{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":46215,"auction_id":94,"set_id":123,"lot_number":"277","artist":"Arie Smit (Dutch-Indonesian, 1916 - 2016)","title":"Portrait of a Lady","starting_price":40000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower right)<br /> dated 1957 (lower left)<br />","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"12 3/4\" x 9\" (32 cm x 23 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Adrianus Wilhelmus \"Arie\" Smit was a Dutch-born Indonesian painter. A leading figure in Southeast Asian art, Smit is celebrated for his exuberant paintings of Balinese village life.<br /><br />Born in 1916 in Zaandam, Netherlands, Smit and his family moved to Rotterdam in 1924, where he would study graphic design at the Academy of Arts. During this time, Smit was influenced by the Post-Impressionists Paul Signac, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne.<br /><br />As an artist, Smit was first and foremost a master colorist, focusing on a vibrant palette that matched the intensity of the tropical colors of the Balinese landscape. Similar to the Balinese culture and tradition of emphasizing feeling and intuition rather than the rigidity of objectivity, Smit embraced his individuality, painting vivid Balinese scenes that pay homage to the human spirit's resilience and unwavering tenacity in achieving existential fulfillment, much like Smit's relentless quest (even amid a war interlude) to find Bali's essence in more ways than meets one's eyes.<br /><br />His penchant for Bali started in 1938 when he joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and was sent to the Dutch East Indies as a lithographer for the Dutch Army's Topographical Service in Batavia (present-day Jakarta), engraving relief maps of the archipelago. Smit became intrigued by the mystery encapsulating Bali, the ‘Island of the Gods,’ with his etchings of Balinese mountains into maps further fueling his curiosity.<br /><br />This 1957 piece, Portrait of a Lady, depicts a Gauguin-influenced portrait. Smit only created a few portraits during his lifetime compared to the multitude of landscapes—mostly of Bali—that he painted. When Smit did this portrait, he had already settled in Ubud, Bali, in 1956; he had also already become an Indonesian citizen in 1951.<br /><br /> Portrait of a Lady also comes from Smit’s earlier years as a full- time professional painter; he had his debut solo exhibition in 1953 in Plaju, South Sumatra, which was sponsored by the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM). The work encapsulates Smit’s intuitive application of arbitrary colors, similar to Fauvism, which once originated from Gauguin’s post-impressionism.<br /><br />In 1960, Smit toured the village of Penestanan in Ubud, where he would also live. He taught young boys the rudiments of art. Smit helped form a style of genre painting called \"Young Artists Style,\" which had more than 300 to 400 practitioners at its peak and became popular during the Balinese tourism boom of the late 1960s to 1970s. Smit contributed to the village's thriving, teaching farmers to become painters who eventually sold their works well. For his contributions to the flourishing of painting in Bali, Smit received the “Dharma Kusuma” (Flower of Devotion) cultural award in 1992 from the Balinese government. Throughout his lifetime, Smit held shows in Indonesia, Singapore, Hawai'i, and Japan. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":null,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":null,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":45986,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/94/123/lot/277.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[25000,30000,35000,40000,45000,50000,55000,60000,70000,80000,90000,100000,110000,120000,130000,140000,150000,160000,170000,180000,190000,200000,220000,240000,260000,280000,300000,320000,340000,360000,380000,400000,450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":276,"next":278,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}