{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":39446,"auction_id":58,"set_id":86,"lot_number":"59","artist":"Juanito Torres (b. 1977)","title":"Monuments of Love","starting_price":120000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2014 (lower right)","medium":null,"size":"60” x 72” (152 cm x 183 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":"ART+ magazine, Southeast Asian Heritage Publications, Inc., Issue No. 42, 2016, (illustrated in cover)","write_up":"Juanito Torres is a product of the Philippine High School of the Arts in Makiling, and the College of Fine Arts of the  University of the Philippines.  A 2005 Metrobank Art and Design Excellence Award Finalist, the artist had his first one-man  show at Galerie Joaquin in 2011.  His works have since been included in many prominent museums and institutions around  the country—including the Museum of the Katipunan in San Juan City, the Miguel Malvar Museum in Batangas, and the Luna Museum in Ilocos.  He is known for his historical works that merge the surrealist tradition of Rene Magritte with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Philippine history to bring out new truths of contemporary Philippine society — among some of his favorite subjects has been National Hero, Jose Rizal. \nAside from his libertarian beliefs, Dr. Jose P. Rizal was known to be quite a ladies man, with almost a dozen women linked to him in his short life.  Three women, in particular, stand out: Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Rivera, and his eventual wife, Josephine Bracken.  This painting by contemporary artist Juanito Torres is a comment on Rizal’s relationships with these three iconic  women.  Rizal, as the primary subject of numerous monuments in the Philippines, is seen here in the throes of seeing his  loves as monuments themselves, all of them sharing a light moment, as if they were on a playground swing-set. Beyond is  the seascape of Dapitan, where an exiled Rizal first met the half-Irish Bracken, who came to Dapitan from Hong Kong with  her adoptive father, George Tauffer, to seek medical advice from Rizal, who at the time was one of the leading ophthalmologists in Asia.\nBracken is the dominant figure, seemingly pushed forward by Rizal as if to emphasize her role as his most recognizable love  —immortalized in a line of Rizal’s poem Mi Ultimo Adios: “Adiós, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría” (“Farewell, sweet foreigner, my friend and my joy”).  Also in the painting is Segunda Katigbak who was a childhood crush of Rizal from his home province of Laguna, as is Leonor Rivera who was supposed to have been engaged with Rizal when they were students in Manila, before he left for Spain.  Both seem to have competed their turn on the swing and have settled as staid monuments in the hero’s mind.  Balloons finalize the painting’s playful nature, deftly adding a witty flourish to what would otherwise be a conceptually somber painting.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Juanito Torres</strong> (b.1977)<br /><em>Monuments of Love</em><br />signed and dated 2014 (lower right)<br />oil on canvas<br />60&rdquo; x 72&rdquo; (152 cm x 183 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":500000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":500000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":584000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":37734,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/58/86/lot/59.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":58,"next":60,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}