Artist Juvenal Sansó passes away at 95

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March 31, 2025 | 12:00pm

MANILA, Philippines — Spanish-born Philippine artist Juvenal Garrit Sansó passed away last March 28. He was 95 years old. 

He is survived by his niece, Carmen Montes. 

Throughout most of his life, Sansó was known as one of the foremost Philippine modernist artists. He was respected by his peers in the art community and by many artists from different generations; and in his later years, he was honored by a myriad of prestigious institutions. Yet for Sansó, art was his primary means for personal expression; a way to communicate the narrative of the personal pains, quiet healings, and public triumphs of his life. 

Sansó was born in Reus, Spain, on November 23, 1929. He and his family emigrated to the Philippines in 1934 to escape civil unrest and settled in Manila. His father, Jose Sansó-Pedret, established a wrought-iron business, which eventually became the popular furniture company Arte Español. The Sansós lived a peaceful and comfortable existence until the advent of World War II, which scarred the teenage Juvenal physically and emotionally. These horrific wartime experiences later influenced his art; the trauma reflected in his early works showing dark and grotesque subjects. 

In post-war years, Sansó took up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines and was taught by National Artists Fernando Amorsolo and Guillermo Tolentino. He discovered modernism sitting in at classes under Cesar Legaspi, Galo Ocampo, and Antonio Garcia-Llamas at the University of Santo Tomas. Sansó garnered awards for his student works, and soon after, pursued further studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma in Italy and at l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.  

Sansó’s early student years eventually blossomed into a long artistic career, exhibiting in Europe; being represented in prestigious museums and institutions locally and internationally; participating in countless one-man shows, and celebrated in major retrospectives leading to his 70th year in art in 2016. Although he is admired by collectors and enthusiasts for his floral and expressionist paintings and landscapes, Sansó’s body of work spans illustration, printmaking and etching, textile design, costume and stage design, and photography. 

The culmination of Sansó’s artist’s life was the creation of Fundacion Sansó in 2014. Located in San Juan City, Fundacion Sansó is not only an archive and library of his work, but a non-profit foundation that supports emerging young artists, art students, and advocacies within the industry, of which was Sansó’s furtive wish. 

RELATED: Sanso’s ‘Elogio del Agua’ opens yearlong retrospective