{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":3513,"auction_id":6,"set_id":8,"lot_number":"114","artist":"Ang Kiukok (1931 - 2005)","title":"Barong-Barong","starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1971 (lower right)","medium":"watercolor on paper","size":"18\" x 37\" (46 cm x 94 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Finale Art File confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Toronto","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Ang Kiukok's depiction of the barung-barong drastically progressed: from the identifiable patchworks of corroded salvaged materials that make up its walls, floors, posts, and roofs, characteristic of Ang's barung-barong from the early 50s up to the mid-60s to the enigmatic forms revealed in the mid-60s onwards.<br /><br />Ang's visit to New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1965 marked a critical turning point in his style. There, he saw Picasso's cubist-surrealist magnum opus—Guernica—on display then at the MoMa. Guernica and Picasso would have an enduring influence in Ang, even revealing to Cid Reyes in 1983 that Picasso was among the Western artists whose works he admired the most. Ang also remarks in the Roces book: \"Up to 1965, painting came easy to me. It was pure technique. In those days, it was all right. Easy... In America and Europe, I saw the paintings in museums and said, \"This is painting.\" When I came back to the Philippines, I could not paint for a while; then, I could hardly wait to get started. Before my trip abroad, I didn't know what direction to take my painting.\"<br /><br />  In the work at hand, we see Ang coming to terms with his own artistry. A convergence of various styles is discerned: Cubism's block-like forms, surrealism's uncanny atmosphere, and expressionism's unnatural colors and distorted and flattened yet evocative forms. The image of the barung-barong follows an intuitive approach rather than a logical one, with its chaotic configuration of shapes evoking the dire situation in the slums.<br /><br />Another important aspect of this work is the barung- barong's appearance, like a combination of machines, suggestive of dehumanization amid a \"progressing\" society. In the Roces book, Ang shares: \"Not only was I influenced by the paintings I saw in the US, but I was even more affected by the people there...The people are like robots, without humanity.\"<br /><br /> The disorderly ambiance of this work, with the barung- barong's shambolic consolidation of salvaged materials, speaks not of the romanticized resilience and ingenuity of the people in the slums but rather their lack of resources to afford a humanized living due to social inequalities. Thus, the work encapsulates a turning point in Ang's career, in which he had already shifted toward the angsty, anguish-filled paintings he has come to be known for. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":1300000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1300000,"userBid":11235,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1518400,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":3742,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/114.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":3744,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/114a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"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":113,"next":115,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}