{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":46038,"auction_id":93,"set_id":122,"lot_number":"42","artist":"Lao Lianben (b. 1948)","title":"Landscape","starting_price":3000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1974 (lower right and verso)","medium":"oil on wood panel","size":"48 1/4\" x 49 1/4\" (123 cm x 125 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"An early work by the now-revered abstractionist and Zen master Lao Lianben, Landscape shows the influences of Jose Joya, Fernando Zobel, Arturo Luz, and Florencio B. Concepcion, who all served as luminaries for the then 26-year-old Lao in creating this masterpiece. When Lao created this work, two years had passed since he obtained his Bachelor in Fine Arts from the University of the East in 1972. The following year, Lao debuted in the Philippine art scene through his first solo exhibition held at F. Sionil Jose’s Solidaridad Galleries along Padre Faura Street in Ermita.
\nBy the 1970s, Luz, Zobel, and Joya were three of Philippine abstraction’s most influential figures. Moreover, it was not impossible for Lao to escape the creative convictions of the said style, for during his college days at the University of the East, the institution’s Fine Arts department was helmed by none other than Florencio B. Concepcion, who had by then become known for his virtuoso in abstract expressionism.
\n We see the influences of Joya in the geometric figures, which started to appear in the master’s canvas in the late 1960s when he transitioned from abstract expressionism to geometric expressionism inspired by Philippine folk motifs. Likewise, there are allusions to Luz’s linear and geometric abstraction and the kinetic quality of Concepcion’s abstract expressionist flair. Zobel’s influence is discerned in Lao’s handling of washed-out browns and blacks, hinting at the former’s El Jucar series of the early 1970s.
\n Lao’s Landscape seemingly evokes a bas relief. There is a succinct description in the July 4, 1975 issue of the Philippines Daily Express of Lao’s early artistic style. The article states, “Lao Lian ben [sic], who does sculptured paintings on wood, has unmistakably a touch of Chinese calligraphy in his use of black in most of his works.”
\n Even in Lao’s early works, there is a discernible aspect of Zen aesthetics, with the dominant circle serving as an allusion to the Japanese ens?. Depicting the ens? in one’s art is a dynamic meditation; rendering the ens? requires spirited spontaneity. In doing so, Lao bridges himself towards composure and the desire for an introspection that becomes transformative in the process. We see the artist journeying towards a sweeping panorama of the spirit, in which he frees himself from the corporeal and the mundane in order to progress into a state of tabula rasa—a pure, immaculate frame of mind.
\n Moreover, Lao’s instinctiveness in this work sees him reveling in the vulnerability of his being, letting himself loose towards the emancipation of the subconscious.
\nLandscape is palpable proof of Lao’s earliest ventures into the inner sanctuaries and vistas of the metaphysical, reflecting the artist’s never-ending contemplation towards a dynamic and cathartic peace and quiet.
\n Two years after this work, the Cultural Center of the Philippines bestowed Lao Lianben with the prestigious Thirteen Artists Award. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":8500000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":8500000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":10213600,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":45564,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/93/122/lot/42.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":41,"next":43,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}