history of university of santo tomas school of fine arts

7/28/2019 History of University of Santo Tomas School of Fine Arts

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CHAPTER 2

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS, 1935-1938

Four major events that occurred during the first half of the 20 th century

solidified the Dominicans decision to establish the UST School of Fine Arts.

The first one was the signing of Executive Order 6102 by President Roosevelt

on April 5, 1933. The second event was the establishment in 1935 of

Philippine Commonwealth Government. The emergence of the Modernist

movement in Philippine visual arts was another contributory factor. Finally, the

university-wide expansion program that coincided with the transfer of UST to

its Sulucan campus in 1927 firmed up the establishment of the school.

The Executive Order 6120

The Great Depression that was brought about by the industrial collapse

in the 1930s engulfed the United States and the rest of the world. However,

the effects of the depression were hardly felt in the country. In fact, the

Philippine economy was experiencing a boom. The economic upturn was

brought about by some measures adopted of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt

administration to halt the hemorrhaging of the American economy. One of

these measures was the Executive Order 6102 that was signed by President


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Roosevelt on April 5, 1933. It prohibited gold exportation from the United

States. Another was the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which raised the nominal

price of gold from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35.32 The increase in the price of

gold triggered a mad rush by American prospectors to Baguios gold mines in

order to fill the vacuum in the international gold market. Prospectors earned

enormous profits in the process. With gold revalued at $35 an ounce, the

Philippine gold industry hit the proverbial gold mine. According to Onofre D.

Corpuz noted in his book entitled An Economic History of the Philippines, The

only major new industry sector in the economy developed late. The Benguet

Consolidated Mining Company had modest outputs in gold ore before 1920, but

export began to be significant only during the next decade. Exports of gold ore

amounted to P6.3 million in 1928; P11.2 million in 1929; P26 million in 1935;

and P73.9 million topped only by sugar in 1940. With only very small balance,

the entire output of the gold mining industry was exported to the United

States. Independence and not depression was the burning issue of the

hour.33

32Franklin D. Roosevelt: Executive Order 6102, - Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold

Certificates to Be Delivered to the Government, April 5, 1933, see, online by Gerhard Peters and John

T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14611,

accessed 30 July 2012, 3:55 AM.

33Onofre D. Corpuz, an Economic History of the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the

Philippines Press, 1997), 261.


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The Philippine Commonwealth

The second event that contributed to the decision to establish the UST

school of fine arts was the establishment in 1935 of Philippine Commonwealth

Government. It signaled the entry of the Philippines on its final preparatory

stage towards independence. To prepare economically the newly established

nation, the US Governments turned over to the Quezon administration a sizable

fund built from taxes collected from the Philippine coconut industry. This fund

further propped up the already burgeoning Philippine economy and it was used

for infrastructure and other development projects of the Commonwealth

government. In addition traditional Philippine exports, such as, abaca,

coconuts and coconut oil, sugar, and timber, were also doing very well,

especially coconut oil and timber.34

A gold boom of considerable proportions is taking place; large sums of

money have been pouring into the Commonwealth Treasury from the United

States coconut oil excise and sugar processing tax refunds; and the natural

resources of the country, agricultural, mining, fishing, forestry, are known to be

bountiful. As a result, Philippine economy rose to unprecedented highs.

Americans as well as other foreigners arrived to seek their fortune in the

34Catherine Porter, Philippine Industries Today and Tomorrow, Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 7, No. 13

(New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, June 29, 1938), 143, http://0-

www.jstor.org.lib1000.dlsu.edu.ph/stable/3022368, accessed 01 July 2012, 5:14 AM.


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Philippines to take advantage of business opportunities that were opening up

as the economy expanded.35

University-wide Expansion

The administrators of the University of Santo Tomas, attuned to the

needs of the time, initiated an expansion program that commenced soon after

the opening of the new Sulucan campus in 1927. This expansion program was

a continuing one which included, aside from the development of university

facilities, introduced new course offerings. The opening of the Architecture

course in June 1930, according to Norberto De Ramos, was the opening shot

that started the opening of new courses, one after another, including the

launching of the fine arts school.36

The Modernist Movement

Another important event that deeply impacted on the establishment of

the UST fine arts school was the emergence of the Modernist movement in

Philippine Arts. Local art during that period was retarded by at least 50 years.

It stagnated and remained in that state until the late 1929. Prof. Victorio

35Laurie Reuben Nielson, The Milieu, http://web.archive.org/web/20070129092523/,

http://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/history/, accessed 01 July 2012, 12:23 PM.

36Mr. Norberto De Ramos was the first University Registrar. See, Norberto De Ramos V., I

Walked with Twelve UST Rectors (Quezon City: Alfredo G. Ablaza and Christina De Ramos Ablaza,

2000), 44.


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Edades described it as practically dead. There were no galleries or art

associations and the few that have been formed were short-lived. Edades

further observed that artists were given scant attention or encouragement

because art was considered at that time a mere vocation and not a profession.

