 70 countries.