{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":41049,"auction_id":67,"set_id":95,"lot_number":"111","artist":"Benedicto Cabrera (b. 1942)","title":"Sabel in San Andres Bukid","starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1966 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"17” x 23” (43 cm x 58 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Gallery Indigo, First Solo Exhibition, Manila, 1966","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"There are only a handful of contemporary Filipino artists who have captured both the impact of rapid change and turmoil in society, its historical roots, and the modern realities, and chief among them is Ben Cabrera.  Whether he employs oils or acrylic on canvas, etching or aquatint, or mere drawing, charcoal through which to express his vision, the viewer is engaged in a sense of immediacy.  1966 was the year of Bencab’s first solo exhibition where this piece was exhibited. It was also the year when the character Sabel was first introduced. In “Sabel in San Andres Bukid”, the woman appears as an indistinct figure caught between the light and dark tones of the ink medium.  Her hair merging into the soft background, her upper body covered by grimy fabric, she recedes into the anonymity of the overall somber brown haze. The figure of Sabel is a contemporary reincarnation  in the visual arts of the hapless character Sisa in Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, where she becomes a wandering and witless vagrant after the loss of her sacristian sons, Crispin and Basilio. She haunted Bencab’s starting years, and continues through several reappearances and transformations later in the artist’s career. Sabel is a derelict vagrant rummaging among the neighborhood garbage.  “Sabel in San Andres Bukid”, signed and dated 1966, is a déjà vu back to the scenes which Bencab first found his subjects. Alice Guillermo writes: “As a young man studying fine arts at the University of the Philippines, Bencab (b. Benedicto Reyes Cabrera, Malabon, 1942) roamed the mean streets of Bambang and Tondo with an artist’s eye and a native restlessness of spirit. At the time, crowds were gathering on the margins of the city to overrun the streets in protest against chronic poverty and oppression. It was there in the steamy, hardened streets that the young artist sought out his first subjects and pursued them, and returned to them through the years.” Bencab started his career in the mid sixties, working as an illustrator for the Sunday Times Magazine. Alice Guillermo furthers: “In 1966, Bencab held his first solo exhibition at the Indigo gallery in Manila. His early works reflected the politicized climate of the period in themes of nationalism and identity, drawing subjects from  the life of the ordinary citizen.  The year 1968 was a turning point for the artist. It was the year the Beatles gave a concert in Manila (they caused a furor when the popular group chose to boycott an invitation  from the Marcoses).  By sheer chance, Paul McCartney wandered into Bencab’s space and bought a work from him. This meeting led to his meeting  with the British writer, Caroline Kennedy.”  In the coming years, highlighted by his discovery of a treasure trove of Filipiniana in archives- visual material in the form of  vintage photographs, postcards, and prints in various publications indicative of British trade interests in the Philippines at the turn of the century -Bencab was to step up his career starting with a prolific production of etchings and aquatints that spanned the range of Filipino visual culture in the late 19th century, all of which he sent back to the country by way of exhibitions by the artist who was on the other side of the globe. Thus started Bencab’s innumerable contributions to protest art by seriously  exploring the theme of national identity, anticolonial struggle, and minority groups, while showing sympathy for oppressed workers, peasants, and the marginalized. And along the lengthy time span of this creative path, Sabel would reappear in various appropriate transformations, fitting in and out of his art for years, a fluid presence evading definition.  Guillermo sums up: “What is particularly of note in Bencab’s works is that they added an element of class consciousness to the nationalist theme and a sympathy for the masses of the people.”","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":"bencab","hp":4000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4000000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":4672000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":40180,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/67/95/lot/111.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":110,"next":0,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}