{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":50108,"auction_id":99,"set_id":131,"lot_number":"16","artist":"Mauro Malang Santos (1928 - 2017)","title":"Carroza","starting_price":4000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 25.XII.79 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"40\" x 40\" (102 cm x 102 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by West Gallery \nconfirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":"EXHIBITED: Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA), One-Man Exhibition, \nManila, March 12 - May 21, 1981","literature":"Malang: Paintings and Drawings. Manila: Raya Books, 1981.\nPublished in conjunction with Malang's one-man exhibition\nat the Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA) from March 12 to\nMay 21, 1981. Full-color illustration and photo caption on\npage 56.","write_up":"The Flowering Christmas Carroza by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL
\n\nMalang’s first ‘carrozas’ and floral forms would come to the fore in the late 1970s, a development which noted art critic Leonidas V, Benesa would describe as the perfect medium “in which Malang exudes supreme confidence in the mastery of his means.”
In the work at hand, the golden hues of the ornate carriage is festooned with stars and angel’s wings, a carved cherub and a riotous bouquet of tropical foliage.
Nestled among the forms of the stylized birds of paradise, leaves, and flowering trees is a double-Madonna, an infinity-scape of one Christmas mother and another. Each wear a crown and a halo of sanctity, that seem to summon the outpouring of nature’s bounty.
Benesa puts forward an interesting observation about the floral wreaths, or a “new fascination with flowering plants with heart-shaped leaves and writhing or twisting stems which immediately invites comparison to Ang Kiukok, particularly the latter’s still-lifes on the subject. That there is a connection in terms of shared sensibilities is only to be expected for the two artists have worked together very closely all these years aside from the fact that they are, or were, Manansala’s disciples.”
He continues, “But where Ang presents his spike-leaved plants in an Expressionistic atmosphere that is almost eerie, Malang’s flowering plants reveal intentions of the opposite feeling : a euphoric elan vital that indicates a concern for growing things, with seedlings that are not suffering or blighted but bursting with energies and promises. These same plant forms used to be present in his old landscapes and barung-barong scenes as part of the over-all design and decor for that is what maceteras are, the ubiquitous plant pots in every Filipino home. which now bloom right into one’s face and consciousness, like large Chagall bouquets”
Benesa would also say, “It is interesting to note that how in Malang’s new works, the Madonna theme — a favorite, almost obsessive subject among Filipino painters — has become subsumed in the greater theme of the greening and the flowering of the artistic sensibility.”","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Mauro Malang Santos (1928 - 2017) Carroza signed and dated 25.XII.79 (lower right) oil on canvas 40\" x 40\" (102 cm x 102 cm)