{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":56497,"auction_id":110,"set_id":144,"lot_number":"73","artist":"Hernando R. Ocampo (1911 - 1978)","title":"Make Haste Slowly","starting_price":2600000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1978 (lower right)","medium":"acrylic on canvas","size":"30\" x 40\" (76 cm x 102 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"One of H.R. Ocampo’s Last Major Works An Experimental Piece in Red, White, and Black by ADRIAN MARANAN <br /><br /> Hernando R. Ocampo’s Make Haste Slowly is one of the pioneering Filipino non-objectivist and modernist’s last works, painted months before his untimely death on December 28, 1978 due to a heart attack at his home in Maypajo, Caloocan. The work marked a brief period of experimentation for Ocampo, who, in an article written by critic Leonidas V. Benesa for the Philippines Daily Express (12 May 1978), had been derided by art critics and connoisseurs for his marked lack of creativity and innovation. Benesa wrote that the critics said, “Ocampo is no longer as creative as he used to be, or that in any case, he is on a plateau, basking in the adulation of admirers.” <br /><br /> Beyond his critics, Ocampo’s experimentation in his final years was brought about by one fateful meeting of the First Friday Group at the house of Vicente Manansala in Binangonan. While having their usual chitchats, Cesar Legaspi, wrote Benesa, “suddenly lashed out at both the host and Ocampo for having allowed themselves to fall into the rot of complacency and repetition.\" Another article, this time in Journal (23 April 1978), reported that the ever-reserved and soft-spoken Legaspi “suddenly lost his cool and started berating Manansala, then Ocampo, and almost everyone else around. It was a shock to everyone, and Ocampo virtually thrilled in it, seeing it as a good sign that his introverted friend has long at last gone around to expressing himself—as a human being and an artist.” <br /><br /> Angel G. de Jesus, in his “Vignettes” column on Business Day, reported that Legaspi said the following words, “The trouble with you, Nanding, is that you are thinking like an old man. You don’t experiment anymore.” <br /><br /> De Jesus then followed, “A postscript to the incident was the explanation given by Betty, Cesar’s wife, that his sudden change of personality was caused by a drug administered by his doctor for an ailment he was suffering from at that time.” <br /><br /> Meanwhile, Ocampo, as articulated by de Jesus, believed that “Legaspi’s outburst was good for his friend,” and this outlook is “indicative of [Ocampo’s] maturity.” Ocampo also came to his own defense, with de Jesus writing, “Ocampo, however, claims that he continues to study and experiment, but the improvements and changes that he introduces in his work may not be noticed by the casual onlooker.” (This may ring true, especially considering that Ocampo just turned to acrylic painting for the first time in his career in 1974.) <br /><br /> However, Ocampo did not let Legaspi’s criticism slide like that. Ocampo’s ensuing works from that unexpected luncheon subverted his vivid, tropical colors and, instead, significantly reduced his palette to only red, black, and white. The first seven works of this style would be exhibited at the Manila Peninsula Gallery in Makati in celebration of Ocampo’s 67th birthday (This exhibit was also only Ocampo’s third solo show). Of this new phase in Ocampo’s career, Benesa wrote, “…The seven paintings are a serious attempt to break the spell by doing something different. The forms and shapes aren’t different, but it is the first time Ocampo has tried to paint paintings in black and white, the two color polarities, with the color red used to accentuate the design dramatically.” <br /><br /> The most prominent of these works was When Aries Met a Bull, an evocation of Legaspi’s berating rants and so-titled since Legaspi’s zodiac sign was Aries, which precedes Taurus, the bull. Another significant piece from the Manila Pen exhibition was Good Friday in Caloocan, which was auctioned at Leon Gallery in June last year. <br /><br /> There are other works by Ocampo exploring the red-blackwhite triad that were not exhibited at the landmark Manila Pen show. Make Haste Slowly was one. Make Haste Slowly is the English translation of a popular Latin phrase “Festina lente,” denoting to move swiftly yet still acting with prudence and care. In this work, Ocampo’s forms seemingly gracefully move into the center of the composition, and they strive to connect and converse with each other. The reds are put in such a way that it dramatically enlivens the composition. True to its title, the forms and the overall composition are marked by their looseness, with each form dynamically merging in Ocampo’s signature bold fluidity and lively charm, falling into place like puzzle pieces. The painting is a living, breathing unit akin to a human acting instinctively yet moving with willpower. Even without oil's inherent luminosity, the organic forms make the composition \"glow\" due to Ocampo's threefold principle of \"unity, coherence, and emphasis.\" <br /><br /> Make Haste Slowly can also allude to that intriguing First Friday Group luncheon, when his dear friend, the intoxicated Legaspi, emerged from his reticent cocoon and finally had the guts to spill out his outburst of criticism towards his long-time amigo. For H.R. Ocampo, to address criticism is to answer it swiftly but surely—and in his own special case, a suite of new paintings reduced to only three colors that were done in a short span of time yet still emphasizing his identity as a foremost master of his own game, the country’s dazzling colorist who once breathed a new sense of reality into his rather abstract forms.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":4000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":4806400,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":60283,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/73.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":60731,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/73c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60730,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/73d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60728,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/73a.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":60727,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/110/144/lot/73b.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"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":72,"next":74,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}