{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":57541,"auction_id":116,"set_id":150,"lot_number":"118","artist":"José Joya (1931 - 1995)","title":"Cardona Trail","starting_price":8000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1965 (lower left and verso)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"30\" x 24\" (76 cm x 61 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Alexander Richard Joya\nBaldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Acquired directly from the artist","exhibited":"Sally Jackson Art Gallery, Jose Joya: One-Man Show (Sponsored by the\nPhilippine Consulate General, Hong Kong), Hong Kong, 15 November - 5\nDecember 1966","literature":null,"write_up":"Cardona Trail is among the first set of works Jose Joya painted after he returned from his triumphant participation at the 1964 Venice Biennale, in which he and Napoleon Abueva made history as the first Filipino artists to make it to the most prestigious event in the art world. It was also one of the works exhibited in Joya's first exhibition in Hong Kong in 1966, when the region began to emerge as an art center and where a flourishing art scene had rapidly been advancing, exemplified by the Circle Art Group, Hong Kong's avant-garde, modernist group who experimented with bridging both Oriental and Occidental concepts and ideals in their art. Jackson Yu, one of the members of the Circle Art Group, was the founder of the Sally Jackson Gallery, established in 1963 as one of Hong Kong’s pioneering galleries. It was where Joya held his landmark show in the region, which was sponsored by the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong.<br><br> In Cardona Trail, Joya's impasto-laden canvas highlights a particular scenery in Cardona, Rizal Province. Joya was an avid fan of the countryside, leaving the urban chaos to revel in the inner peace of the rural and gain creative revitalization from its immaculate beauty. Joya often went to his favorite spot—Tanay Hills in Barangay Sampaloc, Tanay. <br><br>The road to Tanay passes by the town of Cardona, and Joya most likely stopped by the latter to observe and sketch its rocky and hilly terrain. In particular, there is a portion of a road (now known as the Manila East Road) in Cardona overlooking the Laguna de Bay that goes up a hill. In the book Joya: Drawings by Leonidas Benesa and Joya himself, the artist wrote an anecdote to a drawing titled Rocky Hill, sketched in 1965, around the same time as Cardona Trail. The drawing portrays a rugged, steep terrain, with rocks seemingly jutting off the hills' edges; therefore, it may have served as one of the bases for Cardona Trail. In his annotations to the drawing, Joya wrote, \"Hills of this kind abound near the towns of Rizal, which I often see on the way to Tanay. They remind us of Chinese art subjects.” <br><br>Cardona Trail also brings to mind the Cardona Rock Gardens, Cardona’s famous geological site featuring rock formations said to be spewed out from a prehistoric volcanic eruption thousands of years ago and developed over time through natural processes of weathering and erosion. <br><br>Earthy colors and dense impastos that almost fill the canvas from edge to edge endow Cardona Trail with such solidity, evoking the natural world's raw charm and fierce resilience. Joya draws inspiration from Eastern aesthetics and maintains a connection with his Oriental identity by drawing an affinity with nature. For Joya, abstract expressionism is not merely born from immediacy and the need to express oneself, i.e., an individualist frame of mind much like the Western style. Instead, the spontaneous and action-packed energy of abstract expressionism comes<br><br>from nature itself, a dynamic entity inseparable from our humanity. For Joya, nature is an artist's number one teacher, the immeasurable wellspring of inspiration. This is the reason why Joya very much loved the countryside, often visiting it and producing innumerable sketches that became the basis for his abstract masterpieces. Much like his fellow Oriental painters, Joya possessed reverence for the living world and all its elements as embodiments of creation whose \"Prime Mover\" is beyond human rationality. As seen in Cardona Trail, Joya pays homage to the natural world; that we are but custodians of nature's blessings and witnesses of its sheer beauty and force. Joya emphasizes the harmony between humanity and nature, with us perpetually reliant on its material gifts and spiritual energies that sustain us holistically—even satiating our cravings for creativity and artistic expression. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":11000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":11000000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":13217600,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":62027,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/118.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":62204,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/118d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62201,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/118c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62200,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/118b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62199,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/118a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":117,"next":119,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}