{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":40164,"auction_id":63,"set_id":91,"lot_number":"29","artist":"Ronald Ventura (b. 1973)","title":"Basic","starting_price":2400000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2005 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"36” x 48” (91 cm x 122 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Two views of the male torso that seem to be afloat recall both contemporary plaster body casts and classical sculpture from  the days of antiquity.  Alice Guillermo writes about Ventura’s art: “…it may be recalled that the origins of classicism had a strong, if not dominant  male constituent, as in the figures of the nude athletes, the ‘kouroi,’ which later transformed into the more supple figures  of Hellenic statuary…” “Much of the classical aspect of his male figures derives from the artist’s choice of a smooth, marmoreal tone rather than  a realistic, light brown cast.  As such, they assume the appearance of bloodless lunar beings.” Alice Guillermo writes: “In his virtuosic restatement of the canonic drawing into painting, Ventura proclaims classicism as a  basic influence in his art… The ivory pallor of their skin restates the aesthetic distance and restraint of classical art, as it  removes them from facile accessibility, but instead presents them as iconic subjects for thoughtful contemplation....”  Ventura has always viewed the skin as an expressive surface — with or without tattoos, concealed under layers of imagery,  or exploding outwards to reveal an inner world of fantasy and conflict.  Ventura employs exacting hyperrealism combined with  a stone white palette. The delicate, supple tonal treatment of the musculature of both figures highlights this work.  There is an immediacy, a freshness, and an authenticity which art audiences find refreshing.","lot_group":"Painting","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Ronald Ventura</strong> (b.1973)<br /><em>Basic</em><br />signed and dated 2005 (lower left)<br />oil on canvas<br />36&rdquo; x 48&rdquo; (91 cm x 122 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":4400000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4400000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":5139200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":39071,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/63/91/lot/29.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[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":28,"next":30,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}