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Lot Essay
The primary preoccupation of Arturo Luz is to explore all variations and possibilities of lines. In the works of Luz, the quality of drawing is the single most important quality in rendering the works with visually novel and challenging compositions of linear forms.
Luz's own artworks are premised on the interplay of lines and linear forms. During the 1950s his works gradually evolved from full, figurative compositions into pared down expressions of geometrical clarity. Luz's ability to instil a sense of architectural balance into his paintings is unparalleled; the quality of drawing and draughtsmanship is a major element of his work. By 1960, his paintings now sought to efface superfluous additions and focused primarily on shape, form, and space. Figures became increasingly stylised and modernist, as seen within Cyclist and Trumpeters (Lot 460), a superb example of Luz's visual preoccupations from his Performers series.
Not only a widely awarded and highly acclaimed master abstractionist from the Philippines, apart from his numerous painting and sculptural achievements, Luz also ran the foremost modern art gallery, the Luz Gallery, in the Philippines for three decades, making an indelible contribution to the Philippine art scene by pioneering one of its most heart-warming traits, "a gallery by an artist for artists". The present lot was acquired by the family of the owner as a gift from the artist, as the mother of the present owner was also actively involved in the burgeoning and exciting modern Philippine art scene in the 1960s, exhibiting in numerous one man or group shows at Arturo Luz's gallery then.
Lineal aesthetics, architectural chic and a monochromatic tendency, these words describe the work of Arturo Luz but no one expounds the principle of painting better than the artist himself: 'Everything I do I invent. I invent my material, I invent my own anatomy. I am after the gesture of the figure, the bone, the structure, and not the surface.'
Luz's own artworks are premised on the interplay of lines and linear forms. During the 1950s his works gradually evolved from full, figurative compositions into pared down expressions of geometrical clarity. Luz's ability to instil a sense of architectural balance into his paintings is unparalleled; the quality of drawing and draughtsmanship is a major element of his work. By 1960, his paintings now sought to efface superfluous additions and focused primarily on shape, form, and space. Figures became increasingly stylised and modernist, as seen within Cyclist and Trumpeters (Lot 460), a superb example of Luz's visual preoccupations from his Performers series.
Not only a widely awarded and highly acclaimed master abstractionist from the Philippines, apart from his numerous painting and sculptural achievements, Luz also ran the foremost modern art gallery, the Luz Gallery, in the Philippines for three decades, making an indelible contribution to the Philippine art scene by pioneering one of its most heart-warming traits, "a gallery by an artist for artists". The present lot was acquired by the family of the owner as a gift from the artist, as the mother of the present owner was also actively involved in the burgeoning and exciting modern Philippine art scene in the 1960s, exhibiting in numerous one man or group shows at Arturo Luz's gallery then.
Lineal aesthetics, architectural chic and a monochromatic tendency, these words describe the work of Arturo Luz but no one expounds the principle of painting better than the artist himself: 'Everything I do I invent. I invent my material, I invent my own anatomy. I am after the gesture of the figure, the bone, the structure, and not the surface.'