Juan Nakpil

            Juan Felipe De Jesus Nakpil also known as Juan Nakpil (May 26, 1899 – May 7, 1986) was a Filipino architect, teacher, and community leader. He is the first National Artists for Architecture in the Philippines in the year 1973. He had his early education in Quiapo and Tondo before enrolling in Manila High School and graduating in 1917. He subsequently went to the University of the Philippines to study engineering. He also studied sculpture under Maestro Ocampo and freehand drawing, painting, and decorative arts with Fabian de la Rosa and Fernando Amorsolo while at UP. He moved to the United States two years later and enrolled in the University of Kansas, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering in 1922. He had already enrolled at Cornell University to study hydraulic engineering when he received a message from his uncle, Dr. Bautista Lin, who was paying for his entire education, recommending him to change courses. He travelled to France in the summer of 1925, following his uncle's advice, to study architecture at the Fountainbleau School of Fine Arts, where he got his diploma of architecture. The next year, he completed his architecture studies with a master's degree from Harvard University in Boston, thanks to a Joseph Evelynth fellowship. During his time at Harvard, he competed in a competition accessible to Boston Institute of Technology students, members of the Architects Club of Boston, and Harvard architecture students and he was the one who won in the said competition.

            The greatest contribution he shares in the field of architecture is that there is such a thing as Philippine Architecture, espousing architecture reflective of Philippine traditions and culture. Private Filipino architects and engineers are now allowed to participate in the design and execution of government projects, thanks to his passionate representation and efforts. In the buildings that make up the country's legacy today, he has combined strength, utility, and beauty. He created the altar for the 1937 International Eucharistic Congress, and in 1930, he renovated and expanded Quiapo Church, adding a dome and a second belfry to the original plan. Among others, Nakpil’s major works are the Geronimo de Los Reyes Building, Magsaysay Building, Rizal Theater, Capitol Theater, Captain Pepe Building, Manila Jockey Club, Rufino Building, Philippine Village Hotel, University of the Philippines Administration and University Library, and the reconstructed Rizal house in Calamba, Laguna.

Geronimo de los Reyes Building

Magsaysay Building

Rizal Theatre

University of the Philippines Administration and University Library (1/2)


University of the Philippines Administration and University Library (2/2)




Reference:

https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-philippines/juan-f-nakpil/

https://bahaynakpil.org/juanfnakpil/



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nikki Luna

Image
                Nikki Luna is a Filipino artist who is well-known for being a female voice in Philippine contemporary art. She makes esoteric sculptures and installations that resemble everyday things and materials but get a deeper focus via her technique, meanings that arise from struggling with women's identity, history, and challenges. Intimate stories of vulnerable and underprivileged Filipinas, as well as the mechanisms that perpetuate oppression against them, for example, intertwine with her process. The phrases "lady of the house" are embroidered into cowhide using hair strands collected from Filipina migrant laborers in Egypt.                The phrases are nearly invisible as they blend with the stretched skin of a domestic labor animal, alluding to the cruel conditions of these laborers, whose rights and passports are revoked in order to serve their mistresses. Luna has poured her skills into projects that aid women and children who are victims of gender-based v
Read more

Napoleon Abueva

Image
               Napoleon V. Abueva, a Bohol native, was the youngest National Artist awardee at the time, at the age of 46. Abueva called the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture," was instrumental in shaping the local sculpture landscape into what it is today. He has worked with a wide range of materials, including hardwood (molave, acacia, langka wood, ipil, kamagong, palm wood, and bamboo) as well as adobe, metal, stainless steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron, alabaster, coral, and brass. Abueva developed "buoyant sculpture" - art designed to be viewed from the surface of a tranquil pool — as one of his early ideas in 1951. Abueva had a one-man performance at the Philippine Center in New York in the 1980s. His sculptures have been displayed in a variety of institutions both domestically and internationally, including The Sculpture at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.                He is called the father of modern Philippine Sculpture for a reas
Read more

Benedicto Cabrera

Image
               Benedicto Cabrera was born on April 10, 1942, in Malabon, Philippines, and studied at the University of the Phillippines. In 1963, he won first prize for his oil painting of a talipapa, or market, in a student competition, and was hired soon after by the national paper as its Sunday illustrator. Cabrera’s first exhibition of oil and acrylic paintings was held at the Indigo Gallery in Mabini in 1965, years have passed and his career become successful,   he, therefore, built a museum where he can showcase his permanent works as well as features other artworks of other great artists.                The BenCab Museum is named after the gallery’s main artist, painter, and printmaker Benedicto Cabrera. The museum houses the permanent collection of Philippine National Artist Benedicto Cabrera (aka BenCab) within the three-level beautifully laid-out building and It also features some of the Filipino masters and rising contemporary artists.   He is a National Artist who has share
Read more