{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1956,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"50","artist":"Vicente Manansala (1910 - 1981)","title":"Fish Vendors","starting_price":16000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1969 (upper right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"30 1/2\" x 34 1/2\" (77 cm x 88 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired directly from the Artist, and thence\nby direct descent to its present owners.","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"FISHES THAT FEED THE SOUL<br /><br />\nLasting Symbols of the Spirit —and Plenty and Prosperity<br /><br />\nby LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL<br /><br />\nBy 1969 — the year ‘Fish Vendors’ was painted —\nVicente Manansala was flush with success. He \nwas not only the recipient of an armful of awards, \n(including the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1963), \nhis one-man shows would attract thousands of guests on \nopening night. His latest show — the entire one, consisting \nof 40 paintings — would be snapped up in a matter of \nminutes by adoring collectors according to newspaper \nreports.<br /><br />\nHe was undoubtedly one of the immortals among the \n“Thirteen Moderns’ of his once and future mentor, Victorio \nEdades.<br /><br />\nIn the company of the arch-Neo Realist Hernando R. \nOcampo, he would next become part of the most significant \nart movement of the country; and originate his own highly \nrecognizable style that would be dubbed by art critics as \n‘Transparent Cubism.’ <br /><br />\nManansala had several sides to his art : The first being \nthe abstracts produced under the aegis of the legendary \nPhilippine Art Gallery.<br /><br /> \nThe second was his turns at a Filipino cubism, influenced \nby his interest in stained glass techniques and butterfly \ncollection.<br /><br />\nBoth of these facets were used to depict the Filipino \ncondition, from life in the slums to queuing for rice rations \nto the narratives of candle vendors and vegetable hawkers; \nwhile all the while, speaking its truth in all its beauty.<br /><br />\nThe beauteous film star Celia Flor (neé Trinidad Teodoro \nwho would later become Mrs. Jose “Peping” Escaño \nCorominas) would meet Vicente Manansala in 1970. It \nwas thanks to an introduction made by her bosom friend \nand Manansala aficionado Lucy Cruz, wife of the political \npundit, later Philippine ambassador to the Hague and the \nUnited Kingdom.<br /><br />\nUnsurprisingly Manansala would ask her to pose in the \nnude for a portrait, a flattering invitation to which she \nobliged. She would then acquire other works from him, \nincluding a view of Holland Park and this remarkable work \ncalled “Fish Vendors.”<br /><br />\nIn the work at hand, two women are surrounded by the \nbounty of the sea — dozens of baskets literally filled to \nthe gills of fish of all shapes and sizes. There are a record \nnumber of them, 35 to be exact, with three blue, speckled \ncrab for good measure.<br /><br />\nThe fish would be a coded symbol of Christianity and its \ndevout followers evading Roman persecution. It would \nbecome spiritual shorthand for the peace and serenity in \nthe centuries to come.<br /><br />\nIn Asia, the fish is both symbolic of ‘plenty’ and the \nprosperity it would bring. For both Celia Flor, who relished \nit everyday in her London home, and the maestro Mang \nEnteng, that was certainly most true.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":24000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":24000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":0,"hammer_price":28838400,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":1986,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/4/5/lot/50.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[],"prev":49,"next":51,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}