Provenance: Schneidman Collection, USA, purchased at PAG, c. 1959 Private Collection, Europe, acquired from above Private Collection, acquired from above

Exhibited: Exhibited: Philippine Art Gallery, 6th Anniversary Show, August 24, 1957; Leon Gallery, “Mid-Century Moderns: Important Modernist Painting from the Philippine Art Gallery”, Makati, 29 August to 1 September, 2017

Literature: Literature: Villegas, Ramon and Guerrero Nakpil, Lisa, Mid-Century Moderns: Important Modernist Painting from the Philippine Art Gallery, Leon Gallery, Makati, 2017, p. 52-53 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

The early works of Arturo Luz are hard to come by, and this work from 1957 is one of the more notable exceptions. Titled Venezia, this work resembles the one previously owned by Fernando Zobel who then bequeathed it to the Ateneo Art Gallery. The city that the National Artist rhapsodizes about in this piece is Venice. The skyline of the city in general, and the domes of the churches in particular, are arrayed in a single, unbroken row — evoked through Minimalist lines and shapes that would become the trademark of the artist. More than half of the bottom part of the work is a scintillating yellow, inflected with a grid-like pattern that suggests the city’s network of canals, which is, of course, the city’s identifying feature. The entire canvas is bathed with the golden yellow of the sun, which hovers as a bright disc near the upper right-hand corner of the painting. Venezia is a masterpiece that reveals great insight to the possibility — and fulfillment — of painting as a medium.