{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":60736,"auction_id":203,"set_id":236,"lot_number":"25","artist":"Rosario Bitanga (1934 - 2024)","title":"Untitled","starting_price":240000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower right)<br/>\nca. 1955","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"32\" x 26\" (81 cm x 66 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE ARTIST","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Rosario “Charito” Bitanga’s artistic journey was a story of passion and perseverance. Having a military-trained father, she grew up in a household run in a disciplined and orderly manner. While most people find this kind of parenting suffocating, Charito has her strict upbringing to thank for her maturity as a person and as an artist. She was prim and proper, a “good girl” used to obeying, without second thoughts, what her parents asked of her—even in taking a college program that she was not fond of.<br/><br/> Up until high school, all Charito did was study and play the piano. It was only in her sophomore year that she discovered her talent for drawing, prompting her to shift from music to visual arts. She then enrolled in art and painting classes, promptly dropping her piano lessons. But despite her inclination to the arts, her parents disapproved of her being an artist and insisted that she become a lawyer instead. In this regard, she took a two-year Pre-law course under Liberal Arts at the University of Santo Tomas. <br/><br/> However, her affinity for painting did not go away, did not even falter. Upon receiving her Associate of Arts diploma in 1955, Bitanga immediately enrolled in Fine Arts at UST, now with her parents’ approval and support. Her formal art education included mentorship from prominent Filipino artists, including Victorio Edades, Vicente Manansala, Galo Ocampo, Diosdado Lorenzo, and Antonio Garcia Llamas. Still hungry for art cultivation, Charito went to the United States for her graduate studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 1960, she finally earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.<br/><br/> Charito dedicated nearly her entire life to the arts. The years she spent studying and drawing inspiration from the world resulted in a prolific career and a collection of works spanning figurative and non-figurative compositions, landscapes, still lifes, sculptures, and even jewelry. While her early works follow traditionalism in style and subject matter, she became renowned for her abstract works that reflect both her musical and artistic inclinations. Her compositions highlight the artist’s intuitive use of color and form, her musical arrangement of lines, inviting viewers to explore her harmonious relationship with these elements, earning her a distinction as one of the leading Filipina abstractionists. (Jessica Magno)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":650000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":650000,"userBid":34,"isPaid":0,"userId":34,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":19214,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":781040,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":66751,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/203/236/lot/25.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":24,"next":26,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}