Only caricatures, especially political cartoons, flourished in those days owing to

the nationwide agitation for independence as well as the rise of political

parties. There were no new ideas in art. Edades returned to the Philippines,

introduced modern arts and triggered, in the words of Galo B. Ocampo, the

most significant movement in the history of Philippine art. It was a movement

that led to a change of cultural value, from the old to the new concepts of

Modern Art.37

While the countrys economy was progressing, the development of

Philippine arts was on a stand still. It was against this political, economic,

social, and cultural backdrop that the idea to launch the UST School of Fine

Arts was hatched and actually implemented.

The Launching of the UST Fine Arts School

As the Philippine economy continued to prosper, construction of new

business buildings ensued and old ones were remodeled. These activities

37Galo Ocampo, Religious Element in Philippine Arts (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Museum,

1965), 26.


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necessitated designing and remodeling works that created career opportunities

for professional workers trained in the field. The demand for professional

interior and industrial designers rose as investors riding on the wake of on-

going economic prosperity went on a construction and remodeling binge.

Business was booming and as investors hurried to market their products and

services, commercial artists became sought-after workers. According to

Victorio C. Edades:

Today the services of interior decorators and teachers of art or that ofthe industrial and commercial artists are badly needed. Never beforehas there been greater building activity, not to mention remodeling ofinteriors of buildings of all kinds. This creates an immense opportunityfor well-trained and cultured designers either as independent designers[italics mine] or in collaboration with architects.38

Manuel S. Rustia, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Commerce,

welcomed the proposal by the UST administrators to establish their own school

of fine arts. He wrote Director Edades a letter that said he sincerely hope the

training at the new school of fine arts will correct, through its students, the

erroneous notion of what is beautiful, the penchant for formal symmetry, and

38The purpose of establishing the new school of arts was explained by Victorio Edades, at that

time the Director of the UST Department of Architecture, in an interview with the Varsitarian. See,

Victorio Edades, Purposes Behind New School of Arts Revealed, The Varsitarian, Vol. VIII, No. 8

(Manila: University of Santo Tomas Press, 1935), 5.


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the popular tendency towards the gaudy instead of the simple. He made this

comment because according to him:

the most common lamentations that we hear concerning many of ourhousehold and industry products today is that, while they representdifficult, tedious, and skilled workmanship, yet many times the finishedproduct falls short of the standard because it lacks that artistic taste andbalance which could have been easily overcome were the creatorsimbued with even the most elementary spirit of what is really pleasing tothe eyes.39

The launching of the new fine arts school by the Dominicans was thus

viewed by some government functionaries as a welcome development. It

would not only expectedly meet the increasing demands for professionals in

that field but was also hoped to influence reforms in the condition of Philippine

arts.

The Schools Mission

Meanwhile, the Dominicans owners of the University of Santo Tomas

also made known their intentions for the launching of their fine art school.

These were expressed by then Rector-Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Serapio Tamayo

during the speech which he delivered before Architecture faculty and students.

The occasion for that speech was an art exhibit held on February 24, 1934. In

39Ibid.


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that speech Fr. Tamayo lamented the decadence of ideals, which he said were

responsible for the deplorable state of arts during that time. He noted that:

modern society considers the sciences and the arts and their progressand achievements, only as a means of increasing material gains andpleasures. For this materialistic age of ours, the spiritualism, the highideals of the human heart dont count for anything. In this regard, weare turning back rapidly to the Pre-Christian era of paganism.40

Fr. Tamayo argued that Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, and

Poetry were dignified, spiritualized, and raised to a level, unsuspected in the

times of paganism, only after the advent of Christianity. Artists then, who he

described as those privileged men and women, felt in their souls the ideals of

the beautiful and the perfect in their artistic conception. They (the artists)

have fertile sources of inspirations in the ideas of an Almighty and living God,

the divine person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign Mother of Jesus, the

Virgin Mary, the Angels, the Saints, and all and every one of the supernatural

mysteries of our Christian religion. However, instead of drawing inspiration

from the supernatural mysteries of our Christian religion, todays artists,

according to him, contemplated the renewing of the worship of the golden calf.

40Modern Society is demoralized and sick because it is lacking in Ideals Says Father Rector in

Atelier Speech, The Varsitarian, Vol. VIII, No. 7, March 12, 1934 (Manila: University of Santo Tomas

Press, 1934), 1.


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Early Dominicans used art to overcome the initial difficulty in communicating

with non-Spanish speaking natives. They were among the first group of

Spaniards to teach Western arts to the natives. They accomplished it by

forming groups of apprentices for art lessons and the Dominican who was in

the thick of this activity from 1587 to 1590 was Father Juan de Cobo, O.P. He

was one of the Dominicans friars assigned to the service of the Parian - a

ghetto outside the walls of Intramurus where Chinese who have not converted

to Christianity lived during the Spanish Period. Fr. Cobo taught arts to many of

them, including; painting of images, and cutting and sewing altar clothes.44

Another Dominican who was designated and worked as painter in the

Philippines in 1703 was Fr. Francisco de la Maza. Fr. Pablo Fernandez, O.P.

described him as a painter and a musician. Four decades later in 1743, Fr.

