{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":56444,"auction_id":110,"set_id":144,"lot_number":"20","artist":"Vicente Manansala (1910 - 1981)","title":"Kuaresma","starting_price":8000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1966 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"31\" x 35\" (79 cm x 89 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE DON EUGENIO “GENY” LOPEZ JR. COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The lot at hand, entitled Kuaresma, is part of Vicente Manansala’s Whirr Series, a collection of works depicting the birds in various states of flight. Beginning in 1962, Whirr found itself as one of Manansala’s most enduring series, a representation of freedom, liberty, and religion as the Philippines takes its first steps following its independence. As the birds fly over their obstacles and sorrow, so too can a burgeoning nation, or so says Manansala.<br /><br />\n\nA handful of Whirr works feature the beautiful white dove – a species loaded with religious and national symbolism. In shades of red, blue, and while, his Whirr series is as effervescent as it is ethereal, a dream come to life as flocks of white doves fly through the canvas.<br /><br />\n\nHowever, Kuaresma takes the opposite direction. Instead of the pure white doves that adorned many of his works, the birds in this work are smaller, darker, and more compact, emblematic of the common maya. Still, despite its commonality, Birds in Flight is as grandiose as the rest of the piece. The flock of maya flies above the lush Philippine forests, their shadows darkening the ground below, a vision that is well and truly Filipino.<br /><br />\n\nManansala’s Whirr series began in 1962, and by 1963, a different Birds in Flight was featured on the cover of the Sunday Times Magazine. By June of the same year, he was awarded the Republic Cultural Heritage Award, the prestigious precursor to the National Artist Award.<br /><br />\n\nThis particular Kuaresma was created in 1966, three years after the Republic Cultural Heritage Award, and still it is a magnificent example of Whirr’s beauty. Manansala’s Transparent Cubism highlights the ethereality of this piece – ever a romantic Filipino, Manansala cannot fully subscribe to the indiscriminate and total breakdown of subject matters the way Western Cubism tends to do. Instead, Manansala opts to break down his subject matter into fragments and pieces without totally turning its form or figure into abstraction. He uses delicate tones, shapes, and patterns, and masterfully superimposes them onto an image to create a cohesive cubist piece.<br /><br /> \n\nWhirr, in its essence, is a form of aerial poetry. The transparent planes of his works evoke the path of flight, wrote Paras-Perez, and it carves its own way into the sky, leaving behind only hints of its meaning and values. “The animal is the physical embodiment of movement,” Sotheby wrote in a different Whirr piece. “Together with the animal in mid-flight, ready to soar away, he is essentially trying to capture the essence of life itself.” (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":9500000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":9500000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":11415200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":60233,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/20.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":60578,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/20a.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60576,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/20b.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":19,"next":21,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}