NATIONAL ARTIST FOR MUSIC AND THEATER (1987)
HONORATA "ATANG" DELA RAMA
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She was formally honored as the Queen of Kundiman in 1979, then already 74 years old singing the same song (“Nabasag na Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year old girl in the sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very first actress in the very first locally produced Filipino film when she essayed the same role in the sarsuela’s film version. As early as age seven, Atang was already being cast in Spanish zarzuelas such as Mascota, Sueño de un Vals, and Marina. She counts the role though of an orphan in Pangarap ni Rosa as her most rewarding and satisfying role that she played with realism, the stage sparkling with silver coins tossed by a teary-eyed audience. Atang firmly believes that the sarswela and the kundiman expresses best the Filipino soul, and has even performed kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other Lumad of Mindanao.
Atang firmly believes that the sarswela and the kundiman expresses best the Filipino soul, and had even performed kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other Lumad of Mindanao.
Among the kundiman and the other songs she premiered or popularized were Pakiusap, Ay, Ay Kalisud, Kung Iibig Ka and Madaling Araw by Jose Corazon de Jesus, and Mutya ng Pasig by Deogracias Rosario and Nicanor Abelardo. She also wrote her own sarswelas: Anak ni Eba, Aking Ina, and Puri at Buhay.
NATIONAL ARTIST IN ARCHITECTURE (1976)
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PABLO SEVERO ANTONIO,SR.
He pioneered modern Philippine Architecture. His architecture adapts the Art Deco techniques which is dominant motif during his time. His design is based on simplicity and clean structural design. The lines are clean and smooth, and where there are curves, these are made integral to the structure. He believes that function come first before elegance. Antonio's design focus on the maximum use of natural light and cross ventilation, He strives to make each building unique, avoiding obvious trademarks. Antonio himself has been quoted as stating that "buildings should be planned with austerity in mind and its stability forever as the aim of true architecture, that buildings must be progressive, simple in design but dignified, true to a purpose without resorting to an applied set of aesthetics and should eternally recreate truth".
Antonio was born in Binondo, Manila in 1901, orphaned by age of 12 and did part time job in daytime to supplement his study at night. He studied architecture in Mapua Institute of Technology and later transfer to University of London after securing scholarship from
the engineer in charge in Legislative Building (now National Museum of the Philippines where Antonio assist in the design .
In 1933, he designed the Ideal Theater in Avenida, Rizal Avenue which is one of his major works that made him prominent in architecture. The founder of Far Eastern University, Nicanor Reyes, deal with him to make several buildings in the campus. The FEU campus is considered as the largest ensemble of surviving Art Deco architecture in Manila, and in 2005, it received an Honorable Mention citation from the UNESCO for the body's 2005 Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.
Antonio's other major projects includes Manila Polo Club in 1950, Lyric Theater, Galaxy Theater, Life Theater, Scala Theater, Ramon Roces Publications Building (now Guzman College of Science and Technology), Capitan Luis Gonzaga Building, Boulevard-Alhambra apartments in 1937 (now Bel-Air) and White Cross Sanitarium in 1938.
In 1976, he was he was named National Artist of the Philippines, he was only the second architect so honored, after his contemporary, Juan Nakpil.
