Ang Kiukok is the bluechip piece at Leon Gallery auction

Big paintings are almost always heart-stopping. Not only because there is so much to take in in one go — the meticulous detail, the well-planned composition, the overall effect — but because we intuit the kind of endurance and hectic physicality that enabled the artist to crystallize his vision. The canvas becomes an arena of creation; the bigger the scale, the greater the gamble and the possibility of failure. But once the artist succeeds, we are awed by his having beat the artistic odds initially thought insurmountable.

At the “Spectacular Midyear Auction: Grand Independence Day Sale” happening this Saturday (June 10, 2 p.m.) and with a preview that starts today, Leon Gallery highlights some of the biggest — and the best — works by National Artists Ang Kiukok, Jose Joya, and Vicente Manansala as well as Romulo Olazo and Fabian de la Rosa, among others. Jaime Ponce de Leon, director of the auction house, promises it to be as “the most breathtaking selection of highly important works in a single sale to date.”

Leading the pack is “Fishermen” by Ang Kiukok, which he painted in 1981. At 40 x 80 inches, it is the biggest easel painting of the master to enter the market to date. Owned by an art patron who has bequeathed the painting to his philanthropic organization, whose main vision is to help young artists find their place in the art world, the work also signals the maturation of the auction market of the country, given that the owner could have chosen to send the work to an international auction house where an Ang Kiukok remains to be bluechip. Today, no one doubts the robustness of an auction house such as Leon Gallery to deliver: it is expected to fetch at least fourfold of the low price estimate of P12 million. If the work just fetches a hammer price of P20 million, it will still be the most expensive Ang Kiukok painting ever. 

Composed of three figures pulling the diagonal lines of a net straining with the harvest of fish as the red disc of a sun hovers above them, it spells out the surname of the master. “Fishermen” is a modern-day letras y figuras. “It may be a subliminal signature of the artist,” says Ramon V. Villegas, curator of the auction. “We can certainly assume that the artist was conscious of what he was doing, and it doesn’t hurt the meaning of the painting.”

Certainly not one to shy away from scale, Manansala, an accomplished muralist, is represented by “Pila sa Bigas,” with a measurement of 36 x 48 inches and a starting bid of P12 million, an exquisite example of transparent cubism. “There are four or five known examples of this series,” mentions Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, who’s also curating the auction. “The first ‘Pila sa Bigas’ was conceptualized as a queue for rice rationing right after the war. But I guess in the 1970s, that was no longer the case. As you can see, the baskets are no longer empty.” This painting also generates narrative intrigue, as one of the figures is shown whispering something to another, her hand cupped around her mouth so the others won’t hear. No wonder that the work also goes by the title, “The Chismosas.”

Another master of the grand scale, Romulo Olazo is represented by “Permutation Series II: No. 118 (B-XX)” — “a medley of shapely forms and curvilinear lines that interlock with or echo each other” and one of the few in the series in which the interior shapes are filled out with neutral colors. After this piece gets sold, it will be immediately part of the exhibition “Olazo: Large Scale” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines opening on July 1. At 60 x 84 inches, the work commands a starting bid of P2 million. 

Another big work on offer is by Joya, not only in terms of scale but also of historical importance. With a starting bid of P9 million and measuring at 48 x 32 1/2 inches, “Carcass” was one of the nine paintings — alongside the sculptures of Napoleon Abueva — that constituted the Philippine pavilion in its initial salvo at the Venice Biennale in 1964. Described as “palette-knife fury” by Nakpil, the work features a coruscating field of shapes, skeins and slashes, materializing at once extreme pressure and violent expansion on the flayed body of the painting.

“Women Weaving Hats,” with a starting bid of P9 million, by Fabian de la Rosa is another important work that takes a spotlight at this year’s “Spectacular Midyear Auction.” It is a work of contemplative beauty, depicting five women in their nipis blouse and saya quietly going about their task. The bamboo slat-flooring, the missing capiz squares on the sliding windows, the weaving in the rattan chair, the fibers of the buntal hat strewn about on the floor all create the subdued atmosphere of a time that has long vanished. Another version of this work exists, “the difference,” says Nakpil, “is that one is more sunny and orange. This one is more European in lighting: blue, greenish, dim afternoon light versus the other one which is mid-morning light.”

The work was acquired by the Hollywood actor George O’Brien when he visited the Philippines after the war. “O’Brien,” according to de Leon, “was a certified silent-movie heart-throb in the 1920s, doing several films for the director John Ford and would become a successful cowboy-movie star with the advent of the talkies well into the 1930s. In the ‘40s, he reunited with old friend John Ford to do films on Asian countries, including Korea, Taiwan.” Before returning home, he may have purchased the painting as a souvenir of these isles. Who would have thought that this Fabian de la Rosa masterpiece has been sitting somewhere in Beverly Hills all these years?

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Leon Gallery is located at Eurovilla 1, Rufino corner Legazpi Sts., Legazpi Village, Makati City. For catalog access and information, visit www.leon-gallery.com.