{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":50205,"auction_id":99,"set_id":131,"lot_number":"116","artist":"Norma Belleza (b. 1939)","title":"Dangwa","starting_price":700000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 1994 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"42\" x 80\" (107 cm x 203 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate signed by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The environs of Norma Belleza’s youth has been an enduring influence on her penchant for the folk genre. 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 Belleza: “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.”
Belleza’s exuberant palette was likely influenced to a certain degree by her parents, who worked as billboard designers and painters at a time when flashy hand- painted movie billboards were the industry norm. Except for her early period, in which she worked with dark themes, Belleza constantly traversed through the animated realm of the folk genre. Being one of the living champions of the said style, Belleza captures an uncontrived snapshot of the daily lives of ordinary Filipinos.
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 socio-economic conditions.
Belleza’s maximalist aesthetic in this massive opus becomes an avenue to compellingly showcase the inherent solidarity of the masses—their genuine desire to share with the struggles of one another— thus engendering a form of protest asserting their fundamental rights as producers of the country’s wealth. The vibrancy of Belleza’s work encapsulates the people’s predominance and power to engender social change through their collective action. (A.M.)","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Norma Belleza (b. 1939) Dangwa signed and dated 1994 (lower right) oil on canvas 42\" x 80\" (107 cm x 203 cm)