Abdulmari Asia Imao
Getting Started
the first Muslim recipient of the Philippine National Artist Award – a sculptor and painter who fused traditional Islamic design with Modernist patterns to result in vivid works that yearn for local color and the dream of a unified nation, died peacefully in his sleep last December 16 at his house in Marikina City.
Story of his Life
The Story
He was 78 years old. Known for his unique adaptation of traditional Muslim Mindanaon motifs, such as the ukkil (sinuous relief woodcarving tradition found in houses and boats), the naga (sea serpent motif ), pako rabong (fern motif ), and sarimanok (mythical bird-with-fish figure), Mari, as he was called by friends and family, persevered to unite an innate sense to continue the carving and painting traditions of his Tausug forebears with a more Modern sensibility that created abstracted patterns for sculpture and painting that combines these motifs with Cubism. In addition, Mari was one of few Muslim-Filipino artists who would work on the figurative genre in sculpture, which is often discouraged because of the Koranic strictures against the representation of human figures.
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Hear It From Him
Abdulmari Asia Imao was born to an impoverished Tausug couple in Siasi, Sulu on January 14, 1936. Originally surnamed as Allih, after his Arabian forebears which originated from the Medina, Red Sea coast sometime in the 19th Century, Mari was renamed Asia Imao on his mother’s side after his mother consulted an imam when a domestic tragedy left two of his sisters dead. He was then adopted by his maternal uncle, the renowned guerilla and war hero Captain Abdulrahim Imao, under whose roof he would then live and study. Mari finished at the Jolo Central Elementary School and the Sulu Trade School, while working to earn this education by selling icedrops, ginataan, and peanuts in movie houses; working as a stonebreaker for road constructions; and as a stevedore in the Jolo pier.
Photos courtesy of Toym Imao
As a child, Mari would already be drawing on leaves of dapdap and banana, imitating and elaborating the traditional Muslim motifs of the ukkil, naga, and pako rabong. This would be sustained in his high school years at the Sulu Trade School, where he would construct wooden chairs and tables with sculptural details. Mari’s formal introduction to art came in 1954, when a Landing Ship Transport (LST) from Manila arrived at Jolo pier bearing an exhibition of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). While viewing this travelling exhibit, Mari would meet then-AAP Secretary and painter Tomas Bernardo, who was impressed by the young Tausug’s nascent artistic talents. Bernardo encouraged him to seek his fortunes in Manila, and with only the clothes on his back, Mari returned with Bernardo to Manila, and stayed with him in Tondo to work as his handyman and stretcher. Mari applied at the UP School of Fine Arts in 1955, and handily passed the entrance exam. Recommended by Professor Dominador Castañeda, Mari approached President Ramon Magsaysay for a pensionado grant as a Moro student as he did not have any money then.Though he did not get the grant that year, his perseverance drew the attention of Magsaysay’s personal secretary Jose Ma. Ansaldo, who paid for his school fees. Through the help of Mr. Ansaldo, who eventually secured his pensionado grant, and donations from other kind teachers and mentors, Mari flourished as a UP student artist under mentors like the classicist Anastacio Caedo and the Modernist Napoleon Abueva, winning the 1956 art exhibition sponsored by the UP-SCA for “Inah Iban Anak” – a Muslim version of the Madonna and Child – and the AAP’s 10th Southeast Asian Art Exhibition and Competition for “Muslim Prayer.” Abdulmari also became an accomplished photographer and staffer of The Philippinensian, UP’s now-defunct annual yearbook.