LUZ’ “LARGE PAINTINGS, ANCIENT CITIES AND PERFORMERS” RUNS AUGUST 24 TO SEPTEMBER 9 AT GALERIE JOAQUIN MAIN
As a tribute to the highly successful results of his works at the international auctions on Southeast Asian Paintings by Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Galerie Joaquin is presenting a show of unique works by National Artist Arturo Luz. The show’s concept focuses on several large paintings done by the master over the years that have not been available in the market for sometime now.
Last April, a 2003 24” x 48” work by Luz titled “Three Black Objects” was sold at S$22,000.00 or approximately P660,000.00 in Singapore by Sotheby’s while last year during his 80th birth anniversary, a 1957 work sized 45” x 32” was put by Christie’s on the cover of their auction catalogue and this piece sold for approximately P4.2Million.
Titled “Large Paintings, Performers and Ancient Cities”, the show’s main focus are on seven (7) works sized 48” x 60” or 4’ x 5’. These are two (2) works on “Borobodur” (1992), two (2) “Cities of the Past” (1999) and three (3) “Performers” (1999). Aside from the seven large paintings, included in the show are 24 smaller works: 12 works on Ancient Cities and 12 works on Performers.
Galerie Joaquin Main is located at 371 P. Guevarra St. cor. Montessori Lane, Addition Hills, San Juan, Metro Manila. Tel. nos. 723-9253, 723-9418 and 727-8182. E-mail: info@galeriejoaquin.com. Or visit website: www.galeriejoaquin.com.
The inspiration for the main piece “Borobodur” as well as for the “Cities of the Past” series started from Luz’s 1988 extended visit to various Asian countries. He visited sites of ancient cities and temples. These included Sukhathai in Thailand, Borobodur in Indonesia and Ankor Wat in Cambodia. With these visits, he brought his early interest in city scapes to a different and much higher level. Art writer Cid Reyes writing in the book Arturo Luz describes what happened next. “Inspired by his Asian travels, Luz constructed a utopian architecture out of the ancient temples, forts and palaces that have survived the onslaught of warriors, olden and contemporary, and the ravages of weather and time.”
Luz describes the resultant paintings as recollections of his Asian pilgrimage. “They are not literal, but rather composite images from memory.”
In the book, Arturo Luz by noted art critic and biographer Cid Reyes, Luz recalls having started painting cyclists sometime in the early 1950s. He had seen someone riding a bicycle with a man seated front at the handlebar with a passenger behind him. He found this scene “so Filipino” that he made a painting out of it. He added a tooting horn to one of the figures and called it Bagong Taon. He has been painting cyclists ever since.
During the same period, there were people who would go door-to-door around Metro Manila, usually in pairs; with an odd combination of musical instruments such as cymbals and horn, clarinet and drum, usually playing some form of unintelligible jazz. It was to capture scenes like these that Luz started his Musikero series.
In Spain, while on a study grant from the Instituto de Cultura Hispanico, he likewise saw a group of Spanish musicians, which created a lasting impression. He has, since painted musicians.
The acrobats came into his paintings sometime in 1954. He first painted them as if in a totem pole, standing one on top of the other.
It is these musicians, cyclists and acrobats that have become the main subjects of his now highly popular Performers series.
Luz was named National Artist for Painting in 1997. He studied at the UST School of Fine Arts, then received a scholarship at the California College of Arts and Craft in Oakland for three-year diploma in art program. He continued his education at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York in 1950 and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris in 1951.
Luz is recognized worldwide. He is a three-time first prize winner at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Competition from the 1950s to the 1960s. He also received scholarship grants among them from Spain in 1953, Italy in the United States in the 1960s. He was also the recipient of the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Painting in 1966, the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award for Painting from the City of Manila in 1981 and the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Gawad for the Visual Arts in 1989. He has also been awarded the Order of Chevalier des Arts et Letres by the French government.
