THE UST Museum launched an exhibit of visual artworks inspired by the Filipino tradition, “Orasyon” or the Angelus prayer, at its main gallery on Oct. 3, marking the start of the University’s participation in the National Museums and Galleries Month.
The “Orasyon: Dasal ng Pamilyang Pilipino” exhibit featured paintings from the visual arts collections of the UST Museum and art collector Ron David.
“This exhibition is not only a celebration of art and beauty, but [a] manifestation of the importance and deep meaning of prayer in our lives as Christians,” David said.
The art collector said he and UST Museum Director Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P. thought of holding the exhibit after hearing the Angelus in UST.
“Most of the paintings [are] really famil[ies] praying together; that’s what I want people to practice,” David told the Varsitarian.
Among the works featured in the exhibit was “Orasyon,” a 41.6×31.6-in. oil painting by National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco, which shows a Filipino family kneeling and praying together.
On the opposite side of Francisco’s piece was Jose de los Reyes’s “Pater Noster,” a 28.8×32.6-in. painting which won the inaugural UST On-the-Spot Painting Competition.
Apart from paintings of Filipinos praying, artworks of angels were also featured in the Orasyon exhibit, like Robert Shook’s 36×48-in. oil painting, “Angelus.”
Thomasian artists’ interpretations of the Angelus were also part of the exhibit, like Raul Isidro’s 24×18-in. acrylic abstract painting “The Angelus,” which represents the prayer through “timbers of mother earth.”
An altar or prayer room was also mounted at the center of the Orasyon exhibit.
David said he hoped the exhibit’s portrayals of the Angelus would “communicate even further” the prayer’s importance in Filipino Catholic traditions.
“Visual arts will really help promote [the Angelus prayer] because students, parishioners, lay people–they easily relate [with art],” he said. “So with these paintings, they can visualize what we mean by Orasyon.”
UST Museum Assistant Director John Sayco said that he would like Thomasians to “get to know Orasyon in a much deeper sense” and “enjoy the objects that depict [it]” through the exhibit.
As part of the celebration of Museums and Galleries Month in the country, the UST Museum offered free admission for the whole of October.
The “Orasyon: Dasal ng Pamilyang Pilipino” ran until Oct. 30. Jan Alyanna G. Tamaray
