{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":47304,"auction_id":95,"set_id":125,"lot_number":"55","artist":"Arturo Luz (1926 - 2021)","title":"Moonscape","starting_price":5000000,"signed_dated":"ca. 1960","medium":"enamel on canvas","size":"16\" X 60\" (41 cm X 152 cm)","property":"PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF A DISTINGUISHED FAMILY","coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Ms. Luisa Luz-Lansigan confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Metropolitan Museum of Manila","exhibited":"Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Arturo Luz: A Retrospective,
Manila, 1995","literature":"Reyes, Cid. Arturo Luz. Makati City: Ayala Foundation and The Crucible for Globe Telecom, 1999. Full-color photograph and painting description on page 122.","write_up":"A piece that forms part of Arturo Luz’s early works, Moonscape comes from the artist’s series of works in the early 1960s focusing on skyscapes. It is a progression from his earlier cityscapes of the late 1950s, a body of work that gave him two successive first prize nods at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Art Exhibition: “Venezia No. III” at the 1958 Annual and “City” at the 1959 Semi-Annual.
Both the “cityscapes” and “skyscapes” series, in their form and essence, would trace their origins to the “carnivals” and “musicians” series that captured Luz’s propensity for the starkness of linear forms. This penchant for lines, Luz says in Cid Reyes’ monograph on him, was influenced by the prehistoric art found in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira and the American painter, illustrator, and cartoonist Saul Steinberg, whose eccentric linearity found reimagination in Luz’s oeuvre. In fact, this penchant for linear forms would mark his triumphant coming-of-age in the post-war Philippine art scene: his first-prize win (for Modern painting) for “Bagong Taon” at the 1952 AAP Annual.
Much like his “cityscapes,” Luz’s “skyscapes” were rendered in rectangular canvases made intentionally by the artist to offer a panoramic expanse, an unbridled spectacle of the heavenly domain. In Moonscape, we are greeted by invigorating weblike, sinuous patterns that seemingly evoke wreaths of stars and billows of clouds blanketing a breathtaking universe of tranquility that is the enigmatic night sky. Like the Japanese concept of shibui, Luz imbibes liberty in visual exegesis to the viewer; one can imagine that under the sweeping lines borne from Luz’s logical spontaneity can be found a city lulled to sleep by the night sky, in which the baffling impenetrability of the still largely uncharted cosmos quiets us as it goes right past our weary eyes.
Luz’s use of enamel, a ubiquitous characteristic of his early works, was necessitated by the fact that painting materials, especially oil, were innately expensive, and the post-war situation submerged the Filipino artist under the throes of financial constraints. Luz succinctly narrates in the Reyes monograph:
“In the early days, none of us were concerned about the high quality of our material. We would grab just any material. We never worried that our paintings would survive after 200 years. We had no concern for the purity or sanctity of materials. Acid-free boards were unheard of.”
Nevertheless, Luz’s exploration of enamel evokes the neorealist spirit of experimentation in the immediate post-war period. “I preferred to use enamel. Although enamel is the crudest, worst possible paint an artist can use, I liked its viscosity…,” Luz says in the same monograph. “I would dip my brush in the can, then rub it on paper till the brush is nearly dry. Only then do I apply the brush on the canvas. Just skimming the surface. I would use various colors. Yellow. White. Red. Black. In the end, you can’t tell what color it is. It begins to shimmer and show its iridescence. Far greater is the idea that since the layers are so thin, so numerous, so dry, the painting becomes indestructible. After nearly fifty years, I have never seen a painting of mine crack, peel off, or change. That’s my big satisfaction.”
Moonscape would be included in Luz’s 1995 retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, which he founded in 1976 and ultimately supervised as Director from 1976 to 1986. (Adrian Maranan)","lot_group":"Painting","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":5000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":5000000,"userBid":5930,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":6008000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":46995,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/95/125/lot/55.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":54,"next":56,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}