Fundacion Sansó features exhibit of three masters

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This monumental exhibition celebrates memories of a stellar batch from the UP School of Fine Arts, led by the country’s first National Artist, Fernando Amorsolo

It is quite rare that a single undergraduate class will produce some of the finest visual artists in the country, but this happened in a Fine Arts class at the University of the Philippines more than 70 years ago.

In the late 1940s, the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts (now the UP College of Fine Arts, or UPCFA), moved its classes from the war-damaged Padre Faura campus to a brand-new campus in Diliman, Quezon City. Under the directorship of our country’s first National Artist Fernando Amorsolo and with a formidable faculty composed of National Artist and sculptor Guillermo Tolentino, painter Dominador Castañeda, and Ireneo Miranda, among others, the school trained talented young art students.

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This tutelage produced illustrious batches of Fine Arts graduates in the post-war years; an optimistic time when Philippine art moved from the romanticized pre-war era to more modern, individual styles.

One UP Fine Arts batch from 1948 to 1951 included Juvenal Sansó as a special student, and his fellow students from that period became some of the finest Filipino artists of our time, including National Artists Napoleon Abueva, Jose Joya, Larry Alcala, and Federico Aguilar Alcuaz who was also a special student; along with Presidential Medal of Merit Awardee Araceli Limcaco Dans, and the renowned couturier Pitoy Moreno.

To celebrate this stellar class and its artists, and to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the transfer of the School of Fine Arts to the University of the Philippines-Diliman campus, Fundacion Sansó opened the exhibit “Amorsolo, Alcala, Sansó: UP School of Fine Arts” as its offering for National Arts Month. The exhibition explores the artistic relationships between National Artist Fernando Amorsolo (who was the dean/director of the School of Fine Arts) and students National Artist Larry Alcala and Presidential Medal of Merit Awardee Juvenal Sansó, as well as the works of each of the three artists.

UP Library Construction by Sanso, 1950 oil on canvas, Private Collection, Man and Woman on Carabao by Fernando Amorsolo, Giclee, Edition of 50, and Peoples Power, EDSA, Cubao by Larry Alcala, Serigraph, Liongoren Gallery

Through dozens of old photographs, mementoes, and letters, the exhibit also celebrates the friendship between Sansó and National Artist Larry Alcala, who remained close friends from their UP days until Alcala’s death in 2002. Alcala is best known for his editorial cartoons and illustrations, and serigraphs of one of his famous “Slice of Life” cartoons printed and produced by the Liongoren Gallery are featured in this show.

At its opening reception recently, “Amorsolo, Alcala, and Sansó” launched a fundraising project for Art Literacy in partnership with the Fernando Amorsolo Foundation and the heirs of eminent collector Dr. Eleuterio “Teyet” Pascual of the Rising Sunday Foundation, along with the family of Larry Alcala through the Liongoren Gallery. The fundraising was done through the auction of a one-of-one edition giclee based from Fernando Amorsolo’s idyllic painting “Man and Woman on Carabao.” Part of the proceeds will go to the aforementioned foundations.

The proceeds from the sales of these limited-edition Alcala prints, along with the one-on-one Amorsolo giclee, go to those young and deserving art students from partner universities.

“Amorsolo, Alcala, and Sansó: UP School of Fine Arts” exhibit will run until March 2024 at Fundacion Sansó, 32 V. Cruz St., Brgy. Sta. Lucia, San Juan. The museum is open from 10am to 6pm, closed on holidays and Sundays.

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