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Lot Essay
"The constructional tendency easily identifies itself with the immediate post war pioneers of the modern art movement in the Philippines. Vicente Manansala and Arturo Luz fit in this category. Both artists, in their individual idiom, are pushing this direction to a point of refinement where the perceiving sensibility operates in instant oneness with the essence-reducing tectonic activity. Thus, Luz makes a procedural statement such as 'I start with a definite figure in a particular stance. Then I geometricise. But I do not impose geometry on the figure. The ordering springs from the figure. I reduce it to its essenceand I do this almost mathematically.' " (Cid Reyes, Arturo Luz, Ayala Foundation and the Crucible, Manila, 1999, p. 37.).
The words of Dr. Rod Paras-Perez and the quotation he used from the artist aptly sums up the essence of the work of Luz. It is strange that for a composition that is approached with such a clinical and mathematical manner could be richly evocative of a poetic elegance that tickles ones imagination.
Painted in 1957 Estudiantina is one of the earliest attempts of the artist's foray into the musician subject which he continued to develop over the years, in fact, one which he continues to explore today. Painted after the artist's one year stay in Madrid in 1954, the title of the work referred to a band of young students who the artist chanced in the street of Madrid. In this aspect, the present work is a fine prototype which offers a glimpse at the origin of the celebrated musician series. It is therefore significant to see the 'first musician' in a fuller form then its later version. Eventually the torso of the subject would be completely geometricised to mere triangle and his arms and legs would be unabashedly lineal. Nevertheless, this first prototype contains the quintessential elements of the Luz, which the inter-play of lines and geometric forms creates a balance and harmony that is as elegant as it is poetic.
The words of Dr. Rod Paras-Perez and the quotation he used from the artist aptly sums up the essence of the work of Luz. It is strange that for a composition that is approached with such a clinical and mathematical manner could be richly evocative of a poetic elegance that tickles ones imagination.
Painted in 1957 Estudiantina is one of the earliest attempts of the artist's foray into the musician subject which he continued to develop over the years, in fact, one which he continues to explore today. Painted after the artist's one year stay in Madrid in 1954, the title of the work referred to a band of young students who the artist chanced in the street of Madrid. In this aspect, the present work is a fine prototype which offers a glimpse at the origin of the celebrated musician series. It is therefore significant to see the 'first musician' in a fuller form then its later version. Eventually the torso of the subject would be completely geometricised to mere triangle and his arms and legs would be unabashedly lineal. Nevertheless, this first prototype contains the quintessential elements of the Luz, which the inter-play of lines and geometric forms creates a balance and harmony that is as elegant as it is poetic.