NATIONAL Artist for Visual Arts Arturo Luz passed away on Wednesday night. He was 94 years old.
The news of Luz’s death was announced on social media by his daughter, former actress Angela Luz, who said that the prolific artist “peacefully joined his Creator at 8:45 this evening, and I stood by his side as he took his last breath.”
“We could not have asked for anything more,” Luz wrote of her father. “He will be terribly missed, but will never be forgotten. His legacy will live on, and will last forever.”
A painter, sculptor, and designer for more than 40 years, Luz was celebrated as one of the founding members of the modern Neo-realist movement in Philippine art. A file by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) hailed Luz’s masterpieces for “[exemplifying] an ideal of sublime austerity in expression and form” and “[elevating] Filipino aesthetic vision to new heights of sophisticated simplicity.”
Luz’s significant paintings include Bagong Taon, Vendador de Flores, and Imaginary Landscapes. His mural painting, titled Black and White, is displayed in the lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippine’s Bulwagang Carlos V. Francisco (Little Theater). Meanwhile, Luz’s sculpture of a stainless-steel cube is installed in front of the Benguet Mining Corporation Building in Pasig.
In 1960, Luz established the renowned Luz Gallery that, according to the NCCA, “professionalized the art gallery as an institution and set a prestigious influence over generations of Filipino artists.”
Luz was born on November 20, 1926. He took up fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, before attending several painting classes abroad, from the Art School of the Brooklyn Museum in New York to the Académie Grade Chaumière in Paris. He was also a graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in 1994.
Luz was conferred with the National Artist honor in 1997 for his significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts.
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