Victorio C. Edades - Biography

Biography

Victorio Edades was born on December 13, 1895 to Hilario and Cecilia Edades. He was the youngest of ten children (six of whom died of smallpox). He grew up in Barrio Bolosan in Dagupan, Pangasinan. 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. 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. This art show presented modern European artists such as Cézanne, 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. The two former schools of thought were inclined more towards idyllic subject matter, and require a mastery of refined detailing. What attracted Edades to the modernist movement was its principle to go beyond the idealistic exteriors propagated by Impressionism and Realism. Modernist thought encourages experimentation in artistic expression and allows the artist to present reality as he sees it in his own way.

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.” Paintings he saw dealt with similar themes and were done in a limited technique that mostly followed the works of Fernando Amorsolo, the first Philippine national artist and the most popular painter of the time. 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. 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.

Edades helped organized the University of Sto. Tomas Department of Architecture in 1930 and was its acting head. In 1935, he was appointed as Director of the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts, which he organized under the wing of Architecture. He was guided by the existing American curricula when he made the Fine Arts curriculum for UST. Alongside standard subjects like drawing, painting and composition, he also included Western and Oriental art history, foreign languages and optional science subjects such as zoology and botany. Because of Edades, UST became the forerunner of Modern Art, while the University of the Philippines remained the precursor of conservative art.

By 1938, he opened up the Atelier of Modern Art at the M. H. Del Pilar, Manila together with Diosdado Lorenzo and Galo Ocampo. He also organized the School of Design with Juan Nakpil in 1940.

While espousing his beliefs and ideas on Modern Art, Edades sparked a debate between modern and academic (classical) art. The Herald Mid-Week Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine and This Week contained the issues addressed by him and Guillermo Tolentino, who spoke up for the side of the Conservatives. Another development in the art scene, which was spearheaded by Edades, was the formation of the “Thirteen Moderns.” The list included Edades, Carlos Francisco, Galo Ocampo, Lorenzo, Vicente Manansala, HR Ocampo, Anita Magasaysay, Cesar Legaspi, Demetrio Diego, Ricarte Puruganan, Jose Pardo, Bonifacio Cristobal and Arsenio Capili. Coming up with this list was an attempt to form a cohesive unit of artists who were in search of a modern style. Other achievements by Edades included him receiving the Pro Partia award during the Rizal Centennial Celebration in 1961. In 1964, Edades was given the Araw ng Maynila Award in Painting. In 1976, he was conferred the National Artist Award in Painting. On February 12, 1977, UST conferred on Edades the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa.

Edades retired to Davao City with his family. There he taught for a time at the Philippine Women’s College and resumed his career as an artist. He died on March 7, 1985.