Juan de Santo Tomas came. According to Fr. Pablo Fernandez, O.P. he was an

admirable poet and a great painter who, in the time it takes to recite the

Creed, could draw a perfect figure of anything that fancied him using only his

pen.45

44Patrick D. Flores, Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art, 144-145

45Pablo Fernandez, O.P., History of the Church in the Philippines, 1521-1898 (Manila: National

Book Store, 1979), 409.


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In 1785, the Dominicans made the first attempt to invest art and

painting with academic value and formal presence and not merely an accessory

to missionary work. That year when Fr. Juan Amador was Rector-Chancellor of

the University of Santo Tomas, theAcademia de Bellas Artes was opened. The

school, however, was not firmly established and its influence was not far-

reaching for it was founded as an experiment of sort. Its training on painting

functioned only for a short time because there were few enrollees to that

course.46

TheAcademia later became one of the Estudios de Adorno that existed

in the University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo de Manila, and Colegio de San Juan

de Letran.47

Thus in 1935, the Dominicans of the University of Santo Tomas

merely reestablished their fine art school with the primary goal of meeting the

ever-present and increasing demand for good Catholic artists. It is to be an

institution designed to conform to the latest and most advanced artistic

theories and practices. More importantly, however, it must inculcate Christian

ideals that Dominicans deemed necessary and indispensable for the efficient

and ethical practice of the arts profession.

46Evergisto Bazaco O.P., History of Education in the Philippines (Manila: University of Santo.

Tomas Press, 1953), 148

47Galo Ocampo, Religious Element in Philippine Arts (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Museum,

1965), 26.


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Organization and Administration

The UST school of Fine Arts was first launched as part of the College of

Engineering for administrative exigency. It was integrated with the

Department of Architecture with which it shared common subjects and faculty

members. The two departments were so closely linked with each other since

the beginning that during the proposal to separate the two institutions in 2000,

an interim agreement of cooperation was required to cushion the newly

emerging institutions from the difficulties in the transition period. This

agreement included temporary sharing of personnel until such time that the

new academic unit has acquired or trained enough work force; and have

completed its roster of teachers.48

In its early stages, the two departments also shared the same Director,

Professor Victorio C. Edades, who administered the activities of both

departments under the direction of the Dean of the College of the Engineering.

Engineer Alberto Guevarra, acting dean of the College of Engineering,49 and

Victorio C. Edades, Director of the Department of Architecture were the first

administrators of the school of fine arts. The tasks of running the day-to-day

48The Committee on Proposal Preparation, Projection of the Five-Year Development Plan, TMs, 8.

49Engineer Alberto Guevarra took over in acting capacity after Rev. Fr. Roque Ruao, O.P. died

due to a massive heart attack on March 1, 1935. See, Fidel Villarroel, O.P., Four Centuries of Higher

Education in the Philippines: A History of the University of Santo Tomas, Vol. 2, (Manila: University of

Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2012), 344


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affairs and the accomplishment of the declared institutional mission were thrust

into the hands of these individuals. Their most pressing tasks during that time

were the formulation of the departments educational programs and the

organization of the formal structure required to ensure that institutional goals

and objectives were achieved.50

The opening of the new courses in fine arts was part of the expansion

program initiated by the then Rector and Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Serapio Tamayo,

O.P. In this, he was ably assisted by Secretary General Fr. Juan Labrador, O.P.

As the Rector Magnificus his right-hand man, Fr. Labrador carried the brunt of

the works involved in expansion work. He was later transferred in 1936 to

become Rector of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Fr. Tamayo himself was

replaced by Fr. Silvestre Sancho, O.P., as Rector Magnificus, on July 25,

1936.51

Director Victorio C. Edades

Special mention has to be made of Victorio Edades for his important

contributions to the schools transformation. Professor Edades joined the

50John Meyer and Brian Rowan, Institutionalized Organization: Formal Structure as Myth and

Ceremony, The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1991), 42.

51The title Rector Magnificus would later on be changed into Rector during the

administration of Fr. Leonardo Legaspi, O.P. See, Norberto De Ramos, I Walked with Twelve UST

Rectors (Quezon City: Alfredo G. Ablaza and Christina De Ramos Ablaza, 2000), 67.


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University of Santo Tomas faculty in 1930, upon recommendation by the

renowned Guillermo Tolentino to Fr. Juan Labrador, O.P. Edades helped in the

establishment of the Department of Architecture that year and eventually

became its Director.52

Fortunately for UST, Edades application to teach at the UP School of

Fine Arts was turned down by Dean Fabian de la Rosa. The reasons being his

modern ideas and outlook, which Fabian de la Rosa believed would not have

blended with the conservative UP faculty. He politely told Edades that his MA

made him overqualified for the position.53

Victorio C. Edades was the leader of the revolutionary Thirteen Moderns

who engaged their classical compatriots in heated debate over the nature and

function of art. He traveled to the United States and enrolled at the University

of Washington where he took up architecture and later earned a Master of Fine

Arts in Painting. His encounter with the traveling exhibition from the New York

Armory Hall was the significant event that stirred Edades and made him as

what he is known now. This art show presented modern European artists such

as Czanne, Matisse, Picasso and the Surrealists. His growing appreciation to

52Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Ma. Guerrero, Edades: National Artist(Manila: Filipinas

Foundation for Security Bank and Trust Co., 1979), 49.

