{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":57554,"auction_id":116,"set_id":150,"lot_number":"130","artist":"Lao Lianben (b. 1948)","title":"Zen Cloud","starting_price":1200000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower right)\ndated 2004","medium":"acrylic on canvas","size":"20\" x 10\" (51 cm x 25 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE LEOVINO MA. GARCIA COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired directly from the artist","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Lao’s work feels less like a painting to be consumed and more like a moment to be entered. In this piece, a faint, cloud-like mass hovers high on the canvas, its edges dissolving into thin, watery rivulets that descend with unhurried grace. The surface is sparse, almost untouched, yet every mark feels intentional — the kind of economy of gesture that only comes from practiced restraint. <br><br> Within the framework of contemporary Zen thought, this spareness is a practice in itself. Philosophers like D. T. Suzuki and Shunryu Suzuki have described Zen as the art of seeing into one’s nature through direct experience, and Lao’s image offers that same possibility. The cloud form, ephemeral and dissolving, mirrors the Buddhist truth of impermanence: that nothing stays, and it is precisely this transience that gives life its poignancy. Attempting to hold the form is futile —like the mind grasping for a thought already gone—yet its passing leaves a lingering trace, much like what philosopher Gaston Bachelard called “the poetics of space,” where intimacy and imagination are awakened through subtle, almost invisible cues. Lao’s composition can also be seen as something that engages with the principle of ma, the Japanese concept of negative space as an active presence rather than a passive void. The pale expanse is not empty but charged — a visual equivalent of the breath before speech or the pause between notes in music. <br><br>Lao approaches his work much like a master calligrapher: each stroke, each drip, is the result of mindful attention. The layers of texture and delicate tonal shifts suggest both material fragility and spiritual depth. This is not an image that seeks to explain itself; instead, it offers an opening. In the words of Zen monk Kazuaki Tanahashi, “Line is where the spirit meets the world.” Lao’s lines and washes do exactly that — bridging the intangible space between perception and presence, inviting the viewer to dwell in the stillness that remains when nothing needs to be resolved. (Leovino Ma. Garcia)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1800000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1800000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":2162880,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":62042,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/130.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":62235,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/130d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62234,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/130c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62233,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/130b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":62232,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/116/150/lot/130a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":129,"next":131,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}