SANSO: Breton Houses

SANSO: Breton Houses

 

One of my favorite artist of all times, Sanso creates and presents "Breton Houses" from his imagination and memory. The landscapes view of the " Breton Houses" with a moon is Sanso's distinct signature in almost all of his paintings.  

A renowned painter, Juvenal Sanso is one of the best-known members of the Philippine Modernist movement. Having graduated from the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, he is contemporaries with National Artists Victorio Edades, Vicente Manansala, Jose Joya, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, and Napoleon Abueva (his batchmate in UP). His teachers were National Artists Fernando Amorsolo and Guillermo Tolentino.

"Breton Houses" was unveiled last July 27, 2012 and will run until the 3rd of August 2012, at the Archaeology Wing, R2 level of the Power Plant Mall.

This is the second time that I got invited in Sanso's art exhibit this year. And I sincerely thank my friend Ruby for this wonderful opportunity.

I love the colors used by Sanso on his art works. His paintings was almost sold out when I attended the artist's reception last July 31, 2012, Tuesday, at the Archaeology Wing, 2nd Floor of the Power Plant Mall. 

Breton Houses metaphors for the peace and tranquility he experienced during his stay on the northern coast of France.

The landscapes he paints today are part of his search for the idyllic, a soothing balm for the restless and tired spirit not only of artists but of the human psyche.

In "Breton Houses", Sanso paints the essence of calmness, painting what every man's dream of the perfect place should be.  

                     

Sanso re-explores the meaning of warmth and comfort that those twenty-four summers have meant for him, creating works based more on those feelings than any actual location. Thus his new works conform to these emotions – of the idyllic place in one’s mind where one goes to relax – rather than a mere photocopy of an existing landscape. 

In this way, Sanso remains true to his expressionist ideals—relying on feeling and emotion to guide his steady, gifted hand.

The landscapes on display showed just how far the artist has come in his practice. While elements of his earlier works are certainly there – Breton architecture, the affinity towards the coast, the famous Sanso moon – the calm his newer paintings in this series invokes is reminiscent of his experiments in color that stems from the Moderno series. This makes the new entries of the Breton Houses series more nuanced and complex than Sanso’s earlier works. The search for the idyllic is ever present, but Sanso has injected his experiences since into this series. Paradoxically, the series that initiated his rebirth as an artist was itself reawakened.

A foremost master, Sanso has had a long and stellar career capped by a number of awards and recognition including a King’s Cross of Isabella knighthood from the King of Spain, membership into the Order of Chevalier from the French Government, and a Presidential Medal of Merit awardee from the Republic of the Philippines. His works are represented in the collections of some 40 museums in the world including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum d’ Arte Moderne in Paris, the Rosenwald National Gallery of Washington, and the cultural Center of the Philippines. His collectors include the Rothschild Family, Nelson Rockefeller, Vincent Price, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Cocteau and many prominent, American, European and prominent Filipino families.

"Breton Houses" is presented by Galerie Joaquin, www.galeriejoaquin.com Tel:723-9418 or 723-9253.