53Ibid.


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what he saw veered him away from the conservative Impressionistic and

Realistic schools and thus he began to paint in the modern manner.54

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. When he returned to the Philippines in 1928,

he saw that the state of art was practically dead, so in December, Edades

bravely mounted a one-man show at the Philippine Columbia Club in Ermita.

His objective was to introduce to the masses what his modern art was all

about. He showed thirty paintings, including those that won acclaim in

America. It was a distinguished exhibit, for the Filipino art circle was suddenly

shaken by what this young man from Pangasinan had learned from his studies

abroad. Viewers and critics were apparently shocked and not one painting was

sold.55

Although already highly regarded as a painter during that time, Edades

was not as popular as Fernando Amorsolo was. His paintings were branded as

ugly by some art critics of that time because of his adherence to modernism.56

The struggles of Edades to instill modernism in Philippine painting yielded

54Ibid., 50.

55Ibid.

56Ibid., 53.


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positive results only in 1934. This was after Architect Juan Nakpil

commissioned him to paint a mural to decorate the lobby of the Capitol Theater

with two other painters, Carlos Botong Francisco and Galo Ocampo, as his

assistants. The mural entitled The Rising Philippines, gained critical acclaim

and was lauded by the Philippines Herald in its issue of January 2, 1935 for

being excellently conceived and highly original.57

The artistic success of Edades, Francisco, and Ocampo immediately

spread among the artists circle. Soon, the demand for their services

increased. Even President Quezon hired him to execute a mural with an

international theme in his residence. Private business offices also sought his

services, along with those of his collaborators Francisco and Ocampo. This

event triggered the press war between Victorio Edades and Ariston Estrada

through an article written by A. B. Saulo entitled A Modernist Talks on Local

Art which was subtitled Prof. Edades Says Idealism is Obsolete, Absurd. It

inflamed established artists and academicians and started the first phase of the

controversy that pitted Modernist against Academic artists.58

In the ensuing exchange of press articles, Rev. Fr. Labrador, O.P. asked

Edades to see him. Fr. Labrador simply admonished Edades not to touch upon

57Lydia R. Ingle, Kites and Visions (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1980), 60.

58Ibid.


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religion in his press war against Estrada because that subject was the latters

forte and gently warned that Estrada was a man with markedly contrary streak

in his character. For the rest, Labrador implied that the Dominicans had

implicit trust in Edades judgment. This episode was an indication of where

University of Santo Tomas administration stood in the controversy.59

The debate was continued by other artists and critics who joined in the

fray. Fernando Amorsolo chose to keep silent during the press war. Guillermo

Tolentino joined in the fray but wrote Edades a note saying that he did not

want to argue with him in the paper. Edades replied that it would benefit the

public as well as their respective students from the University of the Philippines

and the University of Santo Tomas. Therefore, they went ahead and published

their individual views in the paper.60

The Dominicans decided to entrust the unenviable task of administering

their newly established school to Victorio Edades. They needed someone of

Edades stature, a bona fide artist, someone that could lend prestige to the

institution. Someone with the administration savvy and leadership who would

lead it to the direction it should rightfully thread and imbue it with its distinct

character and identity. Eventually history would tell us that University officials

59Ibid, 64.

60Kalaw-Ledesma and Ma Guerrero, Edades: National Artist, 98.


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decision turned out to be a wise one. The UST school of Fine Arts is

considered the bulwark of modernism in visual arts because of Edades. Former

President Ferdinand Marcos would bestow on him the National Artist Award in

1976. In the National Artist Award citation, he called Edades as the original

iconoclast of Philippine Art who changed the direction of Philippine painting,

decisively ending the parochial isolation of Philippine art and placing it in the

mainstream of international culture. The citation continued that Edades

created the necessary bridge between the past and the present; this is an

achievement worthy of several lifetimes.61 In this sense, the citation

concluded, that he is the true father of Modern Philippine Painting.

The First Fine Arts Curriculum

When Director Edades designed the curriculum for the Department of

Fine Arts he was guided by the American curricula on fine arts existing at that

time. As he originally envisioned, the course of Bachelor in Fine Arts covered 4

years of intensive training in both fine arts and design theories and practices.

The curriculum offered standard subjects like drawing, painting and

composition. Because Edades himself was grounded in the Humanities, he

made the study of Western and Oriental art history part of that curriculum

61Ingle, Kites and Visions, 87.


