{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":56544,"auction_id":110,"set_id":144,"lot_number":"119","artist":"Ang Kiukok (1931 - 2005)","title":"Crucifixion","starting_price":2000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1970 (lower right)","medium":"oil on wood","size":"23 1/2\" x 16\" (60 cm x 41 cm)","property":"","coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Finale Art File confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"I n a country as Catholic as the Philippines, it is no surprise that the weeks leading up to the Holy Week are a frenzy of preparations and traditions. From the forty days of observance of Lent to the numerous religious practices held by different Christian denominations, the Holy Week is among the most observed traditions in the country<br /><br />However, there is one tradition that extends far beyond the Visita Iglesia and the pilgrimage that many undertake. Every Good Friday, a crowd gathers in the fields in a handful of places across the country. A group of men walk through the streets, whips in their hands and crosses on their shoulders, as they flagellate across the town. The end of this peculiar tradition sees three men crucified on the cross just as Christ was crucified. <br /><br />The tradition of crucifixion in the Philippines started in the 1950s, as actors played out the Passion of the Christ written by a local playwright; however, the ritual of nailing men on the cross started in 1961 when the faith leader Arsenio Añosa was crucified. For the next fifteen or so years, he continued to be crucified every Good Friday as penance and pledge of faith. Thus began a new tradition. <br /><br />Though the men nailed upon the cross are not hung in the air as long as Christ was (they spend approximately five to ten minutes crucified), they shoulder even just a fraction of Christ’s suffering as a panata (vow) or penitensya (penance) <br /><br />Ang Kiukok’s 1970 Crucifixion portrays an image of a man hanging on a cross. His face is deliberately blurred off so the viewer cannot truly determine who he is. Perhaps this is an illustration of Christ Himself as He was nailed on the cross, or perhaps it is the many devotees whose form of penitence is to follow Christ’s footsteps on the cross as literally as he can. Either way, it is an image of a man on the brink of exhaustion and pain, and it is an image that Kiukok has found himself drawn to over the years. In Kiukok’s crucifixion works, the face is almost always rendered to its barest essence. His body is distorted, almost unrecognizable except for its unnatural bend. “It was a man that was made to bear the cross and endure the crucifixion,” Rene E. Guatlo wrote in Stations of the<br /><br />Cross. “Ang the artist paints the most vivid and painful set of pictures to drive home this point.” <br /><br />An artist drawn to the macabre, it is no surprise that he finds himself returning over and over again to the crucifixion. Through this, he focuses not just on Christ’s sacrifice but the absolute agony He must have faced in His final hours. Whether it be Christ on the cross or a penitent whose form of contrition includes undergoing Christ’s suffering, Kiukok’s crucified figures are as much a testament of faith as it is suffering. As Christ suffered on the cross to bear the weight of mankind’s sins, so too do His devotees suffer as a manifestation of their faith. (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":2400000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":2400000,"userBid":5930,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":2883840,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":60331,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/119.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":118,"next":120,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}