Zobel, Magsaysay-Ho, Jose John Santos III shine at Leon auction

One of Fernando Zobel’s initial forays into his now iconic “Saeta” series reached a high watermark of P17.5 million at the recently concluded Magnificent September Auction of Leon Gallery last Sept. 9. The “Saeta 44,” which was first exhibited at the Philippine Art Gallery in February of 1958, joins the eight-figure club of other Zobel’s works, such as “Sin Titulo” (P11 million), also sold in the same auction. Leon Gallery has been establishing the benchmark for the price of the master’s works since scoring the Pfeufer collection in 2015 that included the “Seated Man” and “Garden Window” that fetched a hammer price of P36 million and P28 million, respectively.

Proof that the market for the works of National Artists has been as robust as ever, Vicente Manansala’s “Pounding Rice,” a lyrical work that demonstrates the beauty of transparent cubism, and Ang Kiukok’s “Landscape,” a pleasing, almost crystalline construction of angular but colorful forms, sold for P16 million and P12.8 million, respectively.

Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s works have also been consistent top-grossers. Her work, “Women Amidst Bananas,” achieved P49 million. When compared in proportion to the much larger “Fish Harvest at Dawn,” which sold for P52.5 million two years ago, this work established a record for the artist. Her other painting in the September auction, “Four Women,” painted in 1948 and depicting four svelte figures balancing containers on their heads through a patchwork-like construction in the tradition of the Fauvists, sold for P12.8 million.

Contemporary artists also held their own amid the strong showing of the masters. Leading the pack was Andres Barrioquinto’s “Goodbye Horses,” which fetched P11 million, from a starting bid of P2 million. Exemplifying his hyperrealist style, it is a visually stunning work that features a pride of peafowl surrounding a white horse in full gallop, supposedly to comfort it after “having served in mythologies as the beast that carried heroes for ages” and “fading from folklore.”

Jose John Santos III, notable for his works in the vein of symbolic figuration, had his work “Surface Tension” hammered at P9.3 million (inclusive of buyer’s premium). Originally displayed in his highly successful show, “2Hide,” at Pearl Lam Galleries in Singapore in 2014, the work, as the title suggests, posits that surface itself — which we usually assume as the mere covering of things, with the internal mechanism being more important — could be eventful.

In the juxtaposition of the two panels (the left side, which is opaque, and the right side, which features eggshell white paint) is tension generated: the polarities of color and texture for one, as well as the competing impulses of covering and uncovering, creation and destruction. These are, as Kenneth Tay wrote in “Everything is Illuminated,” the essay that accompanied the exhibition, “no longer merely the stuffy inert furniture of reality. Rather, they are, in Santos III’s view, equally as dynamic as reality itself.”

Made announces new winners

Most of the established artists, such as Barrioquinto, began their career by joining art competitions. Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE), arguably the most anticipated art tilt in the country, shall herald this year’s set of winners in a formal ceremony to be held at Le Pavilion in Pasay City on Thursday (Sept. 21).

Each receiving P500,000 worth of cash assistance and a glass trophy are Moreen Joy Austria (grand awardee in Sculpture Recognition Program for “Pagtataguyod”), Paul Cabanalan (grand awardee in Oil/Acrylic on Canvas for “Genesis”), and Marvin Quizon (grand awardee in Watermedia on Paper for “For Those Who Lived and Forgotten”).

Also to be acknowledged during the rites with “Imagine” as the theme are Jett Osian (special citation in Oil/Acrylic on Canvas for “Tell Lie Vision”) along with Joan Balbarona-Anila (“The Colony”) Abdulmari Imao Jr. (“Monument for the Pursuit of Happiness”) Rona Lara-Bes (“Stone Garden”), and Maria Cecilia Magdamit (“Blue Hope”) — finalists of the Sculpture Recognition Program.

A new dimension introduced to the sculpture category is that Federal Land Inc. (FLI) shall choose one work from the winner and finalists that will be transformed into a public sculpture to be located at the rotunda of MetroPark in Pasay City.

“Artists hold the power to imagine things anew and through the MADE competition, they are empowered to showcase and render their creative side to become true works of art,” says Aniceto Sobrepeña, president of Metrobank Foundation Inc. (MBFI) that organizes MADE as well as other socio-civic and philanthropic activities. “MADE will continue to unleash the potentials of every young painter and sculptor to craft marvelous masterpieces, thus showcasing the competencies of Filipino in the art field, both locally and abroad.”