{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":59742,"auction_id":186,"set_id":220,"lot_number":"27","artist":"Justin Nuyda (1944 - 2022)","title":"Year of the Gold-Breasted Dragon","starting_price":4000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1988 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"48\" x 84\" (122 cm x 213 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Sino-Filipino relations are so deeply intertwined within the history of the Philippines that it is hard to untangle where one begins and the other ends. Theirs is a friendship stretches back hundreds of years, before borders were formally drawn and nations officially created. Their relative distance created fairly consistent interactions between the countries, and they enjoyed trading goods, knowledge, and, soon enough, practices. \n\nSome of the earliest Chinese settlers in the Philippines established their roots in Binondo, where merchants had already become a formidable force in the early Philippine economy. Mostly settling just outside the walled city of Intramuros (a result of the Spanish authorities restricting their movements within the city), the Catholic-converted Chinese were eventually moved just across the Pasig River, which would eventually be known as Binondo. \n\nBinondo, for its part, remained true to its Chinese heritage while masterfully integrating itself into the ever-changing cultural terrain of the growing Philippines. It is reputed to be the world’s oldest Chinatown, a living and breathing testimony to the story of the Chinese-Filipino. \n\nIn the present day, a Chinese holiday holds significant weight, one that is tied with Binondo itself. Falling on the second new moon after the winter solstice, Binondo finds itself the epicenter of the celebrations. From the Dragon Dance to the various Chinese traditions that are said to bring luck, the Sino-Filipino traditions are truly alive and well. \n\nIt is this Chinese festivity that prolific artist Justin Nuyda took his inspiration from. His Year of the Golden-Breasted Dragon, created in the same year as the titular dragon took its turn in the Chinese zodiac cycle in 1988. \n\nThe dragon holds a unique and revered position in the Chinese zodiac – unlike its fearsome Western counterpart, the Chinese Dragon is a benevolent creature, a symbol of power, strength, and good fortune. So revered are they that emperors consider themselves the Dragon’s descendants, drawing on that ancestry as a symbol of their divine right to rule. \n\nNuyda’s Year of the Golden-Breasted Dragon echoes the artist’s waiflike brushstrokes. A renowned lepidopterist in his own right, he has spent a good amount of his childhood in the woods, inheriting his family’s fascination with butterflies. \n\n“My dad, writer Hermenigildo Nuyda, was second of six brothers who all grew up in Bicol in the 40s,” he said, as Jay Bautista wrote in his article ‘The Two Lives of Justin Nuyda.’ “They had a garden where butterflies roamed freely. Maganda ang kamalig nuon. They started naming them based on their looks and forms: vampire, forest king, green enchantress, spotty green, cabbage.” \n\nThis fascination bled into his unique sense of colors. Although the hues look almost otherworldly, these are color combinations seen on the wings of a butterfly. “You cannot go wrong with nature, it is always right,” he recalled National Artist Cesar Legaspi telling him. \n\nIt is this principle that gave Nuyda’s works a surrealist twist while remaining grounded in reality. Developing his own visual language, he favored an airy type of abstraction that is closer to what might’ve been his view up in the mountains than it is to any preexisting standard. \n\nHere, instead of the aforementioned butterflies and landscapes, Nuyda depicts the titular golden-breasted dragon in all its glory, its long ochre body flying freely above the clouds. With 1988 being the year of the Earth Dragon, there is a certain sense of groundedness with the creature despite its full flight. It is a symbol of strength, resilience, and success — traits that are deeply interwoven within the Sino-Filipino history, culture, and identity. (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":6500000,"hammer_price":0,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":65237,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/27.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":65623,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/27b.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":65423,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/27d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":65422,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/27c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":65421,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/27a.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":26,"next":28,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}