Fundacion Sansó welcomes art lovers to its refurbished spaces and invites more to join its growing community

The Via Vegetal is one of Juvenal Sansó’s most famous etchings, representing the artist’s most important printmaking phase. This prompted the curatorial team behind the exhibition to gather several artworks that represent each phase of Sansó’s life, from his early student works, his etchings and art in Europe, to more recent paintings, the Brittany series, Baklad series, and a final piece—an En Vase floral—that sits on Sansó’s easel, unfinished.

Complementing the exhibition is a refurbished space in the gallery now dedicated to a comprehensive timeline of Juvenal Sansó’s life and art. It showcases events and details such as collaborations with important figures in culture, such as fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and composer Gian Carlo Menotti, as well as historical events, such as his traumatic experiences during the Second World War, which in turn shaped his artistic phases. The timeline reveals the many accomplishments of an artist who dedicated his entire life to art.

Francisco explains: “The exhibition gathers works across his seven-decade career, not to mount a retrospective of genres or themes, but to trace the unfolding of that ‘remarkable poesy’ that French critic Jean Dalveze so eloquently named.”

The exhibition title was derived from a 1960s review by Dalveze, published in Aux Écoutes. It reads: “Sansó, a Spanish Catalan, went to the Philippines very early in his life; he has learned from the Far East an elliptical manner of expression. A boat in the beach, an immense sky where the light vibrates, are enough for him to convey the melancholic tenderness of the world, its vastness and the small part we share of it. His paintings have a remarkable poesy.”

Ultimately, the exhibition alongside the opening of the gallery’s refurbished spaces, such as the new Scholarship Café, reading corner, museum shop, and mini exhibition space open to interested artists, ignites Fundacion Sansó’s stronger commitment to its advocacies.

Through the years, Fundacion Sansó has awarded students from Bulacan State University financial assistance, as well as research grants to students from the University of the Philippines Diliman and Far Eastern University, among others. Just recently, it provided a scholarship to a promising art student at FEATI University. The museum hopes to continue and increase this initiative.

“As a whole, Sansó: A Remarkable Poesy can be seen not just as a mere exhibition, but as a transition from memories and impressions of an artist’s works to the continuation of Sansó’s contributions to art in general. It is also an opportunity for museum-goers to savour each artwork, and each phase of an artist’s life that was well-lived,” Francisco said in a statement.

The museum invites everyone to join its Art Advocates Circle, a patronage programme in three tiers that will help the institution continue its scholarship programmes, exhibitions, and community programmes, among others. In the museum shop, visitors may purchase merchandise not only of Sansó’s works but also of other important artists like National Artists Fernando Amorsolo, Larry Alcala and Benedicto Cabrera, among others.

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