{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":59779,"auction_id":186,"set_id":220,"lot_number":"64","artist":"Manuel Ocampo (b. 1965)","title":"Murio la Verdad","starting_price":1600000,"signed_dated":"signed (verso)<br/>\ndated 1990","medium":"oil and collage on canvas","size":"72\" x 108\" (183 cm x 274 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Ro Gallery, Summer Modern and Contemporary Art Auction, New York City, 17 July 2018, Lot 294","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Presenting a powerful example of his confrontational and syncretic visual masterpieces, Manuel Ocampo combines Catholic iconography, colonial history, popcultural reference, and violent satire into a masterpiece that provokes and forces viewers to confront uncomfortable histories and socio-political issues.\n\nFocusing first on the central image is a pair of humanoid figures; The first one on the right is a conical-shaped hooded figure—almost executioner-like— holding what resembles a rifle as the second figure—the devil—seems to cling to the human as if guiding the latter to as arrows seem to shoot from the devil's bow.\n\nWhat's interesting about this piece is that the two central figures seem to stand above the clouds—resembling popular iconography of saints but applied to devils or figures with sinister or violent intent. This corruption of sacred form is central to Ocampo's critique of cultural erasure, the use of historical revisionism to disrupt truth, and internalized colonial values.\n\nAnother striking detail on the piece is the phrases and words illustrated on parts of the canvas. The first is the phrase strung across the top of the central figures, like a banner, that reads both as an accusation and an obituary: \"Murió la Verdad,\" meaning \"The truth died.\" A phrase that strongly suggests the death of truth—possibly under colonial or authoritarian narratives, religious domination, or social propaganda.\n\nIt was then complemented by the phrases \"Subir y Bajar\" and \"Muerte por muerte\", which translates to \"Rise and Fall\" and \"Death for Death\" respectively. These phrases suggest that the truth itself is often subject to manipulation—some truths rise while others are pushed into obscurity. Many truths are erased or replaced entirely. All based on who holds the power, while moral collapse, cyclical violence, and instability persist beneath the canvas of such \"truths\".\n\nOverall, Ocampo's 1990s artwork, Murió la Verdad, read both as a statement and a declaration that colonial religion, historical revisionism, and authoritarian power had killed truth.\n\nBy embodying the artist's provocative and offensive strategy in artmaking, Ocampo had managed to cement claim by weaponizing the same medium of symbols against themselves. Essentially exposing how sacred narratives have always been used to justify violence and silence while hiding or changing the \"truth\" in their favour, like expendable currency. His angry, confrontational, irreverent, and historically charged art style presents a vision of history as a brutal theater of power, faith, and violence. (Mark John Castañeda)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1900000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1900000,"userBid":34,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":15108,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":2283040,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":65274,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/186/220/lot/64.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"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":63,"next":65,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}