Victorio Edades is a painter who was the leader of the Thirteen Moderns who engaged their classical compatriots in heated debate over the nature and function of art. He was named a National Artist in 1976.

VICTORINO EDADES

Edades studied at the University of Washington where he took up architecture and later earned a Master of Fine Arts in Painting. Here Edades encountered a travelling exhibition presenting modern European artists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and the Surrealists.

When he returned to the Philippines in 1928. He recognized that there was limited creativity and that the artists of that time were merely copying each other. Edades sparked a debate between modern and classical art. The "Thirteen Moderns" was a list of artists which included Edades as an attempt to form a cohesive unit of artists who were in search of a modern style.

Edades work were a major contrast from the works of the Amorsolo and the Classicists who painted bright cheery scenes of flawless Filipinos and their idealized daily routines. Edades, on the other hand, presented figures in muddy earth colours - yellow ochres and raw sienna accented by bold black contours. Subjects are distorted figures.

13 December 1895

to 7 March 1985