{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":39033,"auction_id":55,"set_id":83,"lot_number":"154","artist":"Cenon M. Rivera (1922-1998)","title":"Mother and Child","starting_price":140000,"signed_dated":null,"medium":"oil on canvas","size":"36” x 20” (91 cm x 51 cm)","property":"Property from THE Anthony Stoner collection","coa":null,"provenance":"Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Just a year younger than Romeo V. Tabuena, the two became fast friends at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, where Rivera had cross-enrolled for a few art courses just before the War. He had, in truth, signed up for a major in Art Education in the University of Santo Tomas’ College of Education but his family was willing to indulge what was apparently an obvious aptitude in art.\n\nCenon M. Rivera would also write short stories to make ends meet between 1942 to 1945 for such publications as Liwayway and Malaya. His son Noel has described him in a recent interview as “painter, poet, printmaker, stained glass, maker of mosaic, sculptor” — in that order.\n\nIn 1956, his interest in wood-cut printing — which attracted him because of its proletarian qualities that had the potential of democratizing art — would become a major influence in his art practice. While conventional oil on canvas would create a single original, woodblock prints could create as many copies as an artist needed or wanted, Rivera reasoned. The idea of art that was accessible to as many people as possible was an attractive concept at a time when technology, no matter how basic, was seen as the route to a more perfect world.\n\nRivera was no doubt introduced to the Philippine Art Gallery by his amigo Tabuena and in October 1956, his first one-man show was held at the PAG.\n\nIt included not only wood-block prints but “also watercolors and oil works” using the black outlines that would become his signature imprint.\n\nHis fascination for segmented figures also led him to explore stain glass, which he studied in Rome thanks to a grant from the Italian government.\n\n“Mother and Child” is almost certainly from that show, which was reviewed in the Sunday Times Magazine a fortnight afterwards on November 11, 1956.\n\nThe artwork depicts a woman dressed in a short terno, with the scooped neckline and arches of the distinctive butterfly sleeves clearly outlined along with the flounces of the skirt. She is also traditionally groomed with a fall of straight hair. A baby bounces on her knee. The glorious golds and earthy browns convey both the simplicity and pure joy of the moment.\n\nRivera would succeed Victoria Edades as director of the School of Fine Arts of his alma mater, the University of the Santo Tomas, serving for two terms from 1966 to 1973. His son would note that, “Three years after his retirement in 1994, he was conferred the title of Professor Emeritus by the University.”\n\n-Lisa Guerrero Nakpil","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Cenon M. Rivera</strong> (1922-1998)<br /><em>Mother and Child</em> <br />Ca.1956<br />oil on canvas<br />36&rdquo; x 20&rdquo; (91 cm x 51 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":400000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":400000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":467200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":58693,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/55/83/lot/154.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":153,"next":155,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}