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alongside subjects on foreign languages (Spanish and French). Edades reason

for this decision was to fill the students with a thorough knowledge, sense of

history, as well as awareness of the progress of art in other countries. The

curriculum also included an optional offering of science subjects, such as,

Zoology and Botany.62

Students may choose from two areas specialization, Interior Design and

Public School Arts. Interior Design was offered in order to meet the demands

for professional interior designers due to construction and remodeling activities

that were greater than ever. Public School Art on the other hand was,

according to Director Edades, an answer to the immediate need of preparing

future teachers of art for private and public schools.63

Edades revealed in The Varsitarian interview that the new School would

also offer vocational courses to interested students. He explained that:

Under the Department of Public School Art is also a branch, which takescare of students, who, due to financial difficulties can only study for ayear or so. This branch is called Commercial Art Course. Any studentcan register in any of our short courses such as, Lettering Posters, Metal

Work, Industrial Design and Window Display Design. These vocationalcourses needless, to say, are timely and in keeping with our presenteconomic mindedness. Commercial Art is the right hand of modern

62Visitacion De La Torre, Victorio C. Edades: Father of Modern Philippine Painting, The National

Artists of the Philippine, Nestor O. Jardin, et. al., eds., (Pasig City: National Artists of the Philippines

co-published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Anvil Publishing Inc, 1998), 131.

63Edades, Purpose Behind New School of Arts, Revealed, 5.


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business. Today art in merchandising is as important as production.Students are trained in correct art uses in merchandising.64

These vocational courses were the precursors of the Industrial Design

and Advertising Design courses being offered by the institution today. It is

must be mentioned here that the UST school of fine arts was not the first

formal institution to offer training on applied arts. Fifteen years earlier in 1920,

the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts has already included in its

curriculum, Graphic Design subjects, such as, Scenography, Poster Making,

Editorial Illustration, and Cartooning to its students. These courses were

offered as elective subjects.65 What sets it apart from its UP counterpart was

that the method of teaching being followed in the school is patterned after that

of the best universities of Europe and America. In this method, students were

given personal and individual criticisms particularly in design, freehand

drawing, and color rendering courses.66

Public School Arts

Edades was determined to make students thoroughly grounded in the

Humanities. He also wanted them gain knowledge and cultivate sense of

64Ibid.

65Ruben Defeo and Patrick D. Flores, Forming Lineage: The National Artists for Visual Arts of the

University of the Philippines (Quezon City: Office of the President, University of the Philippines, 2008),

16.

66Office of the Secretary General, Public School Art Curriculum, 1934-1935, 1935-1936 General

Bulletin of the University of Santo Tomas (Manila: UST Press, 1936), 188-189.


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history. More importantly, Edades wanted the students become aware of the

progress of art in other countries. In order to do achieve these objectives, the

newly formulated curriculum for the Public School Arts course was developed to

include General Education subjects, such as, Sciences with Laboratory, English,

Spanish, Psychology, and History.

Additionally, students were required to take three Electives where they

may chose any of these subjects, History, Sociology, Furniture Design, and Life

Drawing. 67

TABLE 3

GENERAL EDUCATION SUBJECTS:PUBLIC SCHOOL ART

Subject UnitsEnglishSpanishHistoryPsychologyLaboratoryElectives

12121531012

ReligionPhysical Education

8(4)

Source: Public School Art Curriculum, 1934-1935,1935-1936 General Bulletin of the University ofSanto Tomas, 188.

67Ibid.


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Because the declared objective of the course on Public School Art was to

train students to become teachers of art appreciation in the private and public

schools, students had to complete 28 units of Education subjects. These

subjects were; Introduction to Education, History of Education, Educational

Psychology, Educational Sociology, Methods of Teaching Public School Art, and

Observation and Practice Teaching. School administrators have designed these

subjects to train and equip students with the knowledge, attitude, and skills in

the art of teaching.

Additionally, the focus of the training on secondary education is evident

on the choice of Education subjects that were included in the curriculum. For

example, Table 4, which lists all Education subjects included Education 3, a

three-unit lecture taken during the first semester on the third year and was

described as a course on the Principles of Secondary Education. This would be

reinforced later by Education 9, which was a subject on the psychology of

adolescents and was to be taken up in the second semester of the third year.

Six units of Education 20 (Lectures and Project) followed. These subjects were

courses on Methods of Teaching Public School Art. During the first semester,

students had lectures and in the following semester had to complete assigned


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projects.68 In the second semester of their final year, students of Public School

Arts were required to take Education 5b, a 4-unit subject entitled Observation

and Practice Teaching where students to underwent actual classroom

observations and capped by the final requirement of actual practice teaching.

TABLE 4

PUBLIC SCHOOL ARTSEDUCATION SUBJECTS

Subjects Units

Edu. A Introduction to EducationEdu. 1 History of Education

33

Edu. 6 Educational PsychologyEdu. 8 Educational SociologyEdu. 3 Principles of Secondary

EducationEdu. 9 Psychology of Adolescence

33

33

Edu. 20 Method of Teaching PublicSchool Arts

Edu. 5b Observation & PracticeTeaching

64

Total 28

Source: Public School Art Curriculum, 1934-1935, 1935-1936 General Bulletin of the University of Santo Tomas,188.

