Jeremias "Jerry" Elizalde Navarro (1924 - 1999)
The Face of the Awakening God
signed and dated 1993 (lower right)
oil on canvas
45" x 54" (114 cm x 137 cm)


Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Emma Navarroconfirming the authenticity of this lot




The profusion and explosion of colors in Jerry Elizalde Navarro's oeuvre can be partly traced to his Bali paintings. Navarro commenced the Bali paintings beginning in 1989 during his first visit to the island, to which he would return occasionally. "Colors—the way colors are used is eye-boggling. I am used to seeing colors in a wellordered way. In Bali, color attains order in a disordered way; as if thrown haphazardly but with order when seen from a distance," Navarro delightfully expressed in his conversations with Rod. Paras-Perez. Bali offered Navarro a sense of artistic reincarnation. ParasPerez wrote: "After his encounter with Bali, the broad dashing calligraphic signature of his oeuvres attained a more vibrant, throbbing color pulse. Moreover, enough works remained within the traditional mode of structuring: a relational approach (to colors and brushwork) swirling around a central core or axis." During the latter part of his life, spanning the years 1993 to 1999, the spirit of abstraction found its way back to Navarro's canvas. From his Bali paintings, Navarro's style returned to abstract expressionism, which he previously explored starting in the 1950s. His art had finally come full circle. Perhaps the primary catalyst for this return was I Madé Sumadiyasa, a Balinese abstract expressionist artist born in 1971. Madé's works show the universal aspects of Balinese culture and philosophy. Cornelius Choy, the man who introduced the magnificence of Balinese arts and handicrafts to Navarro, recounted how the latter became convinced to return to abstraction. Choy shared: "Mr. Navarro always believed in that 'neatness.' But when he saw Madé's abstraction, something snapped. It was the bridge, perhaps, that he had been wanting to cross over for a long time. And when he had actually seen Madé's painting—that was the bridge. And he stepped over… and that's when these exuberant strokes started. Of course, he always had these strokes in his dancers. But he can paint dancers in one fashion, abstraction in another, and watercolor in another fashion. He was able to control that talent. But his abstractions—the last five years of his life—went into a different direction." Through a harmonious interplay of movement and colors, Navarro engendered an approach to abstract expressionism devoid of Western predominance, thus manifesting his Asian sensibility. With the dynamism of brushstrokes displayed by the slathering of paint, Navarro made evident the primary source of his abstraction: a fusion of underlying dynamic forces. Towards the end of his career, abstraction had become Navarro's "motif and content-bearer." (A.M.)