MANILA, Philippines - The late Negrense Visual Artist Leandro "Larry" Tronco, was honored with a posthumous award at the 1st University of Sto. Tomas Atelier Awards last April 15, 2023 at the Ballroom of the Alumni Center at the UST, Espana, Manila.
Tronco received the Edades award which is the highest conferment given by the UST Atelier Alumni Association to an individual who has embodied National Artist Victorio Edades' life as an artist and educator, shaping the next generation of creative people.
Larry Tronco was a revered professor in the field of Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas in the 1960s. He was known among his students as "Mr. Ad Man" because while he taught at the UST, he was also working as an art director in known advertising agencies of the time.
Born in Kabankalan in 1929, Larry Tronco was a graduate of the Kabankalan Academy class of 1948. He entered the University of the Philippines the next year but stayed only for a year and then moved to the University of Santo Tomas. While in UST, he was selected by the Spanish government to be a scholar and sent to Spain to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando with National Artists Cesar Legaspi and Arturo Luz.
Larry Tronco and Cesar Legaspi in Madrid, Spain in 1953
After his studies, he began a colorful career in the world of advertising in Manila being employed by Admakers, Dentsu, J. Walter Thompson, and in 1979 started Tronco Advertising Co., Inc. in Bacolod City.
Tronco also gave back to his alma mater by dedicating himself to teaching Fine Arts students at the College of Architecture and Fine Arts for more than a decade, spanning the late 1950s to the early 1970s.
The faculty of the Collece of Architecture and Fine Arts of the UST. Larry Tronco is at the leftmost third row, while School of Fine Arts Director, Victorio C. Edades is seated at the front. (6th)
Tronco was also a founding member of the Art Association of Bacolod City and was considered among Negros' best visual artists by Art and Culture expert, Ramon Hofilena.
Tronco's posthumous Edades Award was received by his son, Lloyd Tronco, from renowned artist Raul Isidro, who himself was a student of Larry Tronco in the 1960s. Alongside Isidro was artist, UST alumnus, and TOYM awardee Abe Orobia and UST Atelier Alumni President Marie Pe.
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