Exhibitions

Collections

Virtual Tour

Events

Newsroom

Ateneo Art Awards

About

Search

MON - SAT: 9 AM – 5 PM

Closed on regular and University holidays

Schedule Your Visit

Exhibitions

Collections

Virtual Tour

Events

Newsroom

Ateneo Art Awards

About

Search

Visit

Born on January 26, 1930 in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Napoleon Veloso Abueva was a sculptor known for his works that explore the use of a variety of materials, such as molave, langka, kamagong, palm, adobe, coral, and cement. Abueva pursued Sculpture at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts in 1950 as a Pura Villanueva-Kalaw scholar, where he met and was mentored by National Artist and sculptor Guillermo Tolentino — known for creating the famous oblation found at the entrance of the UP Diliman campus. Abueva would later be commissioned by UP to recreate the iconic monument for the Los Baños, Davao, Tacloban, and Miag-ao campuses.

While still a student at UP, Abueva had already been receiving awards from various Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) competitions, among them the First Prize at the 1951 AAP Semi-Annual Competition and the 1952 AAP Annual Art Competition. After graduating, he pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Cranbrook Academy of Art as a Fulbright scholar, as well as courses from the University of Kansas and Harvard University.

Skilled in both the academic representational style and modern abstract, Abueva’s works range in form and type, from large-scale monuments and busts, to furniture and even playgrounds. Among his innovations was the “buoyant sculpture,” introduced in 1951 to refer to sculptures best appreciated from the surface of a placid pool.

Abueva was recorded to be the youngest artist to receive the National Artist for Sculpture award in 1976, at 46 years old. He passed away on February 16, 2018 at the age of 88.