Issue 15 - Pdf Ctrl+P - CTRL+P: a journal of contemporary art

in the roster of the Luz Gallery. In other words, there seemed to be a singular circuit
through which a distinct mode of modernism found its relay: this was for all intents and
purposes on the watch of Luz, who was widely respected for his mandarin sensibility and
fastidiousness as artist, curator, and administrator. We note this tyranny of taste: “Actually,
my principal reason was simply to provide art with the setting and importance it
deserves. Bad painting deserves obscurity, but painting that deserves to be shown must
Left: Arturo Luz. For Xavier Gonzales,
1978. Painted burlap on wood,
102.9 x 221.6 cm
Middle: Arturo Luz, Untitled. 2007. Metal
Right: Arturo Luz. Nightglow. 1960.
Oil on canvas. 84.5 x 181 cm.
Image courtesy of the Cultural Center
of the Philippines.
be shown well. Surprisingly, virtually all other galleries in Manila ignore this obvious
truth…More obvious though less popular is my notion that galleries have to be dictatorial
in matters of taste and quality…The point is that galleries have certain functions and
responsibilities other than to make profit…Above all, it (the gallery) should mold taste
and exercise a certain degree of critical judgment.” 34 This acuity in hindsight made the
Gallery a veritable bellwether of the first Thirteen Artists awardees in 1970: in 1968, the
20 Artists exhibition was practically the mirror-image of the latter.
Moreover, Luz proved to be a vital element in the art world because of his links
to a very influential circle of standard-setters and opinion-makers in the sixties and the
seventies. We may trace the lineage of this elite to Fernando Zobel whose role as artist,
benefactor, and intellectual shaped hegemonic formations in the art world. His bequest
to the Ateneo was the nucleus of the Ateneo Art Gallery, the first institution of modern
art in the Philippines that partly enhanced the auspice of Luz by way of exhibitions of
his art, including the ten-year retrospective that Ateneo professor and critic Emmanuel
Torres curated in 1966, the same year Luz received the Republic Heritage Award. Torres
likewise wrote a book on his drawings and at one time conceptualized an exhibition of
Philippine art, running the length from the nineteenth century master Juan Luna to Luz.
This clique also included the pianist and theater artist Leandro Locsin, chief architect of
Imelda and the Ayalas, and later Roberto Chabet, who exhibited his early Malang-like
works at the Luz Gallery. More importantly, they thought highly of each other. When
asked who among the local painters of his time he esteemed most, Zobel would point to
Luz if he “had to name a single person...his clarity, the profound honesty of his work,
the elegance of his restraint, have to do with everything I admire.” 35 Luz for his part is
indebted to Chabet for the evolution of his collages. The crucial coordinates would be
Luz, Locsin, and Chabet. Locsin and Luz may have been kindred spirits. A story has
gone around that one time when the two were asked to select ten objects, they had similar
choices. They were attuned to the same wavelength in terms of their regard for space,
intellect, and class affectation. Albano, who came from Ilocos Norte and was not reared
in privilege, did not belong to this orbit.
All told, as Alfredo Roces would put it: “Luz had the gallery, Locsin had the building
and clientele and Zobel had the theories and even the patronage.” 36 In this regard, Tessie
Luz relates that “there was a small group of collectors who revolved around Zobel and
Lindy Locsin.” 37 Furthermore, Zobel had a hand in the founding of the Ayala Museum
in 1961, on the heels of the establishment of the Ateneo Art Gallery, the Luz Gallery,
and the Lopez Memorial Museum the previous year; it opened to the public in 1967.
In 1974, it moved to Makati in a building designed by Locsin. The Ayalas nurtured the
country’s oldest business house and was its pioneer monopolist. 38 Zobel’s cousin Jaime
Zobel de Ayala, the industrialist and tycoon whose family practically owns the financial
district Makati and the country’s gated enclaves, was CCP’s first Executive Director
and President. These connections are very telling. The history of Ayala as a firm and
proto-conglomerate and how Jaime would try to elide class in the production of culture
through the CCP are equally compelling: “The Center, they say, is only for the affluent.
42 Ctrl+P September 2009