Subjects in the major areas (see Table 5) were coded P.S.D. or

Painting, Sculpture, and Design. Public School Arts students were required to

take 42 units of thesis subjects as part of their training in both fine arts and

68Ibid., 197.


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design. These were basic fine arts and design subjects and pre-requisites for

more advanced fine arts training on Art Structure. This served the purpose of

providing Public School Art students with the basic skills and knowledge needed

to teach arts appreciation in the public schools. Art Structure subjects (PSD 11

and PSD 12) for instance, were merely studies on principles and design in line,

dark and light, and color to develop the power of appreciation and the ability to

create good design. In fact, we will find out later on that there were PSD

subjects common to Public School Arts and Interior Design, like PSD 11 and

PSD 12 - they have similar titles, coded in the same way, and offered during

the first semester of the first year. However, these subjects were treated

differently in the number of units to be earned. This meant that Public School

Art students spent less time on the subject as compared to Interior Design

students taking the same.69

TABLE 5

PUBLIC SCHOOL ARTS P.S.D. SUBJECTS

Subjects Units

P.S.D. 11 Art StructureP.S.D. 13 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 15 Color Theory & DrawingP.S.D. 12 Art Structure

3333

69Ibid.


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TABLE 5 - continued

PUBLIC SCHOOL ARTS P.S.D. SUBJECTS

Subjects Units

P.S.D. 14 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 16 Color Theory & DrawingP.S.D. 21 Metal WorkP.S.D. 23 PotteryP.S.D. 22 Industrial ArtP.S.D. 24 Art Appreciation

333333

P.S.D. 31a Lettering and Posters 3P.S.D. 32 Elements of InteriorDesignP.S.D. 41 History of Painting &

Sculpture

3

3P.S.D. 43 Illustration 3Total 42

Source: Public School Art Curriculum, 1934-1935, 1935-1936 General Bulletin of the University of Santo Tomas,188.

Architecture subjects were also taught in the Public School Art

curriculum, Architecture 351 and Architecture 352. These subjects were taken

during the third year, first and second semesters respectively. The General

Bulletin of 1934-1936 described these subjects as illustrated lectures from the

primitive art to the modern ornaments placing much emphasis on the historic

periods in the history of arts which were basic Architecture courses.70 It must

be noted that as mentioned earlier, Architecture subjects have been part the

70Ibid.


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fine arts curriculum. In view of these subjects, the Schools of Architecture and

the School of Fine Arts shared their faculty members. The long history of the

two departments being linked together for 65 years could be attributed to

these facts.

Interior Design

One of the two initial course offerings of the UST School of Fine Arts

was Interior Design. As earlier stated, this course was offered in response to

the rising demand at that time for professional interior designers. In this

course, students were trained to be individual designers with sufficient

technical skills to be able to translate a design concept into a three dimensional

reality. The demand for this expertise according to Prof. Edades was brought

about by the spate of constructions and remodeling of buildings during that

period. Like the Public School Art, a four-year course led to the degree of

Bachelor in Fine Arts. Its subjects as shown in Table 6 below were fewer in

numbers than that of Public School Arts, only forty-one, but with 157 units, the

course carried more weight in some subjects specially those categorized under

PSD.

Interior Design curriculum (see Table 6) also included twelve units of

Religion subjects just like Public School Art. This was a requirement in keeping


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with the Schools mandate to train Christian artists. The curriculum included

subjects on foreign language. Students were given the choice between the

Spanish or French language. They were required to complete eighteen units of

electives and the subjects to choose from were History, Sociology, Furniture

Design and Life Drawing, PSD 413 Show Window Decoration, Architecture 25

Modeling, Architecture 43-44 Figure Composition.

TABLE 6

INTERIOR DESIGN SUBJECT AREAS

General Education UnitsEnglishSpanish or French

612

Major Programs UnitsP.S.D.

ArchitectureH.E. Textile

69283

Other Subjects UnitsElectivesReligion

188

Source: Public School Art Curriculum, 1934-1936 General Bulletin of the University of SantoTomas, 188.

The list of major area subjects in Interior Design is shown in Table 7

below and it appears heavy on PSD with 69 units. Although the course was

designed to train and educate graduates to be professional interior designers, it

carried subjects relating to the fine arts, such as, Freehand Drawing, Color


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Theory and Drawing, Life, Art Appreciation, and the History of Painting and

Sculpture. The absence of Education subjects meant that these graduates

would not find employment in the private or public schools as teachers of art

appreciation. Instead, they were trained to work in private and commercial

establishments as interior designers.

