Filipino women artists

Filipino women artists started contributing to Philippine art when the Philippines was still a colonial province of Spain (1521–1898). They have continued to participate as art creators after World War II through modern times by either following the traditional way of making art or by departing from such tradition by embracing modernism and other modes of expressing themselves through art.

Spanish era (1521–1898)

Sculpting

The first Filipino woman to achieve a level of prominence in the art world, while the Philippines was under the management of Spain, was sculptor Pelagia Mendoza y Gotianquin (1867-1939). The first female student at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (Academy of Drawing and Painting), Mendoza studied sculpting under the mentorship of Agustin Saez and Lorenzo Rocha. Her bust of Christopher Columbus won an award during the quattrocentenial celebration of the Discovery of the Americas.

Painting

In the field of painting in the Philippines, the works of art of Carmen Zaragoza y Rojas became notable. Zaragoza was the painter of the masterpiece known as Dos Inteligentias (literally “Two Intellectuals”, 1892), a painting that won Zaragoza a prize during the 1892 anniversary of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the Americas. Two years later, during the 1895 Exposicion Regional de Filipinas (1895 Regional Exposition in the Philippines), Zaragoza would be awarded a copper medal for creating two landscapes.

Other notable Filipino women painters during the time of Zaragoza were Concha Paterno, Adele Paterno, Conception de Montilla, Patricia Reyes, Ana Garcia Plana, Josefa Majo, Concepcion Ortiz, Olimpia Teran de Abella, Rafaella Calanta, and Femina David.

Another woman painter who excelled in the field of art in the Philippines was Paz Paterno.