PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE ANGEL AND CARMEN GUERRERO NAKPIL COLLECTION

My Kind of Cross
signed and dated 1982 (lower right)
oil on canvas
31 1/2” x 47” (80 cm x 119 cm)

Inventive and intuitive, J. Elizalde Navarro’s career spanned both East and West, exciting critical attention in both the Philippines and Indonesia (and from thence the Netherlands and Europe), as well as in a slew of art festivals and biennales in both North and South America.

An artist-in-residence of the legendary Bamboo Gallery in Bali, he was also a friend of regional stars such as the DutchmanAri Smit, Indonesia’s Madé and Malaysia’s Chang Fee Ming.

“My Kind of Cross” (1982) embodies Jerry Navarro’s intense colorations and bold strokes, made more vivid by his signatureimpasto technique. He was as playfully expert as well in sculpture and mixed-media, giving an evocative structure as well as tri-dimensional quality to his paintings.

Navarro was a shooting star that illuminated the Manila artscape from the time of his first solo exhibit at the Philippine Art Gallery in 1957 to his ascension as Philippine National Artist for the Visual Arts in 1999.