TABLE 7

INTERIOR DESIGN MAJOR SUBJECTS

Subjects Units

P.S.D. 11 Art Structure 5P.S.D. 13 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 15 Color Theory & DrawingP.S.D. 12 Art Structure

P.S.D. 14 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 16 Color Theory & DrawingP.S.D. 211 Furniture DesignP.S.D. 211 Furniture DesignP.S.D. 311 Interior DesignP.S.D. 11 Art StructureP.S.D. 13 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 15 Color Theory & DrawingP.S.D. 12 Art StructureP.S.D. 14 Freehand DrawingP.S.D. 16 Color Theory & Drawing

335

33555533533

P.S.D. 211 Furniture DesignP.S.D. 211 Furniture DesignP.S.D. 311 Interior Design

555

Subjects Units

Total 69

Source: Interior Design Curriculum, 1934-1935, 1935-1936 General Bulletin of the UST, 189.


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Just like their counterparts in the Public School Arts, Interior Design

students were also required to take Architecture subjects as part of its

curriculum (see Table 8). However, while Public School Art students have to

complete six units of these Architecture subjects, Interior Design students have

to complete twenty-eight units from as early as the second year. This is an

additional evidence to prove that the linking of the departments of Fine Arts

and Architecture since 1935 had operational and organizational bases.

TABLE 8

ARCHITECTURE SUBJECTS FOR INTERIOR DESIGN

Subjects Units

Arch. 15 Design Grade 1a

Arch. 351 History of OrnamentsArch 121 GraphicsArch. 16 Design Grade 1bArch. 352 History of OrnamentsArch. 122 GraphicsArch. 18 History of ArchitectureArch. 21 History of ArchitectureArch. 22 History of Architecture

5

33533222

Total 28

Source: Interior Design Curriculum, 1934-1935, 1935-

1936 General Bulletin of the University of Santo Tomas,189.


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Enrollment

Over at the UP School of Fine Arts, elementary students were allowed to

enroll. The only requirement for them to pass a procedure that showed talent

and marked proficiency.71 On the other hand, since its establishment, students

seeking admission to the UST school of fine arts were already required to

present a high school diploma or its equivalent and had to be issued by schools

or colleges duly authorized by the government.72 But this is not saying that

advanced students were refused entry. Milagros Icasiano, for instance, was

listed as a second year student, Febo Claro and Molave Peralta as third year,

and Jose Puyat was a fourth year. Just like at the state university, these

students were allowed advanced standing upon presentation of certificate of

honorable dismissal from the College last attended, and a certified record of his

work done in that college.73

According to Director Edades, about a dozen first year students enrolled

when the UST School of Fine Arts first opened in 1935.74 Various unofficial

71

Cristino Jamias, The University of the Philippines: The First Half Century (Quezon City:University of the Philippines, 1963), 16.

72The initial admission requirements to the School of Fine Arts were the same as those for the

Faculty of Engineering. See, Faculty of Civil Engineering: Requirement for Admission, General

Bulletin 1935-1936 (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Press, 1936), 215.

73School of Architecture and Fine Arts, 1934-1935, 1935-1936 General Bulletin of the University

of Santo Tomas, 184-198.

74Victorio Edades, Silver Jubilee Souvenir Collection (Manila: UST Press, 1960), 4


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school histories have echoed that information but records obtained from the

Office of the University Registrar shows that it had in fact 16 students (both

first year and advance students) during the first year of operation.75

Institutional Culture

Aside from the formal and usually explicitly stated, or defined, tasks and

rules, there is an important implicit and informal dimension of an institution -

the institutional culture. Institutional culture includes the informal attitudes,

values, norms, and the spirit that pervade an institution. It determines the

manner in which activities in an institution are undertaken.76

The institutional culture of the UST School of Fine Arts was influenced by

the Catholic Church and the Dominican hierarchy. This is not saying that no

other institutions within its organizational field have contributed to its cultural

enrichment but these were the two most important and principal influences

that helped shape its values, attitudes, norms and emotions.

It was clear from the very start and from the stated objectives

enunciated by Rector Magnificus Fr. Serapio Tamayo, O.P. that students

75Data supplied by University Registrars Office.

76Seumas Miller, Accounts of Social Institution, Social Institutions, The Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta ed., URL =

http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/social-institutions/, accessed 20 May 2012.


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enrolled in the School will be trained to become Catholic artists. Thus, for the

students to be imbibed with Catholic norms and values is no longer debatable.

Moreover, for the new School, being owned and managed by the Dominicans,

it was inevitable that it will adopt the Orders rites and rituals that were already

incorporated in the University throughout centuries of its existence. As an

example, one such institutionalized University tradition is the Discurso de

Apertura. It consists of the reading of a scientific paper by its author at the

formal opening of the school year:

SA BAWAT pagbubukas ng akademikong taon, ginaganap ang Discursode Apertura (talumpating pambungad) upang magsilbing gabay ng mgaTomasino sa buong taon. Ayon kay Regalado Trota-Jose, archivist ngUnibersidad, taong 1865 sinimulan ang taunang Discurso de Apertura.77

Students of the School of Fine Arts and members of other academic

units throughout the UST system have experienced and adopted the Catholic

and Dominican cultures and eventually integrated them into their own. In a

sense, all University of Santo Tomas students share the same values, norms,

and emotions, making all of them Thomasians. However, students of the

UST School of fine Arts were not just another Thomasian but they were

Thomasian Artists. This is where the Modernist tradition that was inspired by

77Elora Joselle F. Cangco, Discurso de Apertura: Balik-tanaw, The Varsitarian,

http://www.varsitarian.net/filipino/usapang_uste/20120610/discurso_de_apertura_balik_tanaw,

accessed 07/09/2012, 1:36 PM.


