{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":46033,"auction_id":93,"set_id":122,"lot_number":"72","artist":"Lao Lianben (b. 1948)","title":"Untitled","starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1988 (lower left)","medium":"mixed media on paper","size":"42 1/2\" x 30 3/4\" (107 cm x 78 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARK WILSON & ELSA DIVINAGRACIA","coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Lao Lianben’s artistic practice is heavily influenced by Zen Buddhism’s tenet of ‘seeing clearly.’ “My art process is greatly informed by what I see,” said Lao in a 2023 interview with Lifestyle Inquirer, “and my ideas are developed more visually.” Indeed, his works are Zen personified – they are at their core contemplative, intuitive, and meditative.
\nIt is with this contemplative nature in mind that this untitled 1988 piece was born. Here, the viewer's eyes are drawn to the singular subject on the canvas: a large sweeping circle unbroken only at the end. The monochromatic figure is darker at its “head”, gradually losing ink as it reaches the tail end of the spiral.
\nIn Zen Buddhism, this sweeping circle is known as ens?. Translating to mean ‘circle,’ the ens? is fundamentally the simplest yet most complex shape to do. The sweeping motion leaves little room for experimentation, and yet the movement evokes a multitude of emotions.
\n The ens? is meditation itself; to draw it is to submerge oneself in meditation and in turn, to witness it is a meditative practice in itself. An unclosed circle, drawing the ens? requires a moment when the mind is free to let the body simply create. Profound and deeply personal, an ens?, as the Zen Buddhists believe, is indicative of the character of the artist, baring the private in one fell swoop.
\n To have a Lao work is to dwell on deliberate stillness. The common Filipino may be a maximalist at heart but Lao through his works invites us to do the opposite. He beckons us to bask in the silence and meditate on our thoughts. Dr. Leovino Ma. Garcia, the former dean of the Ateneo's School of Humanities and a Lao collector himself said: “Lao’s paintings expressed in images the insights I tried to promote in my philosophy classes — the ability to see with new eyes, to see as if for the first time.”
\nThe lot in hand encapsulates a core tenet of a Lao piece – to “see” as he sees is to look at the world with no presumptions or preconceived notions. Instead, one must be patient. They must in earnestness take a path toward unbridled contemplation, the austerity of Zen with which one must live their life. (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":2400000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":2400000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":2883840,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":45598,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/93/122/lot/72.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":71,"next":73,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}