Alice Guillermo


Alice G. Guillermo was a Filipino art historian, critic, academic, and author.

Life and works

Guillermo was born in Manila on January 6, 1938. She received a BA in Education degree in 1957 from the College of the [Holy Spirit Manila|College of Holy Ghost]. As a scholar of the French government in art history and literature at the University of Aix-Marseille in Aix-en-Provence, she completed the Certificat d’Études Littéraires Générales, the Certificat de Séminaire d’Études Supérieures with a study of the French nouveau roman, “La Modification par Michel Butor: Thèmes et Structures”, and the Diplôme de Langue et Lettres Françaises, also with Honours, in 1967. She received her PhD in Philippine Studies from the University of [the Philippines Diliman].
She is best known for her extensive body of art criticism and academic texts on the subject of Philippine art, which academics credit for having significantly informed the writing of both art history and art theory in Southeast Asia.
A board member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines and a member of the Cultural Research Association of the Philippines, she taught at and chaired the Art Studies department of the College of Arts and Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Among her most influential books are Social Realism in the Philippines, Images of Change, The Covert Presence and Other Essays on Politics and Culture, Protest/Revolutionary Art in the Philippines, 1970–1990, and Image to Meaning: Essays on Philippine Art. In a tribute to her, Jose Maria Sison wrote, "She and her works will live on both as significant contributions to the cumulative revolutionary tradition of art and literature and as inspirational guide to the revolutionary artists and creative writers of this and further generations."
In 2020, the Philippine Contemporary Art Network published Frisson: The Collected Criticism of Alice Guillermo, a posthumous anthology of Guillermo's critical essays. The Cultural Center of the Philippines, recognized her contributions by granting her its highest award posthumously, the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 2020.
She was married to the revolutionary poet and critic Gelacio Guillermo and had two children, Sofia Guillermo and Ramon Guillermo.

Selected published works

  • Frisson: The Collected Criticism of Alice Guillermo.
  • "Marxism and Ideological Strategies," In: Tadem, Teresa S. Encarnacion and Laura L. Samson, Marxism in the Philippines: Continuing Engagements.
  • Image to Meaning: Essays on Philippine Art.
  • Protest/Revolutionary Art in the Philippines, 1970-1990.
  • "Mao Zedong's Revolutionary Aesthetics and its Influence on the Philippine Struggle," In: Jose Maria Sison & Stefan Engels, Mao Zedong Thought Lives Essays in Commemoration of Mao’s Centennial,
  • Sining Biswal: An Essay on the American Colonial and Contemporary Traditions in Philippine Visual Arts.
  • Color in Philippine Life and Art.
  • Cebu: A Heritage of Art.
  • Iskultura sa Pilipinas: Mula Anito hanggang Assemblage at iba pang Sanaysay.
  • The Covert Presence and Other Essays on Politics and Culture.
  • Images of Change, Essays and Reviews.
  • Social Realism in the Philippines.
  • Art Perception and Appreciation.