{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1878,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"147","artist":"Mauro Malang Santos (1928 - 2017)","title":"Banana Series","starting_price":4000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1978 (lower right)","medium":"gouache on paper","size":"40\" x 60\" (102 cm x 152 cm)","property":null,"coa":"León Gallery wishes to thank the West Gallery for  confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":"\nBravo, Edilberto B., Mariano C. Lao, and Jaime C. Laya.<br />\nHidden Treasures, Simple Pleasures. Makati City: Bookhaven, Inc., <br />\n2009. Full-color photograph and painting description on page 149.","write_up":"Mauro Malang Santos' \nBanana Series counts \namong the largest works by \nthe artist to enter the Philippine art \nmarket. But beyond this impressive \nfeat lies a kind of technical brilliance \nthat Malang's paintings of plants \nand trees cheerfully exemplify. <br /><br />\nMalang's plants and trees sprouted \non his canvas in the mid-1970s as \na natural progression and elevation \nfrom the themes that had populated \nhis art in the years prior. Previously, \nMalang had only relegated these \nlush vegetations in the background \nto support the integrity of the focal \nsubject; they serve as enhancements \nfor the landscapes of bustling \nbarrios and busy towns, portraits \nof women vendors, and rows of \nordinary houses, but are now the \nprotagonists and \"movers\" of the \ncomposition. \"Malang's obsessive \nurge to work in 'series' is probably \ndictated by the need for a visual \nfulcrum on which to anchor his \nideas. In the Plants and Trees\npaintings, he has found an image \nworthy of his rich imaginings,\" writes \nin the catalog of his 1981 exhibition \nat the Museum of Philippine Art.<br /><br /> \nThis 1978 piece titled Banana Series\ncaptures Malang's invigorating \npursuit to reanimate his creative \nplay on figure-ground relationships \nand their playful interaction within \nthe space of the composition. As \nEdilberto B. Bravo puts it in the book \nHidden Treasures, Simple Pleasures,\n\"urban shanties in signature Malang \nstyle become the background for \nthis glorious rendering of a banana \ntree.\" <br /><br />\nThe banana tree (an herbaceous \nflowering plant if one considers \nscientific accuracy)—with its \ngigantic, lush leaves rendered \nin Malang's trademark angular \nshapes and its luxuriant fruits and \nflowers signifying its sound growth \nand the fertility of the soil—serves \nas the most crucial element in the \ncomposition. While the background \nis permeated with a homogenous \nblue sky and crammed with \nmonochromatic barong-barongs,\nthe banana tree is highly \ndistinguishable from the rest of the \ncanvas due to its graphic depiction, \neffectively drawing the line \nbetween subject and background \nand veering the viewer's focus \ninto the tree's radiant and varying \ncolors. Thus, Malang's intention to \nelevate his plants and trees into the \nprotagonist of his works during the \nmid to late 1970s is made evident.<br /><br /> \nFurthermore, by situating a lofty \nand fruitful banana tree in the \nmiddle of the slums, Malang injects \ninto a rather depressing subject an \ninherent optimism that immensely \nspeaks of his gleeful disposition in \nlife. \"I guess I just happen to be \none of the more fortunate ones,\" \nMalang said to Cid Reyes when \ninterviewed in June 1985. “Siguro \n[dahil] masasaya ang kulay ko \n[Maybe because my colors speak of \njoy]. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":4600000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4600000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":5527360,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":1893,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/4/5/lot/147.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":146,"next":148,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}