{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":40060,"auction_id":61,"set_id":89,"lot_number":"155","artist":"Nena Saguil (1924-1994)","title":"Barrio Mother and Child","starting_price":2000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1953 (lower left)","medium":"oil on wood","size":"30” x 24” (76 cm x 61 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE DR. AND MRS. ROMEO H. GUSTILO COLLECTION","coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired in the 1950s by Dr. Romeo H. Gustilo. Dr. Gustilo was a pioneering neurosurgeon and one of the founders of Makati Medical Center.","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"This work by Nena Saguil takes us back to prewar Manila, when a more picturesque depiction of quotidian life was more  conceivable.  A nipa-hut, bamboos, hibiscus flowers, a burnay jar, baskets, banana leaves, innocent children and their genteel mother are laid into the work with a certain weightlessness, posting them unto a backdrop that features a romanticized,  dreamlike version of life in the Philippines.  This aspect of the work becomes surprising as we realize that this piece entitled &quot;Barrio Mother and Child&quot; was created by Saguil in 1953, in post-war Philippines, as much of the romantic depiction were  accompanied by more gritty, real themes.  This was a period of great transition and rebuilding for most artists, and around  this time, the liberation of expression was also underway.\nThis was also the time when Saguil was beginning to transition her art from representational to abstraction.  In this work,  we see that she did away with the perception of depth and composed her subjects with distorted angles and shapes.  The work remains lyrical and poetic however, maintained by her flair for color.  The warm tones of orange, red, ochre and browns are  balanced by the various shades of green, by light purples and darker greys making the marriage of objects visually pleasing. Saguil's use of pattern in clothing, tapestry, and weaving inject playfulness and lightness to the piece as well.  The spotted  and plaid patterns add character to an otherwise flat rendition of objects often found in cubist works.\nIn contrast to her Philippine Art Gallery contemporaries, Fernando Zobel, Lee Aguinaldo and H.R. Ocampo, Saguil at this time was still straddling between representational art and abstractionism.  This period of experimentation with cubist principles  in Manila was brief, as she soon found herself traveling to Europe for further studies.  It was there that her abstraction  culminated.  This means that works in this particular stage of her expression are somewhat rare, and are therefore expected  to be prized.\nSaguil's expatriation to Spain and eventual settling in Paris altered the course of her work.  It divided her oeuvre into two major epochs: Manila and Paris.  Her works from her Manila period evoke a nostalgic air, particularly of pre-war Manila, which meant they were often romantic, atmospheric and poetic representational works of oil on wood — much like this work — or drawings and prints.  Her Paris works on the other hand saw an aggressive deviation towards abstraction and a complete dissolution  of her figurative style. \nA true albeit low-key feminist of the Philippine modernists, Nena Saguil was the antithesis of the conventional image  of a Filipina in her time.  When art was the dominion of men, Nena, to the chagrin of her conservative family, pursued  painting over home economics. \nIn a time when women her age would submit to tradition when it came to life choices, opting for Catholic schools, marriages and motherhood, Saguil took charge of her own career.  She never married, nor had any children.  She attended art school  at the University of the Philippines and was granted a Certificate in Painting, which was the same distinction Fernando  C. Amorsolo received from the University.  She applied for the prestigious Walter Damrosh Scholarship and was accepted.  Soon enough, she was following the footsteps of Picasso, Braques, Matisse, Kandinsky, Mondigliani and Leger, studying at the Ecole des Artes Americaine, and creating under the banner of modernism in Paris, France.  Her life in Paris was humble, but she  dedicated her life to art, foregoing marriage proposals and suitors not wanting to risk veering from her path of self-expression.\nShe passed away in 1994, and in 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo posthumously awarded Nena Saguil  a Presidential Medal of Merit.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Nena Saguil</strong> (1924-1994)<br /><em>Barrio Mother and Child</em><br />signed and dated 1953 (lower left)<br />oil on wood<br />30&rdquo; x 24&rdquo; (76 cm x 61 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":12000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":12000000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":14016000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":38622,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/61/89/lot/155.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":154,"next":156,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}