{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":21982,"auction_id":23,"set_id":42,"lot_number":"76","artist":"Remy Boquiren (b. 1940)","title":"Magnolia","starting_price":20000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2021 (lower left)","medium":"acrylic on canvas","size":"16\" x 16\" (41 cm x 41 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"It seems like a surprise that flowers, as subjects of painting and, in extension, as objects worthy of aesthetic contemplation, seem to be a relatively late occurrence in the sphere of Philippine painting, when Filipino aesthetics is undoubtedly colorful and joyful – two attributes that can be related to flowers, specially to our tropical blossoms that bloom in profuse splendor. While the genre of the floral still life has flourished in Europe since the Renaissance, and botanical illustration even as early as the first century; flowers, in Philippine painting have always been relegated to ornamentation, rather than primary subjects, until the latter half of the 21st century. The earliest works that focused flowers as main subjects appear in the scientific botanical Flora de Filipinas in 1837, and these were primarily for scientific rather than aesthetic purposes. Edible fruits were often preferred in still lifes by Filipino painters from the late 19th and 20th century. Despite the profusion of tropical blooms in the Philippines, floral works have been rather neglected perhaps because of the pragmatic nature of our culture where ornamentation serves a higher purpose, and perhaps because painting is largely, at the onset, a male dominated field.
Remy Boquiren is among the staunch practitioners of floral painting. Heading the all female group Floral Artists of Manila since its inception in 2019, Boquiren often resorts to floriography to express gnosis of the inter-relatedness and unity of various themes which include femininity, fecundity, nature, the fragility of life, tradition, and culture.
In Magnolia, Boquiren paints white and pink magnolias in full bloom which have traditionally been associated with nobility, purity, femininity and love.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Remy Boquiren (b. 1940) Magnolia signed and dated 2021 (lower left) acrylic on canvas 16\" x 16\" (41 cm x 41 cm)