Philippine History & Art through the Lopez Museum & Library

Lopez Museum & Library opened its doors to the public for free last Saturday to celebrate National Museums and Galleries Month. I'm a sucker for freebies, plus I've never been to Lopez Museum and I also wanted to check out their library, so when I saw the event on Facebook, I instantly added it to my calendar.

Come Saturday, I got lazy, as always. I sleep in on Saturdays when I don't have a class. But I really wanted to go so I figured I could go in the afternoon to catch the guided tour at 2pm. I'll be done in time to go to Taft to meet with friends and celebrate Karen's birthday in advance. It also rained, but I managed to go out, albeit late.

When I got to the museum, luckily, there was still a guided tour, so I caught up with them while the museum staff/guide was talking about this Juan Luna painting:

Did not really pay much attention to the guide's explanation/anecdotes, because I went to the other room to check out another gallery. Anyway, that room where the Luna painting is also contains relics from the Exposición Filipina held in Madrid, Spain in 1887 (not so sure about the year).

The next gallery displays an artwork by Liv Vinluan entitled "Ang Cabilogan nang Isang Cuadranggulo." It is a prototype of the corset/terno Filipinas wore in the 19th century. It is part of the Exposition exhibit.

Tiny, tiny waistline

by Liv Vinluan

More of the Exposition exhibit:

The next galleries house the "Two Halves of a Whole" exhibit by Juan Sanso.

This one's from a letter by Sanso to a certain Lopez.

Even the toilet has art!

This sculpture at the lobby greets the museum-goers.