Geronimo Cristobal

Month: May 2026

  • ‘Paskil’ and the Speaking Monument

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    José Rizal titles the 26th chapter of his second novel El Filibusterismo “Pasquinades.” The term refers to anonymous satirical writings, insults, accusations, or political commentaries publicly posted in urban spaces. In the novel, rumours and inflammatory texts circulate through Manila following fears of student unrest and revolution. The people became anxious as the city is…

  • From the Archives: Art Collection, Imelda Marcos Style

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    By Fox Butterfield, Special To the New York Times/ The New York Times Archives March 12, 1986 Imelda Marcos routinely took large numbers of paintings from a major museum here to display in her houses around the Philippines, a team of Government inspectors found today. ”She’d come and pick things up whenever she wanted, even…

  • Erased Fernando Zobel mural at Parish of the Holy Sacrifice (1953-1955)

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    I visited the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines yesterday and tried to find out the exact location of Fernando Zóbel’s now erased mural. Completed in 1955, the circular church brought together some of the most important figures in Philippine modernism: architecture by Leandro Locsin, sculpture by Napoleon Abueva, floor…

  • Is Art History?

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    Just found out there’s a new book gathering the writings of Svetlana Alpers: Svetlana Alpers: Is Art History? A fitting title for someone who fundamentally changed how many of us think about pictures, surfaces, description, Dutch art, and the discipline itself. Includes selected writings, a foreword by Barney Kulok, an introduction by Richard Meyer, and…

  • Mikhail Tikhonovich Tikhanov: a Russian artist in Manila (1819)

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    During the Manila stop of Captain V.M. Golovnin’s 1817–1819 circumnavigation aboard the sloop Kamchatka, the expedition artist Mikhail T. Tikhanov produced a series of drawings from direct observation, of which only three Manila scenes are known to survive. An Indian in Manila Took Tikhanov’s Hat and Ran Away, Malays Arey and Thomas from the Island…