With over 50 exhibiting galleries from here and abroad and hundreds of artworks in all shapes and sizes, colors and texture — works made in the ’60s forwarding to the present, Art Fair Philippines 2026 displayed a glimpse of the history and development of Philippine modern and contemporary art and a whiff of art happening outside the country.
The primary goal of art fairs is to showcase premier modern and contemporary visual arts to boost local talent and accessibility. Similar art fairs are held in a number of major cities in the world — Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Miami, London, etc.
The impact of new technologies and the current social and political unrest in the world has generated a shift towards art, a form of psychic centering that helps in making sense of what’s happening today.
The only way I could digest the whole visual experience of Art Fair Philippines and make sense of what I saw, I felt a need to view it from a macro standpoint, mentally distinguishing works that resonated with me as a viewer, skipping those that felt impersonal and almost clinically aesthetic. With this in mind, I cannot help but see the dividing line between "Art for art's sake" and “Art from the heart.”
"Art for art's sake" pushes the idea that art has intrinsic value and needs no external justification, while “Art from the heart" highlights art as a medium for genuine emotional and personal expression and connection with the audience.
In the 19th-century figures like Oscar Wilde and Théophile Gautier, argued for the autonomy of art.
According to them, art's value is intrinsic, based purely on its own aesthetic and formal qualities such as line, color, composition… and that art should stand alone — independent of all social, political, moral, or educational responsibility. From this point of view, art is seen as a pursuit of beauty for beauty's sake, an end in itself.
Conversely, “Art from the heart” believes that art has a deep human and social purpose, often linked to the artist's inner life. It is a powerful way for an artist to get in touch and express his "deepest truths" and to share his genuine inner feelings therefore creating a sense of connection and universality with his audience, creating a direct impact on human life — a form of social and moral function.
Leo Tolstoy, like the Greek philosopher Plato, believed art is too important to be judged in terms of art alone. Because art is capable of making people better or worse, the social and ethical consequences of art must be considered in judgments about art.
Pseudo-art comes from insincerity, or the attempt to create a work of art that does not grow from an actual experience or feeling. These types of artists try to imitate historically accepted art in the hope of achieving recognition but who have nothing to communicate.
The final judgment on a work of art must be a moral judgment as well as an aesthetic judgment. Tolstoy writes, “The estimation of the value of art (or rather, of the feelings it transmits) depends on men’s perception of the meaning of life; depends on what they hold to be the good and evil of life.”
