Geronimo Cristobal

Erased Fernando Zobel mural at Parish of the Holy Sacrifice (1953-1955)

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Zobel’s mural, thought to have never been executed and now defaced, adds a modernist texture to the openings of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, 1953-1955. Photo: Nap Jamir/ Ade Bethune collection at the St. Catherine University Library and Archives in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA/ Chong Ardivilia
Zobel’s mural, thought to have never been executed and now defaced, adds a modernist texture to the openings of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, 1953-1955. Photo: Nap Jamir/ Ade Bethune collection at the St. Catherine University Library and Archives in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA/ Chong Ardivilia

I visited the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines yesterday and tried to find out the exact location of Fernando Zóbel’s now erased mural.

Completed in 1955, the circular church brought together some of the most important figures in Philippine modernism: architecture by Leandro Locsin, sculpture by Napoleon Abueva, floor mosaics by Arturo Luz, and paintings by Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok.

Zóbel is almost never mentioned in accounts of the church until I encountered an obscure column by Chong Ardivilla in the Manila Standard.

Credit for the photograph should also go to Nap Jamir Sr., who documented many of Fernando Zóbel’s works and Chong Ardivilla who consulted the Ade Bethune papers at the St. Catherine University Library and Archives in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA