{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":22017,"auction_id":23,"set_id":42,"lot_number":"111","artist":"Brian Uhing (b. 1975)","title":"Abandoned Monuments","starting_price":5000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2020 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"40\" x 33\" (102 cm x 84 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Contemporary artist Brian Uhing subverts the classical notions of Western art under the authority of symbolism and surrealism. Uhing's refined paintings of classical figures lean towards the traditional, specifically the Flemish and Venetian painting style or what he calls \"glazing galore.\" His art process is inspired by the old masters, such as Félix Resurrección Hidalgo and Jacob van Ruisdael. He injects it with dark humor rendered in his distinct surrealist approach. \"They [old masters] didn't paint what was before them, but instead focused more on how to show everything at its most exaggerated, dramatic advantage,\" Uhing said.
In a 2021 interview with ANCX, Uhing recounted his childhood and narrated how the old masters influenced his art. \"My parents believed in the powerful influence of books on art, so I grew up immersed in the images of the old masters, the artist said. \"I loved how their works appeared submerged in deep water and would give off their own faint light. It just filled me with this haunting, romantic feeling. Then I discovered the works of Magritte, Duchamp, and Balthus, who used their art to play pranks! I thought, if I could marry the richness of Titian's work with the humor of Magritte, that would be something I wouldn't mind seeing.\"
Abandoned Monuments depicts a weary elderly man with his hand holding onto a white flag traditionally attributed to capitulation. With sunken eyes and wrinkled skin, the man's face unveils a face that had been worn by the passage of time. He is portrayed as hiding within a \"shell,\" representing the prime version of himself—younger, bolder, and high-spirited. Miniature toy soldiers dressed in medieval crusader regalia are seen conducting an offensive into his façade. According to Uhing, the painting conveys \"a point when you decide to let go of an idea of yourself and allow it to succumb to whatever your fate may bring.\"
This work also serves as a visual commentary on late-life crises. As we grow older, we deeply long for a period in our lives where our strength, vigor, and success were at their greatest. However, this sentimentality and nostalgia can make us vulnerable to a late-life existential dread. Notwithstanding our accomplishments and triumphs, we continue striving to prove our worth and merit in this mundane world. As our impermanence becomes more conspicuous, we may experience frustration, a loss of identity, and the feeling that our life has already reached its culmination. But these predicaments are, in fact, opportunities in disguise for us to acknowledge that we need to have a genuine connection with those around us before it becomes too late. Uhing's work reminds us that existence is not entirely derived from worldly gains but also the essence of our relationship with other humans; isolation is fatal. Moreover, we may not have preserved and sustained our youth due to the transience of human life, but at least we have grown to become more resilient amid the vicissitudes life has still to thrust.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Brian Uhing (b. 1975) Abandoned Monuments signed and dated 2020 (lower right) oil on canvas 40\" x 33\" (102 cm x 84 cm)