Botong at the NMPFA

“Filipino Struggles Through History” National Artist for Painting Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco’s (1912-1969) mural commissioned in 1968 for Manila City Hall by Mayor Antonio J. Villegas. Mural is said to be Botong’s “greatest extant work of art.”

Three of the original four paintings, consisting of seven separate panels, are on exbihit at the Old Senate Session Hall (3/F) of the National Museum of Fine Arts this 15 February 2019.

Filipino Struggle shows “rich tapestry of rhythm, boldness, inventiveness interwoven with the vibrancy of Philippine folklore”

Characteristics of works: “lush tropical sense of color, abiding faith in folk values” typified in his hometown Angono

• A poet of Angono. Went to school at UP School of Fine Arts
• Revived the art of mural painting
• Filipino Struggle “turned historic past into records of historic courage”
• Associated with modernist Filipino artists Victorio Edades and Galo Ocampo
• Honored with the National Artist for Painting in 1973, second recipient of the recognition after Fernando C. Amorsolo, the Grand Old Man of Philippine Art