Multi-awarded Spanish artist Juvenal Sansó passed away on 28 March. The founder of Fundacion Sansó had Type 2 diabetes and suffered a cardiac arrest. He was 95.
When World War II broke out in the Philippines, the wrought-iron business closed as the elder Sansó refused to work for the Japanese war effort. The family embarked on an entirely new business, horse-drawn buggies, where Juvenal served as conductor from Santa Ana to Quiapo.
The war, which caused him to be deaf on one ear, left scars on Sansó’s youth. He entered a Black Period, painting exclusively in black and white with gruesome imagery and hideously deformed beggars.
Sansó studied at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts under the professors Fernando Amorsolo, Dominador Castaneda and Ireneo Miranda. He took special classes at the University of Santo Tomas, learning from Cesar Legaspi and Galo Ocampo.
His work, Incubus, won first prize in the watercolor category of the Art Association of the Philippines competition. He won first place again the following year with Sorcerer in the AAP oil category.
The same year, he won third place in the Shell Art Competition. He then left to pursue further studies in Europe at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome after establishing residence in Paris. He enrolled at L’ Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. Shortly after, Sansó held his first one-man show in Paris then came back to Manila in 1957 for his first local one-man show at the Philippine Art Gallery.
In 1964, his artwork Leuers was adjudged Print of the Year by the Cleveland Museum of Art. He was given the same distinction of previous winners like Henri Matisse and Salvador Dali. In the same year, he held a major all-media one-man show at the Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as one-man shows at the prestigious Philadelphia Print Club and New York’s Weyhe Gallery.
It was in 1966 when Sansó held a 20-year retrospective show at the Makati Commercial Center. In 1974, a 25-year retrospective was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 1976, in commemoration of the Manila World Bank and the International Monetary Fund summit meetings, Sansó held a one-man retrospective of some 1,000 works, released a portfolio of 10 lithographs on Philippine subjects, and was the subject of a book written by Alejandro Roces.
He made a milestone in 1989 by doing six simultaneous exhibits in Manila at the Metropolitan Museum, the Lopez Museum, the Ayala Museum, the Center Cultural de Espaha, the Alliance Francaise and the Finale Art File. From 2008 to 2009, he served as artist in residence for the Art Interaction program of the Shell National Students Art Competition.
Sansó earned prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Merit from the Republic of the Philippines, the Order of Isabella from Spain and the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from France.
His legacy extends beyond his paintings. In 2014, Sansó established Fundacion Sansó in San Juan City, dedicated to preserving his body of work while supporting aspiring artists and industry initiatives.
Juvenal Sansó is survived by his niece, Carmen Montes.