Sunday, January 7, 2018

De Venecia seeks establishment of Edades and Bernal Museum

DAGUPAN CITY---Pangasinan 4th district Rep. Christopher de Venecia seeks to establish  a museum in this city to serve as repository for masterpieces of national artists Victorio Edades and Salvador Bernal, both Dagupeños.
Image result for Edades and Bernal dagupan
Victorio Edades
De Venecia said in the recent Barangay Night of the Dagupan City fiesta that this is in the offing as he has filed a bill in Congress for this purpose.

He said the bill has already undergone committee hearing and is on its way to second reading.

He added he has found a counterpart in the Senate to support this measure. "Hopefully this would be passed this 2018 so that hopefully it could be funded for construction in 2019," De Venecia said.

De Venecia said other artworks of up and coming artists would also be displayed in the museum once it is constructed.

He said the National Historical Commission and the National Museum are helping him on this.

In his House Bill No.. 5518 titled "Establishing the Edades and Bernal Museum in the City of Dagupan, Province of Pangasinan and Appropriating Funds therefor", De Venecia said the establishment of such museum shall be undertaken 
by the local government unit under the guidance of the National Museum.

He said Article 14 Section 15 of the Constitution affirms that, "Arts and letter shall enjoy the patronage of the State. The State shall conserve, promote and popularize the nation's historical and cultural heritage and resources, as well as artistic creations".

In the explanatory note of his proposed bill, De Venecia said that Dagupan City is the home of two distinguished national artists, Victorio Edades and Salvador Bernal.


De Venecia explained the following in his bill: Edades, known as the Father of Modern Philippine Painting, was born in Barangay Bolosan.In his younger years, his natural ability to create and appreciate arts was so evident that he was merely even called as the "apprentice teacher". After finishing high school, he traveled to the United States to further master his craft. From there, he acquired techniques that veered him away from the conservative academic art. From Impressionism and Realism, he gradually changed his style adopting the Modernist thought.

Edades participated in various competitions in America and won awards. But when he returned back to the Philippines, his art did not gain much appreciation from the Filipinos.Not one painting was sold in an exhibit in the Philippine Columbia Club in Ermita. A lot of critics were shaken by the style of his paintings which were in the form of distorted human figures in rough, bold impasto strokes. But firm on what he believed was creative art, he stood tall in his advocacy, which was later on embraced by many artists.

Salvador "Badong" F. Bernal is a master of contemporary Filipino theater design. He was able to design more than 300 productions that were distinguished for their originality since 1969. Fully aware of the limitations of productions in terms of  budget and resources, he innovatively and creatively used inexpensive local materials like bamboo, raw abaca and abaca fiber, hemp twine, rattan chain links and gauze cacha.

Badong Bernal did not keep his talent to himself. He decided to share his skills with the younger designers by conducting classes at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University. He also created programs for the CPP Production Design Center and organized the PATDAT (Philippine Association of Theater Designers and Technicians) in 1995 to promote and professionalize theater design.  

Bernal was born in Dagupan City, studied at the West Central Elementary School here where he graduated in 1962 as class valedictorian, the Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, cum laude, in 1966, and the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A. where he obtained a master’s degree in Fine Arts (major in theater arts) in 1972.--#

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