M61 Kaisahan

Kaisahan Manifesto (1976)

Kaisahan (Solidarity) were an assorted group of revolutionary left-leaning Filipino artists based in Manila and led by the figurative painter Pablo Baen Santos (b. 1943). They came together in the late 1960s in opposition to the government-backed Cultural Centre of the Philippines (CCP), whose slogan was ‘The true, the good and the beautiful’, as part of a wider struggle against the Marcos regime and US cultural imperialism within the country. Inspired by Marxist doctrines, the group held workshops and lectures that advocated a national artistic identity based on scientific principles. Like the Artists’ Front of Thailand (M57), they believed that abstract art was bourgeois; instead, art should draw its energy from the life and aspirations of the people. Paintings were bold, graphic, Socialist Realist images depicting the corruption of politicians and the plight of the workers. They took their art to the countryside and to shanty towns, staging exhibitions in places that were easily accessible to the poor.

Kaisahan’s manifesto was written and circulated on 6 December 1976, at the opening of the group’s first exhibition ‘Truth, Relevance and Contemporary’ (Katotohanan, Kabuluhan, Kasalukuyan) at the Ayala Museum in Makati. It argued for a national art that rejected both traditional Asian influences and the ‘slavish’ adoption of Western styles, and found its inspiration in the realities of contemporary Filipino society.

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We, the artists of the Kaisahan, commit ourselves to the search for national identity in Philippine art. We believe that national identity is not to be found in a nostalgic love of the past or an idealized view of our tradition and history. It cannot be achieved by using the common symbols of our national experience without understanding the reality that lies within them. We recognize that national identity, if it is to be more than lip service or an excuse for personal status seeking, should be firmly based on the present social realities and on a critical assessment of our historical past so that we may trace the roots of these realities.

We shall therefore develop an art that reflects the true conditions in our society.

This means, first of all, that we must break away from the Western-oriented culture that tends to maintain the Filipino people’s dependence on foreign goods, foreign tastes and foreign ways that are incompatible with their genuine national interests. We reject this culture insofar as it perpetuates values, habits, and attitudes that do not serve the people’s welfare, but we draw from it whatever is useful to their actual needs.

We shall therefore move away from the uncritical acceptance of Western molds, from the slavish imitation of Western forms that have no connection to our national life, from the preoccupation with Western trends that do not reflect the process of our development.

We realize that our search will be meaningless if it does not become a collective experience, an experience that is understood and shared by the broadest number of people. In its beginnings, art was not the isolated act that it is now; it was as necessary, as integral, a part of the people’s lives as the knowledge of when to plant.

For us, therefore, the question ‘for whom is art?’ is a crucial and significant one. And our experiences lead us to the answer that art is for the masses. It must not exist simply for the pleasures of the few who can afford it. It must not degenerate into the pastime of a few cultists.

We are aware of the contradictions that confront us in committing ourselves to this task. At present, under the conditions of our times, the audience who will view our works will mostly be the intellectuals, students, professionals and others who go to the galleries. But we wish to gradually transform our art [into one] that has a form understandable to the masses and a content that is relevant to their life. At present, it is inevitable that our art is sometimes commercialized. But we should use this as a means and not as an end for our artistic expressions.

Our commitments to these objectives need not mean that we limit ourselves to a specific form or a specific style. We may take different roads in the forms that we evolve and use but we all converge on the same objectives. The only limitation to our experimentation, to the play of our creative impulses, is the need to effectively communicate social realities to our chosen audiences.

To be true works of imagination, our works of art should not only reflect our perception of what is, but also our insights into what is to be. We grasp the direction in which they are changing, and imagine the shape of the future.

We shall therefore develop an art that not only depicts the life of the Filipino people but also seeks to uplift their condition. We shall develop an art that enables them to see the essence, the patterns behind the scattered phenomena and experience of our times. We shall develop an art that shows the unity of their interests and thus leads them to unite.

We issue this declaration of principles, knowing that today, it is not considered fashionable for artists to be serious, to have ideas, and to commit themselves to something more than their own personal pursuit of fame.

Therefore, we do not hope to find much favor among those who use art merely to decorate their walls or to escape from the barrenness of their existence. It is our hope that our works of art should, more than anything else, endure and that the spirit of our times should live in them and reach other generations.