National Artist Arturo Luz’s works highlighting his enduring legacy of impeccable design and disciplined use of color will be on view at the Renaissance Art Gallery at SM Megamall’s Art Center starting on June 3. 

The second iteration of “Streamlined: The Art of National Artist Arturo Luz” is curated by artist-critic Cid Reyes. A limited-edition monograph designed and laid out by Dopy Doplon and photography by Wig Tysmans accompany the exhibit.

In 1951, the writer and art critic Ricaredo Demetillo drew attention to Luz’s works, saying: “His forms are alive and distinguished; he understands abstraction and austerity, the sense of space and balance. He distorts with intuitive rightness and grace. In other words, he is a real artist.” 

Luz (1926–2021) was declared National Artist in 1997. He began exploring painting when he was 17, drawn to form’s simplicity and essential nature. His first work was a portrait of his mother, the renowned interior designer Rosario Dimayuga Luz. 

As a figurative painter, Luz was inspired by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, who was known for spare and elongated forms. This influence led Luz to develop his own vocabulary of shapes using plastic lines. He also drew much from the Swiss artist Paul Klee, who famously described line as “taking a dot for a walk.” This inspiration culminated in Luz’s linear depictions of cyclists, musicians, and carnival performers including acrobats and jugglers, as well as still life featuring boxes, Oriental ceramics, jars, bowls and shells. 

By limiting his choice of subjects, Luz managed to delve into the elegance of visual simplicity, precision and spatial balance. He favored nontraditional materials such as burlap and laminated plywood, and at one point used broken tiles to create a mosaic for a church altar floor. 

Eventually, he transitioned to pure abstraction through collage, creating compositions without representational subjects, focusing on the planar qualities of form and surface and the visual tension that arises from a perfectly balanced composition. 

Luz traveled throughout Asia and India in the early 1980s. His experiences during this pilgrimage inspired many works featuring imaginary landscapes filled with temples, palaces, fortifications, and battlements—all transformed into linear symphonies of monochromatic tones accented by earthy colors: chrome yellow, dark mustard, cardinal red, burnt sienna, bronze and brown. 

The artist also demonstrated his administrative skills in the 1980s by managing his eponymous Luz Gallery, the Museum of Philippine Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Design Center of the Philippines. 

Of paramount significance is his transformation of the native artistic sensibility from festive and flamboyant to restrained and dispassionate. 

Luz’s “Streamlined II” runs until June 16.

For details, please check the website renaissanceartph.com, @renaissanceartph on Instagram, and Renaissance Art Gallery on Facebook.