Call Me Juvy
Pepper Teehankee recounts three decades of friendship with Juvenal Sansó.
Words & Photo courtesy of Pepper Teehankee
October 06, 2025
“Call me Juvy” is what he said that made me finally comfortable hanging out with the great Juvenal Sansó. This happened a couple of years from our first meeting.
I was quite nervous meeting Juvy in 1991. I was familiar with his work as a child. My grandparents had a huge painting by him hanging in the foyer of their home, and I would read up about his works from a book about him owned by my aunt. I went to one of his art exhibits in a private home with one of his paintings in tow. I wanted him to sign the back as it was the first artwork I purchased that was by him. When I finally met him, he was surprised that I had chosen a reverse painting of his as my first ever Sansó work. I said that I had bought it when I was still a student and I just fell in love with it.
Juvy Sanso and Pepper Teehankee
I would see him every now and then at art shows and remind him that I was the one who had his reverse painting signed at the back… and he remembered. Years had passed before I bumped into him and greeted him as Mr. Sansó. That’s when he told me to call him Juvy and invited me to lunch.
Memories of Home, c. 1990s, acrylic on paper, Christopher Teehankee Collection
That first lunch would be one of many. We would go to a restaurant (usually Chef Jesse in the Rockwell Club), I would drop him off and enter his home in Bel Air, Makati, where he would show me his new works and talk about art. These lunches of ours would even extend to Paris whenever we were both there. I would visit his apartment at Rue des Colonels-Renard and he would take me out for Chinese food right below his apartment and we would continue to talk at his studio after our lunches. He would show me his new and old works as he enjoyed reminiscing about his past. It was here where he showed me some of his miniature slides, or cliché verre, and said I was the first person to see this since he brought them out of storage. It was here where he also showed me some of the works he designed for fabrics to be used for scarves to be made by Balenciaga.
In a Glimpse, Beckoning, c. 1990s, acrylic on paper, Christopher Teehankee Collection
He joked a lot and I think his jokes were as corny as mine, which is what made us get along so well. We also talked about art and travel for hours. His work so enthralled me that, one day, I asked my editor if we could do a feature on him for a magazine (People Asia). I was to art direct the shoot and thought I’d make him paint on the spot. I found an ostrich egg at home and asked him to paint it for the shoot. He said he had never painted on something convex but would try. He grabbed a brush and started painting a rose. He said it was not as easy as painting on a flat surface and would probably never do it again. After his live painting session was shot and documented, he asked me what I would do with the egg. I told him I would keep it to be part of my Sansó collection. He said it was a good move for me to ask him to paint on something to get and keep his work, adding “that is the first Sansó egg in the world and will be the last. I won’t do another one again and I’m glad it’s with you.”
Fondly Remembered, c. 1990s, acrylic on ostrich egg, Christopher Teehankee Collection
My Sansó collection is not big. It has the reverse painting, the ostrich egg, and a little over a dozen small works Juvy had given to me through the years. He would occasionally give me a small artwork whenever we had lunch or whenever he felt like it. That’s how my collection grew…from his generosity. The artworks he gave me started small and got bigger as the years progressed. It would have been lucrative for me to have lunch with him weekly to get an artwork, but I never asked him and always waited for him to call whenever he felt like getting together to catch up.
Collector’s Portrait - Pepper Teehankee
He even offered to put artworks in the empty little ornate frames I would buy during my flea market visits abroad, and I have taken him up on that offer twice. On two separate occasions, I had presented him with a pair of small empty frames. “That’s it? Why so small? Make it bigger and I’ll make a work that will fit!” he tells me. I replied that I have always loved small works…and I would be too embarrassed to ask him to make me a big work, even if he offered. This resulted in some of the smallest paintings Juvy has ever done; one is a mere 3.5 by 2 inches in size.
Resonating Radiance, c 1990s, acrylic on paper Christopher Teehankee Collection
I once asked him how I would know if the work he gave me was under or above water. He answered, “Look at the round white ball or dot, which is the moon. If that is present, the scene is above water. If it is not present, you decide if it’s above or under water!” We both laughed as we went through photos of works from my collection to figure out which were indeed under water.
Juvy stopped calling when his health started to deteriorate. I would still attend some of the more intimate gatherings Fundacion Sansó would have with him present, but he didn’t remember me anymore. I would show him photos of us from the past, but he would look at them but would not react.
Sanso and Pepper Portraits by Anita Magsaysay-Ho
Ours was a friendship that lasted over three decades. I have good memories and beautiful artworks made by him that I see every day. What makes my Sansó works more special is that they were given to me, and some specifically made for me by him. I even offered to pay for the ones I asked for but he refused. His generosity was bewildering, but I would like to believe that he really just enjoyed my company and conversation. I am forever grateful for that and that he was part of my life.
