Art Works at Palma Hall
The Arts and Sciences
The mural at the AS Lobby, entitled "The Arts and Sciences", was made by National Artist, Vicente Manansala in 1960. With a length of 14 meters and a width of 2 meters, "The Arts and Sciences" is the biggest mural in the UP Diliman Campus.
AS Lobby Terrazo Granolithic Floor Design
The floor of the AS Lobby has a terrazzo granolithic design. It was also made by Vicente Manansala to match the mural. Its pattern of test tubes and abstract designs incorporates the college's two merged fields: the arts and the sciences. The material used to construct this design was granite.
Isandaang Taon sa Bukang-Liwayway
The mural at the second floor lobby was made by the University of the Philippines Artists' Circle (UPAC) Fraternity in 1996. The project was headed by former UPAC head Jan Carmichael Calleja.
According to Calleja, the title of the mural is "Isandaang Taon sa Bukang-Liwayway", not "Mga Natatanging Pilipino" as stated in the marker at the second floor lobby.
The UPAC was commissioned by the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) through former CSSP dean Consuelo J. Paz, with the recommendation of then College of Fine Arts (CFA) dean Nestor Vinluan and CFA college secretary Reuben Defeo.
The UPAC willingly took on the huge project with the theme "What is UP in relation to society?", which anticipated the Philippine Centennial celebration in 1998. The organization submitted a watercolor study to the CSSP which the college then approved. For the project, the UPAC was given a budget of around P 70,000.
UPAC artists worked long hours on the mural and some even camped at the second floor lobby. It was finished in three months.
"Isandaang Taon sa Bukang-Liwayway"
Working on the theme "What is UP in relation to society?", UPAC decided to show UP as being "at the center" of significant revolutionary events in the country, although this is not meant to be taken literally as some events depicted in the mural happened before UP was founded.
In the mural, the Oblation (symbolizing "pahinungod") at sunrise ("bukang-liwayway") symbolizes enlightenment or "kamulatan" at the need of the country for revolutionary change, with UP playing a vital role. The artists also wanted to send the message that even as UP approaches its own centennial year (2008), it is waking up to a new epoch (the Oblation at dawn with arms outstretched mimics a person waking up at sunrise); there are infinite possibilities, as the history of Philippine revolutionary events has shown. The placement of Andres Bonifacio at the center of the mural reflects UP student activism.
The mural did not adopt a particular style however the artists specifically veered away from abstraction and non-representation, and instead employed figuration and representation.