National Artist for Visual Arts Arturo Luz, who passed away on May 26 at 94, was known for his pictorial severity and muted elegance. His acclaimed paintings and sculptures are geometric and linear explorations that reflect his spartan but celebratory aesthetic. In his art is the audacity of austerity.
His initial works after his art training in the United States and France showed the influence of the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991), the figurative abstractionist-surrealist whose early watercolors depicted elongated folk figures, much like what Luz did in “Candle Vendors” (1952) and “Street Musicians” (1951).
It is possible that Luz had imbibed the influence …
Keep on reading: Audacity of austerity: The art of Arturo Luz