{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":40320,"auction_id":63,"set_id":91,"lot_number":"185","artist":"Benedicto Cabrera (b. 1942)","title":"Sabel","starting_price":2200000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2003 (lower left)","medium":"acrylic on canvas","size":"40” x 30” (102 cm x 76 cm)","property":"Provenance:\nAcquired in Singapore, 2003","coa":null,"provenance":"Acquired in Singapore, 2003","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Ben Cab, who started as an illustrator — one of his first jobs was as an illustrator for Liwayway Publications, where he worked with people like Ang Kiukok and Alfredo Roces, followed by stints at Mirror Magazine and the Sunday Times Magazine — has proven time and again that he had more strings to his bow in his long career.  And to the viewer who is unfamiliar with the  evolution of Sabel and the art of Ben Cabrera in general, the seemingly unlikely juxtapositions in this work from 2003 might come as a pleasant surprise.  With a Japanese moon and an Orientalized grid like pattern, both flanking a white clad Sabel,  Bencab makes manifest what he told Cid Reyes in 1978: “In so many paintings I did of her (Sabel), she was… a ‘device’, as it were, on which I could anchor a composition...She became… a ‘structure’ to base my paintings.” This work from 2003 is a metamorphosis of Sabel as the Japanese Girl in Bencab’s Edo Gesture 1 (1981) (Edo being the old name for Tokyo.) Sabel’s pathetic outfit made of rags has been transformed into the Japanese woman’s many layered kimono. As in the Sabel image, the Edo girl derived her identity from the large costume that left only her head visible.  BenCab drew his inspiration for the Japanese women series in his appreciation of Japanese prints known as ukiyo-e.  The ukiyo-e is derived from the two Japanese characters: Uki (to float) and Yo (world) referring to the impermanence of life on earth. The body of the woman is indiscernible beneath the stiff, sweeping forms of robes, reminiscent of Kimonos of the kabuki theatre.  The face and hair is executed animatedly.  The Japanese woman’s kimono must have fully gratified Bencab’s long time obsession with drapery.  The form of the dress here is made up of bulky yet delicate elements.  It should be noted that a year earlier, in 2002, Bencab resumed his theme of draperies with an exceptional painting entitled “Woman in White,” set against a glowing red background and swathed in brilliant white transparent stuff interplaying with the red, its manifold convolutions achieving their own language.  Thus, this Sabel from 2003 continues that same visual language.","lot_group":"Painting","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Benedicto Cabrera</strong> (b.1942)<br /><em>Sabel</em><br />signed and dated 2003 (lower left)<br />acrylic on canvas<br />40&rdquo; x 30&rdquo; (102 cm x 76 cm)</p>","alias":"bencab","hp":10000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":10000000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":11680000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":39001,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/63/91/lot/185.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":184,"next":186,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}