Birth Anniversary of Jeremias Elizalde Navarro
The #NationalMuseumPh celebrates the 98th birth anniversary of National Artist Jeremias Elizalde Navarro, born #OnThisDay in 1924.
Born in Antique, Navarro studied art at the University of the Philippines Manila as one of the ten aspirants chosen from 500 hopefuls for the Ramon Roces art scholarship. However, he transferred to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) where his childhood idol, Carlos “Botong” Francisco became his teacher. He also studied under eminent artists Victorio Edades, Diosdado Lorenzo, Alejandro Celis, Bonifacio Cristobal, and Francesco Monti. Navarro graduated from UST with a degree in Fine Arts in 1951. He took further studies in New York City, USA, after which he taught at UST for nine years and briefly at the Randwick University in Australia. As an artist, Navarro passionately experimented with different media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, metal, wood, mixed media and found objects in his abstract and figurative paintings, sculptures and assemblages.
Today, as we celebrate his birth anniversary, we feature his sculpture entitled “Man and Woman” from the National Fine Arts Collection. Navarro completed this sculpture made of wood, metal, and concrete in the 1960s. Wood is his favored material, describing how he “loves the roundness” of it. During his interview with Cid Reyes, the artist remarked, “I see a piece of wood lying around, and right away it suggests a sculptural possibility.” The genius of Navarro and his high regard for this medium, enabled him to create masterpieces that are now part of the collection of major museums. The National Fine Arts Collection holds several works of the National Artist which are also exhibited in this gallery alongside “Man and Woman”. These artworks are the following: Idiot Box Circa ’64 (1964, wood), Desaparecidos [(1996, bronze) and (undated, wood)]. You may also view his two sets of Via Crucis studies at the Museum Foundation of the Philippines Hall (Gallery X).
Navarro passed away on June 10, 1999, and was posthumously proclaimed National Artist for Visual Arts on December 1, 1999 for his significant contributions to our rich artistic heritage.
Man and Woman is part of a body of artworks by the National Artist which was acquired through his daughter with the late painter and sculptor, Virginia Ty-Navarro, Pearl, and is among the most recent additions to the National Museum’s permanent exhibition “Lilok, Hulma, at Tipon: Modern Sculptures in the Philippines”. It may be viewed at the National Museum of Fine Arts’ Philippine Modern Sculpture Hall (Gallery XXIX) during its extended visiting hours from 9 am to 6 pm, Tuesdays to Sundays.
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Text and photo by NMP FAD
