In an introduction to a book about painter Juvenal Sanso, National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin foregrounds “feasting of youth” as a possible reference of the artist’s first name as it is close to the word juventud which means youth in Spanish. The Spanish-born Sanso himself clarifies that he was named after his father’s favorite satirical writer. In any case, Joaquin’s supposition hints at and forbodes of the life and art of the painter. For Juvenal Sanso had a tremendously eventful youth which led to a remarkable 60-year career in the arts both locally and abroad. His best paintings are receptacles of his experiences as a young man. Now at 80, he still possesses the passion of youth as he continues to paint his favorite flowers as if to immortalize an eternal springtime.
Sanso moved to the Philippines in 1934 at a tender age of four when his father decided to leave Spain and transfer the family and set up an iron wrought business in Manila. Naturally for his father, Sanso was groomed to take over the family business so the young boy was given art lessons that willl be useful in designing iron grills and furniture.
But everything was interrupted when the Pacifc War broke out. The Japanese Occupation drove away the Sansos to Montalban without their fortune. In Montalban, young Juvenal’s art lessons were replaced by planting camote. After liberation, father Sanso assembled a dilapidated public utility bus that plied Quiapo and Sta. Ana. Juvenal served as conductor who dealt with the harsh street conditions of a war-torn Manila. One incident Sanso remembers involves the hijacking of the bus by a one-armed thug called Putol. Putol ordered that he be given money but Sanso, speaking in fluent and street-smart Tagalog, was able to convince his aggressor to simply accept a free bus ride as token.
The Sanso family set up furniture company Arte Español soon after liberation but it has become clear that Juvenal’s talent will not be seen on iron grills or furniture but in paintings. After years of home-schooling, Sanso was accepted as special student at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts where he trained under Philippine masters Ireneo Miranda, Dominador Castañeda and National Artist Fernando Amorsolo. In UP, he developed his own style. “Everyone wanted to be like Amorsolo because he was the star. I could copy him but that was not the idea,” he enthuses. Amorsolo himself would encourage his student’s digression.
Without the artist knowing it was so until the declaration of local critics, Sanso pioneered expressionistic painting in the Philippines. His expressionistic paintings of fish ponds, nipa huts and various tropical fauna reveal the distinctive nuances of Sanso’s view of the Philippines as an adoptive country. The artist admits, however, that his initial excursion into this genre was defined by his traumas of the Japanese Occupation. “This brings out some of the belly achings and pains,” explains the man who still bears painful memories of the dark era. His works Incubus and Sorcerer which won for the artist top prizes in local art competitions while only in his early 20s are strong statements about the horrors of war. In the book Sanso: Art Quest Between Two Worlds, the artist explains Incubus as “my dis-association from the sunlit world, a going into the wounds themselves.”
Sanso suffered, among others, torture in the hands of Japanese soldiers and continues to suffer the memory of it. He remembers how he alienated his classmates in UP who like hanging out in a store selling freshly-cooked chicharon. Later on in his life, he would realize that fried pork skin smells a lot like burning flesh which he saw a lot of during the war. He laments that “You are scarred forever,” as his eyes begin to well with tears.
Nevertheless, Sanso was able to tackle his traumas. As he enthusiastically declares, “I have become a happier person.” Accordingly, his paintings also evolved. As one critic summarizes, “the angst-filled grotesqueries, which eventually evolved into stunning surreal bouquets of faces and heads, are all gone now, replaced by genuine blooms.” His latest paintings of flowers, rocks and seascapes reflect the artist’s acceptance of things beautiful and enduring.
One should understand, however, that it was not simply a newfound happiness that catapulted and sustained Sanso’s already successful local career in the international art scene. “I have dared,” is his firm answer to inquiries on how he managed to keep his art relevant and interesting over the years.
Despite a more than pomising career in Manila, he dared to take further studies in Italy and later on in Paris. In Europe, Sanso lived like many other struggling artists. His familiarity with poverty during Japanese Occupation made him quickly familiar with hobo life. He rented a room with no furniture and no heat. The common toilet and bath is two flights up the stairs. Under these conditions, he began to chart a remarkable international career. Aside from being able to sell paintings and prints, Sanso was also commissioned to do opera and theater stages, al fresco paintings, and etchings. His brief foray into textile design also opened for him the doors of the house of Balenciaga. “A lot of doors open when you have something to offer,” he muses.
In time, Sanso’s artworks achieved a healthy combination of commercial and critical success. He was able to set up his own studio and residence in Paris. In 1964 his work Leuers was adjudged Print of the Year by the Cleveland Museum of Art where he also held a major all-media one-man show. In the same year, Sanso also held exhibits at the prestigious Philadelphia Print Club and New York’s Weyhe Gallery. In 2006, Sanso received the perhaps long overdue Philippine Presidential Medal of Merit. Less than a year after, he was awarded the distinguished Cross of Isabela by Spanish King, H.R.H. Juan Carlos I.
Retirement is still nowhere to be found on Sanso’s drawing board even as he decided to return to the Philippines for good. He surmises that even after decades of shuttling between Paris and Manila, “My career has always been in and for the Philippines.” In fact, as he celebrates his 80th birthday on Nov. 4, he opens another Philippine exhibition called Premiere Sanso: Show of Shows at the Mandarin Oriental Suites of Gateway Mall. He modestly declares that “It is a great joy to be able to bring back whatever it is that might be useful here. If people want to listen, I’d be delighted. If they don’t want to listen, well, Sino ba ako?”
The exhibit will feature more than a hundred of Sanso’s works. As this collection includes representative pieces from key periods in Sanso’s career, it may serve as a good venue to understand what has been said about great works of art. Those that look toward its own time and eternity.
