Gazing Upon the Other: The Politics of Representing the Igorot in Philippine Modernism

Abstract

Philippine modernism and the artwork of Victorio Edades, Galo Ocampo, and Carlos Francisco, known collectively as the Triumvirate of Philippine modernism, are often discussed in terms of formal artistic aspects. The formalist analysis of modernist paintings does not consider the contributions of American colonialism and collaborating elites to the symbolic politics of Philippine painting during the 1920s and 1930s. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the polyvalent nature of the gaze in the paintings of the Triumvirate of modern Philippine art in relation to the image of the ethnic, Philippine “Other,” also known as the Igorot. Emphasised in this thesis are the development and use of American colonial racial formations that allowed Philippine cultural and political elites to deploy the discourse of “Othering” to refine, perform, and perpetuate the presumed characteristics of civilisation associated with Hispanic-Catholic Philippine culture.