{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":40729,"auction_id":65,"set_id":93,"lot_number":"205","artist":"Benedicto Cabrera (b. 1942)","title":"Iza as Sabel","starting_price":500000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2015 (lower right)","medium":"pastel on paper","size":"29 1/2” x 21 1/2” (75 cm x 55 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Proceeds of the sale of this lot will go to the BenCab Art Foundation to help fund BenCab 50 Creative Years and the BenCab Museum’s other projects  related to art and the environment.  BenCab 50  Creative Years is a year-long celebration of  BenCab’s golden year as a visual artist, with  retrospective exhibitions in 8 museums and related events.    The portrait is that of the beautiful actress Iza  Calzado, as it is also of Sabel.  The portrait was to become the poster image of “SABEL- LOVE AND  PASSION”, presented in part by the Bencab Art  Foundation, which had its world premiere gala in  April 2015. “Iza as Sabel” also resumes Bencab’s ever recurring theme of women in draperies.  The subject, with her slim proportions, pretty face, and windswept hair, is set against neutral background and swathed in an outfit whose manifold convolutions somehow achieve their own language. Alice Guillermo wrote in 2007: “One might say  that the Sabel series, began in 1966 in the ink  medium, is the quintessential Ben Cabrera.  The  figure of Sabel is a contemporary reincarnation in the visual arts of the hapless character of Sisa in Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, where she becomes a wandering and witless vagrant after the loss of her sons. Bencab luxuriated in whirling strokes, what with the dynamic gestural lines of the fabric – akin to a frenzied ballet- somewhat alluding to the persona of Sabel.  (The Philippine Ballet Theater co-starred in the musicale).  Even how her hands grip the  fabric reflect the tenuousness of her tortured  psyche. “As the synopsis of the play goes: “She becomes more and more despondent, depression taking  over her spirit…” There are few contemporary Filipino artists who have captured both the  historical world of the Philippines and modern reality of rapid change like Ben Cabrera. Whether he employs drawing, oils or acrylic on canvas, etching or aquatint or charcoal through which to express his vision, there is always a sense of immediacy, even in his portraits.      A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant.      The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.  In the lengthy career of Ben Cabrera,  portraits formed the Larawan (Portrait) series, which became the crucible of the Filipino identity during the period. It is a welcome irony that if not for the characterization of the proverbial town madwoman, “Iza as Sabel”, with the beauteous chiseled features of the actress, is a magnificent appropriation of the image of the Filipino woman.","lot_group":"Painting","lot_details_html":null,"alias":"bencab","hp":1400000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":1400000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":1635200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":39866,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/65/93/lot/205.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"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":204,"next":0,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}