It was an accidental discovery, which made it all the more pleasant.
I went to the Government Services Insurance System headquarters at Diosdado Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City to accompany someone and happily found out that they had a museum of art. Anyone can go in for free!
Paintings of all sizes and colors can be found here. Incidentally, February is national arts month so they have all kinds of activities lined up, along with a lecture series on Juan Luna called the Parisian Life lecture. It is held every Wednesday which will end on March 24. They also hold their GSIS art competition annually and exhibit the winning pieces on the museum. For music lovers, fear not for they also have a concert series every Thursday.
Established in April 1996, the GSIS Museum ng Sining is a tribute to the creativity of Filipino artists. Its vision is to help define the growth and glorious flowing of Philippine visual art. Its objectives are to collect Philippine art and artistic expressions from the colonial period up to the present, to exhibit and document Philippine and non-Philippine art and artistic expressions and to heighten art appreciation among the GSIS personnel in particular, and the general public.
There are worls by National Artists Fernando C. Amorsolo, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Vicente S. Manansala, Hernando Ocampo and many others with Federico Alcuaz’ tapestries hung on walls.
Arguably the most popular painting in the museum is the “Parisian Life” done by Juan Luna. The GSIS was able to bid for this piece at an auction at the JW Marriot Hotel in Hong Kong in October 2002. It depicts a French woman sitting in a restaurant in Paris while Dr. Jose Rizal, Juan Luna, and Dr. Ariston Bautista Lin are talking on the table behind her.
All in all it was a wonderful art experience. For someone like me who is not artsy at all, finding art in the most unexpected places never fails to make my day!
Jomie Jean O. Apostol
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