Accompanied by a certificate issued by Luisa Luz Lansigan confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Much of the art of Arturo Luz runs on the theme of acrobats, musicians, and cyclists. The combination of themes indicates the direction in which Luz was headed in the 1960s. The direction had to do with abstract painting of a geometric planar kind. All of Luz’s stylish works feature his instantly recognizable and concise use of line to create geometric scenes of precision and balance. He began to use the formal and spatial procedures of Cubism as a structure, a means of controlling the high levels of fantasy and irrationality that invaded his imagery from the early 1960s onwards. Gradually simplifying his style, he developed an approach with key works consisting of pure geometric forms and their relationships to one another, set against minimal grounds. The picture is structured to emphasize straight lines and circular shapes. Straight, vertical, and diagonal lines are present in the figures’ bodies. With the predominance of the deep red backdrop, Luz unifies the color element to highlight the straight lines of his composition. Their heads, faceless and pin-shaped, are reduced to their basic geometric components. The point is that Luz reduces his subject to large, solid, and uncomplicated masses because such forms are suggestive of eternal values. Hence while the colour range of this work is limited, the formal qualities are highlighted by the strictly geometrical lines and precise modelling, features that further reflect truly modernist ideals.