Aside from the rare large paintings the show also features 16 paintings of Performers and 12 paintings of Ancient Cities in various sizes.
As a tribute to the highly successful results of his works at the international auctions on Southeast Asian Paintings by Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Galerie Joaquin is presenting a show of unique works by National Artist Arturo Luz. The show’s concept focuses on several large paintings done by the master over the years that have not been available in the market for sometime now.
Last April, a 2003 24” x 48” work by Luz titled “Three Black Objects” was sold at S$22,000.00 or approximately P660,000.00 in Singapore by Sotheby’s while last year during his 80th birth anniversary, a 1957 work sized 45” x 32” was put by Christie’s on the cover of their auction catalogue and this piece sold for approximately P4.2Million.
Titled “Large Paintings, Performers and Ancient Cities”, the show’s main focus are on seven (7) works sized 48” x 60” or 4’ x 5’. These are two (2) works on “Borobodur” (1992), two (2) “Cities of the Past” (1999) and three (3) “Performers” (1999). Aside from the seven large paintings, included in the show are 24 smaller works: 12 works on Ancient Cities and 12 works on Performers.
Galerie Joaquin Main is located at 371 P. Guevarra St. cor. Montessori Lane, Addition Hills, San Juan, Metro Manila. Tel. nos. 723-9253, 723-9418 and 727-8182. E-mail: info@galeriejoaquin.com. Or visit website: www.galeriejoaquin.com.
The inspiration for the main piece “Borobodur” as well as for the “Cities of the Past” series started from Luz’s 1988 extended visit to various Asian countries. He visited sites of ancient cities and temples. These included Sukhathai in Thailand, Borobodur in Indonesia and Ankor Wat in Cambodia. With these visits, he brought his early interest in city scapes to a different and much higher level. Art writer Cid Reyes writing in the book Arturo Luz describes what happened next. “Inspired by his Asian travels, Luz constructed a utopian architecture out of the ancient temples, forts and palaces that have survived the onslaught of warriors, olden and contemporary, and the ravages of weather and time.”
Luz describes the resultant paintings as recollections of his Asian pilgrimage. “They are not literal, but rather composite images from memory.”
In the book, Arturo Luz by noted art critic and biographer Cid Reyes, Luz recalls having started painting cyclists sometime in the early 1950s. He had seen someone riding a bicycle with a man seated front at the handlebar with a passenger behind him. He found this scene “so Filipino” that he made a painting out of it. He added a tooting horn to one of the figures and called it Bagong Taon. He has been painting cyclists ever since.
During the same period, there were people who would go door-to-door around Metro Manila, usually in pairs; with an odd combination of musical instruments such as cymbals and horn, clarinet and drum, usually playing some form of unintelligible jazz. It was to capture scenes like these that Luz started his Musikero series.
In Spain, while on a study grant from the Instituto de Cultura Hispanico, he likewise saw a group of Spanish musicians, which created a lasting impression. He has, since painted musicians.
The acrobats came into his paintings sometime in 1954. He first painted them as if in a totem pole, standing one on top of the other.
It is these musicians, cyclists and acrobats that have become the main subjects of his now highly popular Performers series.
Luz was named National Artist for Painting in 1997. He studied at the UST School of Fine Arts, then received a scholarship at the California College of Arts and Craft in Oakland for three-year diploma in art program. He continued his education at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York in 1950 and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris in 1951.
Luz is recognized worldwide. He is a three-time first prize winner at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Competition from the 1950s to the 1960s. He also received scholarship grants among them from Spain in 1953, Italy in the United States in the 1960s. He was also the recipient of the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Painting in 1966, the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award for Painting from the City of Manila in 1981 and the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Gawad for the Visual Arts in 1989. He has also been awarded the Order of Chevalier des Arts et Letres by the French government.
Aside from the rare large paintings the show also features 16 paintings of Performers and 12 paintings of Ancient Cities in various sizes.