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Lot Essay
Arturo Luz is a widely awarded and highly acclaimed master abstractionist from the Philippines, the last of the generation of great modernists which included Vicente Manansala, Ang Kiukok and Anita Magsaysay-Ho. 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 heartwarming traits, "a gallery by an artist for artists".
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 instill 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 stylized and modernist, as seen within Acrobats and Cyclists, a superb example of Luz's visual preoccupations and a rare work utilizing the oil and enamel medium.
Derived from the acclaimed Performers series, Acrobats and Cyclists exemplifies Luz's ability to elevate everyday moments into progressive modernist compositions. Luz recalls having started painting cyclists sometime in the early 1950s. He saw a man riding a bicycle carrying two passengers: one seated in front on the handlebars, and the second passenger behind the main cyclist. Luz found this scene so quintessentially Filipino, yet intriguing for its perfect physical balance, that he incorporated it into his paintings, and cyclists have been a major theme ever since. The acrobats were introduced later, around 1954, again revolving around Luz's interrogations into spatial and mechanical balance. He first painted them as if in a totem pole, standing one on top of the other, before extending into more complex pyramidal forms, as seen within this present work.
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 instill 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 stylized and modernist, as seen within Acrobats and Cyclists, a superb example of Luz's visual preoccupations and a rare work utilizing the oil and enamel medium.
Derived from the acclaimed Performers series, Acrobats and Cyclists exemplifies Luz's ability to elevate everyday moments into progressive modernist compositions. Luz recalls having started painting cyclists sometime in the early 1950s. He saw a man riding a bicycle carrying two passengers: one seated in front on the handlebars, and the second passenger behind the main cyclist. Luz found this scene so quintessentially Filipino, yet intriguing for its perfect physical balance, that he incorporated it into his paintings, and cyclists have been a major theme ever since. The acrobats were introduced later, around 1954, again revolving around Luz's interrogations into spatial and mechanical balance. He first painted them as if in a totem pole, standing one on top of the other, before extending into more complex pyramidal forms, as seen within this present work.