{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":5396,"auction_id":8,"set_id":11,"lot_number":"329","artist":"Norma Belleza (b. 1939)","title":"Magsing-irog","starting_price":100000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2022 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"18” x 12” (46 cm x 30 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate signed by the artist\nconfirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":"","write_up":"Norma Belleza: Humanizing the Folk The environs of Norma Belleza’s youth had an enduring influence on her art. Hailing from San Fernando, Pampanga, Belleza grew up in a house situated near the town’s marketplace. In a 1987 interview by Cid Reyes and published in his landmark book titled Conversations on Philippine Art (1989), the esteemed art critic asks the artist: “How about you, Ate Norma, regarding your subject matter….” Belleza answers: “I was a frequenter of the market. Whenever I was there, I would catch sight and carefully observe the goods sold by market vendors, such as vegetables and fish.”
Although the exuberance of Belleza’s works showcases the artist’s painterly brilliance as a master colorist, her depiction of people populating her canvases reveals a more insightful aspect of her social consciousness and social responsibility as a painter of both the urban and rural folk. In this piece depicting flower vendors, Belleza’s praxis of stylistic distortion, emphasized in her subjects’ dejected facial expressions and bodily gestures, symbolizes the struggles of the downtrodden people amid relentless waves of exploitation and oppression.
But Belleza’s subtle yet distinct take on social realism does not simply cease from merely depicting the people’s anguish. She imbibes a humanizing aspect that subtly but powerfully represents the people as active agents of social change. The juxtaposition of a brightly colored composition with the subjects’ images of poignancy and despondency engenders an eccentric yet striking complementation that evokes the people’s enormous strength and potency in the face of their socioeconomic conditions. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Norma Belleza (b. 1939) Magsing-irog signed and dated 2022 (lower right) oil on canvas 18” x 12” (46 cm x 30 cm)