Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Localization of the Madonna and Child Image in Philippine Modern Art | Public Lecture

The Asian Center will be holding a public lecture, “Localization of the Madonna and Child Image in Philippine Modern Art,” on Thursday, 12 March 2015, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Seminar Room, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In this lecture, Yuria Furusawa explores the creation and development of localized images of the Madonna and Child in the Philippines. Part of modern and contemporary artistic expressions and popular devotional images in many parts of Asia, these localized paintings are epitomized in the Philippines by “The Brown Madonna” (1938) by Galo Ocampo, one of the pioneers of Philippine modern art.

Drawing on field work in the Philippines and Japan, Furusawa’s lecture is based on art-historical research that positions images of the Madonna and Child as strategic localizations of Western iconography that express identities and cultural values and showcase a people’s somewhat self-orientalistic representations.  The local Madonnas also reveal how the people accepted and transformed the Western visual tradition to the extent that they interwove local and Western elements. This interweaving developed due to many factors, including the “invention of tradition” in modern nation states, for which images of a local woman in traditional dress represent the authenticity of the country’s tradition.

Yuria Furusawa is a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Osaka, Japan. This lecture is based on her dissertation research, part of which she is conducting as Visiting Fellow of the Asian Center, University of the Philippines.

Seating is limited and available only on a first-come, first-served basis, but an email expressing intent to come will be appreciated. For inquiries, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Photo: Lecture poster with image of "The Brown Madonna" (1938) by Galo Ocampo. Collection of UST Museum. 

The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian and in Philippine Studies. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.