{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1904,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"173","artist":"Marcel Antonio (b. 1965)","title":"The Nine Muses","starting_price":800000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower right)<br /> ca. 2000","medium":"acrylic on canvas","size":"48\" x 96\" (122 cm x 244 cm)","property":null,"coa":"León Gallery wishes to thank the artist for confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The works of Marcel Antonio are windows to the \ninner world of the Self, often indulged in tranquil \nimages of revelry. It is a curious quality of \nAntonio's paintings how—despite all passion and feeling \nbecoming subdued by a combination of hazy palettes \nand statuesque figures, one cannot deny the sense of \ndesire that slips into the surface of the canvas. Each \npainting is rendered an act of indulgence, albeit not \nof the passionate, fiery kind. Instead, Marcel Antonio’s \nvisual indulgence is dreamlike and deeply psychological, \nthe unconscious slipping momentarily into the conscious. <br /><br />\nIn Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung writes of the anima \nas the “personification of all feminine psychological \ntendencies” that includes all feeling, intuition, and \nimpulse. As an archetype, the anima is often visualized \nas a woman who serves as one’s guide towards a \ndeeper and higher plane of spirituality. Thus, encounters \nwith woman figures such as the priestess, the witch, \nor bewitching sirens and lorelei—whether in dreams \nor not—is indicative of the state of one’s feelings, \ndesires, and emotional relations. Usually taking the \nform of a fantastical or supernatural being, the anima \nis essentially “of an-other world” and is thus associated \nwith an inherent creativity that seems to come naturally \nfrom a distant elsewhere. <br /><br />\nIn this work by Marcel Antonio, we find such an \nencounter in the serene scene of revelry he depicts. The \nlinear composition is reminiscent of a choir on stage, as \nif a performance intended to lure the audience into its \ndreamlike world, not unlike how sirens enchant sailors in \ntales of the folk. While the painting may be taken as a \nprojection of the artist’s inner world onto the canvas, it \nbecomes a spiritual encounter with anima for the viewer \nas well. As it lures the audience with its performance, it \nconveys a message of the Self—reminding the viewer to \nget in touch with one’s feminine creative impulses. The \nnymph-like maidens are thus not to be taken as mere \nmuses to admire for the viewer. Instead, they are the \nculmination of the creative spirit itself, and one becomes \nstagnant by leaving dormant the inner femininity that \nlies within the psyche. <br /><br />\nWith Antonio’s knack for painting mythologies of the Self, \nsuch is perhaps a wisdom that the artist himself knows \nbest: that art is an indulgence drawing from a deep and \nendless well of creative feminine spirit. (Pie Tiausas)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1600000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1600000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1922560,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":1910,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/4/5/lot/173.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":172,"next":174,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}