{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":23023,"auction_id":26,"set_id":45,"lot_number":"407","artist":"Mauro Malang Santos  (1928 - 2017)","title":"Still Life (Flowers)","starting_price":80000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1993 (lower right)","medium":"gouache on paper","size":"16\" x 14\" (41 cm x 36 cm)","property":null,"coa":"This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by West Gallery confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Edouard Manet once called still life as the “touchstone of painting.” This genre of art has been popular across movements, cultures and periods, with major figures like Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso sharing the Impressionist artist’s view. The earliest known still life paintings were funerary food paintings created by 15th century Egyptians. Ancient Greeks and Romans also created similar depictions which they employed in their mosaics and frescoes. During the middle ages, still lifes were adapted for religious purposes. Aside from incorporating symbolic arrangements into depictions of Biblical scenes; objects like coins, seashells and bushels of fruit were also used to decorate manuscripts. <br /><br /> The usage of flowers in still life was then popularized by Northern Renaissance artists as they grew increasingly interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items. While, Dutch artists during the Golden Age specialized in vanitas paintings inspired by depictions of death partnered with flowers, books, and musical instruments. However, still lifes made its major debut during the PostImpressionist period when Vincent Van Gogh adopted flower vases as his subject and Paul Cézanne painted his famous still-life series featuring apples, wine bottles, and water jugs resting on top of tables. <br /><br /> In the Philippines, despite being primarily known as a painter of genre scenes, Malang would flex his creative muscles once in a while and compose still lifes, which bear unique and interesting qualities. As narrated by Juan T. Gatbonton “Malang paints no specific botanical species; he projects, rather, a personally imagined flora that utilizes various parts and imagery from a variety of plants and flowers. His floral and plant arrangements are a carnival play of clotted petals and leaves, fizzling out into minute jewel-like dabs of color.”<br /><br />  In this floral Still Life, we find subtlety in the shifting viewpoints, tilting of axes, and dislocation of objects. Probably, Malang wanted to take the other objects as mere abstract shapes so that the main object or leitmotif, the flowers in a vase, will remain the focus of attention. Light seems to permeate the scene from all sides casting no shadows: the palette is much lighter and Malang has created a more tell-tale effect with his manner of depicting the details of the flower","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":281000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":281000,"userBid":6512,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":328208,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":20871,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/26/45/lot/407.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[220000,240000,260000,280000,300000,320000,340000,360000,380000,400000,450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":406,"next":408,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}