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Victorio Edades and that the UST School of Fine Arts itself espoused manifested

itself in the shaping of the members of the organization. It made them

Thomasian Artists which distinguished them not only from the rest of the UST

student body but also, from students of the UP School of Fine Arts and all other

arts institutions for that matter. As modernists, they were everything that UP

students were not at that time. At that time, they represented progress while

students of the state university represented stagnation. What set them apart

from other art students, according to former Director Galo Ocampo, was their

courage to experiment in artistic expression present reality as he sees it in his

own way. Ocampo continued that as Modernists, Thomasian artists used art

to express his emotion and not merely as a photographic likeness of nature. A

Thomasian artist is able to express his individual emotion and created in that

distinctive form that best interprets his own experience. He pried himself away

from his comfort zones in order to find pleasure in the visible qualities of even

the commonest object of everyday life: to use color, structurally, to investigate

every department of our environment, which directly affects experience, and to

blend and integrate all our impressions with our Oriental heritage and our

Christian culture.78

78Ocampo, Religious Element in Philippine Art, 5.


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The decision by University officials to espouse modernism through

Victorio C. Edades put the UST school of fine arts at the forefront of the most

significant movement in the history of Philippine arts. It gave the institution a

soul and filled it with an innovative attitude. Later on, in recognition of

these achievements, the University of Santo Tomas conferred on Edades on

February 12, 1977, the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa.79

Summary

This chapter shows that the decision of University officials in 1935 to

launch the school of fine arts and offer design courses is consistent with

sociological institutionalism in assuming that organizations are open systems,

which are strongly influenced by their environments.80 The improved Philippine

economy brought about by the inverse effect of the Great Depression and the

establishment of the Commonwealth encouraged the Dominican owners of the

University of Santo Tomas to continue with expansion program that they

started in 1927. The acquisition of the university property at Sulucan, the

subsequent construction of buildings, the eventual transfer to the new campus,

79Ingle, Kites and Visions, 88.

80Edward Alan Miller and Jane Banaszak-Holl, Cognitive and Normative Determinants of State

Policymaking Behavior: Lessons from the Sociological Institutionalism, Publius, vol. 35, no. 2 (Oxford

University Press, 2005), 195, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4624709 .Accessed: 16/10/2011 20:01


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and the establishment of the School of Architecture paved the way for the

launching of the fine arts school.81

The stagnant state of the arts during that period was an added

incentive. Together, these institutional forces were instrumental in the decision

to launch and dictated how the school was to be established.

To meet the increasing demand for art professionals in the field of

design, the school offered a four-year course leading to the degree of Bachelor

in Fine Arts with specialization in Interior Design and vocational courses

Commercial Arts, such as, Lettering Posters, Metal Work, Industrial Design and

Window Display Design. To meet the challenges bringing Philippine art up-to-

date with the rest of the world, the school offered Public School Arts,

introduced a formal arts curriculum and conferred bachelors degree upon

course completion. It was a pioneering set up then and had no comparison

with any educational institution operating during that time. As an added

measure, Victorio Edades was appointed as the school director to ensure

achievement of these institutional goals.

Moreover, consistent with their religious apostolate, the Dominicans

made sure that even with the innovations introduced, students were trained in

81Pablo Fernandez, O.P., Dominicos Donde Nace el Sol: Historia dela Provincia Del Santissimo

Rosario de Filipinas de la Orden de Predicatores, (Barcelona, Talleres Graficos Yuste, 1598), 553-556.


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the tenets of the Catholic Church. In this regard, provisions were made to

include the teaching of Religion subjects to all students enrolled in all fine and

applied arts programs.

At this point in its history, the school has not yet made much impact as

students still flock to the UP School of Fine Arts. Until that time, it was still the

preferred institution for fine arts and design because it had been for the past

27 years the premier arts school in the country. It did not charge tuition fees,

and more importantly, it boasted the likes of Fabian de la Rosa, Fernando

Amorsolo, and Guillermo Domingo - giants in the Philippine arts during that

time, among their faculty. The much-publicized controversy between the

Moderns and the Conservative has not yet taken place as Edades was still

establishing his artistic influence in 1935. Moreover, the University of the

Philippines School of Fine Arts had already been teaching Graphic Design

subjects such as Scenography, Poster Making, Editorial Illustration, and

Cartooning to its students since 1920.

However, the school has already introduced to the world of Philippine art

education the following innovations: the conferment of a Bachelor of Fine Arts

degree, the use of a formal Fine Arts curriculum, and the requirement of a high


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school diploma for admission. The state university and all other art institutions

that followed would later adopt these innovations.

history of university of santo tomas school of fine arts

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