Pananaw-The Philippine Journal of Visual Arts

Though it's considered a periodical, Pananaw (Vision), the Philippine Journal for Visual Arts, is printed as a slick hardbound book. Each page is designed well and features beautiful art, it will be a shame to print it on anything less. Published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the journal gives the public access to beautiful and provocative artwork. It also provides insight and history of Filipino Art.

Despite it's exquisite presentation, it doesn't come out regularly. It's first issue came out in 1997 and its fourth issue only came out in 2002. It's not cheap either, at $60, it's not exactly a price for the public the book wishes to reach.

In the first book, here are some interesting excerpts:

The Pinoy Visual Artist and the Asia Pacific Century by Emmanuel Torres

"With the rise of Folk Modernists, the Angono Group and Social Realism, narrative/didactic approaches to artwork increased, specially in nationalist protest art under the Marcos regime, Exponents of mixed media flourished as much as of installation work using indigenous materials-found objects, ready mades, junk- and drawing inspiration from folk ethnic and popular sources. Native themes and images persisted to form the basis of a more assertive nationalism, or 'Filipinism'..."

ASEAN Aesthetics by Paul Blanco Zafaralla

"The pluralism that define Philippine aesthetics is a verdict of its long period of cultural history. Through the centuries, several cultures imploded into the country from animism to the present demands of the cyberage.

Ancient Philippine aesthetics was inscribed on bamboo nodes, farm and household implements, on outer walls of houses, etc. Spaces were almost always filled up with shapes-major and minutiae.

During the 333 years of the Hispanic period, Filipino aesthetic sense was almost always riveted on Jesus Christ, thereby revealing the people's Christocentric culture."