Provenance: Estate of the artist Private Collection, Makati City

Literature: Ramon N. Villegas & Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, TWO NAVELS: LEON CURATED AUCTION, Leon Gallery, Makati City, 2016, p. 34-35 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

In this 1959 work, Navarro merges the human with the abstract, transcending gender definitions and going beyond the familiar gamut of human emotions to the alien and the strange. In the linearity of the composition he emphasizes the interaction of subject and space. In the history of 20th century abstract art in the Philippines, it was at about the same time when geometric abstraction came into prominence with the sharp, rectilinear planes and exquisite draftsmanship of four influential figures: Luz, Navarro, post Abstract Expressionist Aguinaldo, and Chabet. Navarro followed a trim cut, compact, dispassionate visual approach. There is an unmistakable sense of Japanese “shibui” in how the ethereal white elements with light blue circles emerge from the shards of dense, contrasting colors below. While the upper vertical element alludes to a traditional Japanese ceremonial headgear, the two “eyes” reflect how adept Jerry Elizalde Navarro is in imaging masks. If one looks at enough masks from different cultures, from Melanesia, Africa, Asia, and specifically in this case, Nagano Japan, one discovers that there is a profound equivalence among them. Masks have been constructed out of nearly every visual device that humans have learned how to manipulate. Masks are compelling icons of primal humanity. Five years before completing this painting, Navarro held his first one person show at the Philippine Art Gallery in 1954. Two years earlier, in 1952, Navarro won in the Art Association of the Philippines, first prize for ‘Baguio’ in the second Watercolor Exhibition. A versatile artist, being both painter and sculptor, he taught art at UST and at the Randwick University in Sydney Australia.