ARTURO LUZ
fellow artist fernando zóbel once
called the National Artist Arturo Luz “a painter’s painter,” writing: “Where other painters shout at the top of their voices, Luz speaks in a whisper and, insidiously, gets a great deal more said.” A painter, sculptor, and designer, Luz is best known for his linear art, characterised by sophisticated austerity and restraint—what he has described as “semi-representational and semi-abstract.” Born in Manila in 1926, he studied painting under Pablo Amorsolo and art at the University of Santo Tomas before taking a scholarship at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. In 1950, he enrolled at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York, continuing his studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. It was in Paris that he mounted his first solo exhibition of drawings. Upon his return to Manila in 1951, Luz held his second solo exhibition at the Manila Hotel. In 1960, he opened the Luz Gallery, aiming to display paintings that deserved recognition and to develop the public’s taste. He was also a founding director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Some of Luz’s most famous paintings are Street Musicians, Venezia, and City. Luz did sculpture later in his life, exhibiting the same sparseness found in his paintings. He has worked with Philippine hardwoods, marble, and metal. The painting he chose to depict Philippine
Tatler’s celebration of its 15th anniversary is the merrymaking that welcomes the new year.