National Museum of the Philippines - National Art Gallery, Part 3

This is a much delayed Part 3 to the series of posts on the National Museum. The first two parts were written last December 26, 2013 and January 21, 2014. I had actually chosen a few photos for this short article and wanted to focus on a few sculptures by national artists and a national hero. Somehow, the draft got lost with other drafts I had started about other topics I had wanted to write about. So as the saying goes, "Better late than never!"

Also on display at the National Museum are various sculptures featuring artists such as Guillermo Tolentino, Isabelo Tampinco and Jose Rizal himself, our multi-talented national hero. Following are a few of their works that are on exhibit.

"Oyang Dapitana" - sculptures by (L-R) Guillermo Tolentino, Jose Rizal and Isabelo Tampinco

The label for the exhibit indicated the artist who created each

"Mother's Revenge" by Jose Rizal

Bust of Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero

"St. Paul the Hermit" by Jose Rizal

Then there are the door handles to many of the rooms at the museum. These seemingly utilitarian pieces turned out to be the work of national artist Napoleon Abueva. Each metal handle bears his name and indicates that each were made in 2004.

Door handles by National Artist Napoleon Abueva

The National Museum is open 6 days weekly and is free on Sundays (though I would suggest visitors donating money they could spare to help in the upkeep of the museum). I think Filipinos should take advantage of this for them to be able to appreciate our rich history through various artwork such as paintings and sculptures on display at the museum. We often wonder how in other countries they are able to preserve artwork and much of their heritage when we have so far very limited effort for preserving and even exhibiting ours. I would like to think that a lot has changed with that outlook and there are efforts to come up with good museums with the National Museum in the forefront of these initiatives.

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