{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":38483,"auction_id":52,"set_id":80,"lot_number":"118","artist":"Ang Kiukok (1931-2005)","title":"Fishermen","starting_price":12000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1981 (upper left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"40” x 80” (102 cm x 202 cm)","property":"Property FROM an important institution","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":"Gatbonton, Esperanza Bunag, “Kiukok: The Artist and His Works”, Paulino Que, Manila, 1991, p. 103 (illustrated); Roces, Alfredo, “Kiukok: Deconstructing Despair”, Finale Art Gallery, Mandaluyong City, 2000, fig. 331, p. 174-175 (illustrated)","write_up":"Ang Kiukok was born Ang Hwa Shing in Davao, to immigrants from Xiamen, China.  His name Kiukok means “Save the Country”. \nAt a young age, a commercial artist taught him how to make  charcoal portraits.  The family moved after the war to Cotabato, where Ang made movie billboards. \nThey later moved to Manila, where he studied at the cradle of  modern Philippine art, the University of Sto Tomas, Vicente  Manansala was among his teachers and mentors, who became  a life-long friend.  Over the years, the two masters influenced each other’s work.  \nOther professors included Victorio Edades, Diosdado Lorenzo, Jose Garcia Llamas, Francisco Monti, Galo Ocampo, Virginia Ty, and  Bonifacio Cristobal. \nProdded by Manansala, he held his first one-man show at the  Contemporary Arts Gallery, composed of 29 watercolor paintings  and two oil paintings. In 1955, his work “Calesa” won third prize in the Modern Art category in the 5th Shell National Students Art Competition.   \nManansala asked his assistance in painting a mural (now in a private collection) at the National Press Club. Ang Kiukok’s second one-man show was at Lyd Arguilla’s Philippine Art Gallery, then the top venue for young artists’ output.   \nIn 1959, Ang received a special award for his painting “Blind  Musicians” at the Art Association of the Philippines’ 12th Annual  Art Exhibition.  \nIn 1961, he was commissioned to do a mural for Davao Insular Hotel — “Fishermen” — now part of the Ayala Corporation collection. Ang’s other mural, commissioned by the National Manpower and Youth Council, entitled “Men at Work”, was commissioned in 1975.  \nBy the 1960s, Ang was garnering international recognition, receiving awards in Saigon and Taiwan; The Museum of Modern Art in Hawaii acquired some of his works.  \nAng Kiukok became known for his fusion of cubism, surrealism and expressionism, influenced by Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo and Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, but in a style distinctly his. \nIn 1965, together with Vicente Manansala, Ang went to Los Angeles.  He then went on his own to explore New York and Paris. He was  deeply troubled by the way the machine had taken over American life.  \nHis works are intense: his Catholic background shows in his works  on the sorrowful Mother and the suffering Christ.  He painted not only pain, but rage: fighting cocks, dogs mauling each other or howling at the moon; people inflamed, struggling against chains physical and mental.  When asked why he was so angry, Ang replied, “Why not? Open your eyes.  Look around you. So much anger, sorrow, ugliness. And also madness.”  \nBut later in life, he painted the Rosary Queen, images of the Nuestra Señora de la Naval in procession.  He painted lovers, mothers and fathers cradling children.  He started depicting not only junkyards, but open doors and windows.  His cacti were full of thorns, but also flowers.  \nIn his later years, Ang depicted farmers harvesting, and fisherfolk with full nets.  In later years, Ang could not make enough to satisfy his admirers.  Ang was conferred the honor of National Artist for the Visual Arts in 2001. \nRecently, in celebration of the late artist’s 85th birth anniversary,  a retrospective exhibition curated by his son Andrew, was mounted at the Ayala Museum.  The show, entitled “The Golden Years” included some fifty works  from the fifty-year career of Ang.  \nThe painting in this exhibition is the largest painting by Ang Kiukok  to be available for acquisition over the last several years.  There may be a subliminal cipher perceptible as “ANG” in the composition \nThe work depicts three men straining to pull in a net laden with fish. Their muscles struggle against the opposing forces of the weighted net. The sun is high in the sky, a red-copper orb against a sky browner than their skin made pale by the cold water.  Sweat pours from their lean bodies, in their thoughts are thanks for the bounty that makes a living possible. \n-Ramon N. Villegas","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Ang Kiukok</strong> (1931-2005)<br /><em>Fishermen</em><br />signed and dated 1981 (upper left)<br />oil on canvas<br />40&rdquo; x 80&rdquo; (102 cm x 202 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":56000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":56000000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":65408000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":36755,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/52/80/lot/118.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[],"prev":117,"next":119,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}