BREAKING NEWS! Jose Joya's Space Transfiguration (1959) was sold for an eye-popping buyer's premium of P112.28 million in a 20-minute bidding contest at Leon Gallery's The Asian Cultural Council Philippines Art Auction 2018, undeniably making history as the highest ever paid for Philippine Modern Art!
"We are hoping so," positively projected Leon Gallery director Jaime Ponce de Leon when asked by this writer if he thought Jose Joya's "most important work," the iconic Space Transfiguration, would breach the current record on the night of the preview of the auction as curated by Lizza Guerrero Nakpil.
With a starting bid of P22 million, it was the highest priced among the 150 lots.
Anita Magsaysay-Ho's 48-by-60-inch, oil-on-canvas Fish Harvest at Dawn (1979), with a starting bid of P6 million, held the previous record at P54 million in 2015 until May 2017 as hammered at Leon Gallery.
When Ang Kuikok's 40-by-80-inch, oil-on-canvas Fishermen (1961) was put under the hammer with a minimum bid of P12 million in June 2017, also at Leon Gallery, it grabbed the record at P65 million.
Now this is the record to beat. Space Transfiguration is a much bigger painting and had a minimum bid of P22 million.
AN ASTONISHING SHOWCASE OF PHILIPPINE MODERN ART. Brimming with classic, modern and contemporary masterpieces, the lots certified for authenticity list Anita Magsaysay-Ho's Tahip (1960), Bencab's only portrait of ex-wife Caroline Kennedy, Andres Bonifacio's historically important letters, an anatomically correct nude in molave of a Colonial crucifix of Jesus Christ, and exquisite furniture from the Ramon Villegas and Don Isauro Gabaldon estates. It had the power to make any serious collector overspend.
"When you see one, you've seen them all," comments art aficionado Rommel Earl Digo when I observed that previewers were mostly eating and chatting instead of viewing the lots. Painter Sherwin Paul Gonzales raved over the pancit from the sumptuous buffet table as "delicious" and the roast beef as "tender."
Ponce de Leon met me at the entrance and guided me through the halls. He introduced me to antiquarian Martin Imperial Tinio. The crowd included A-lister millennial and perennial previewers. Global fashion designer Josie Natori, Ayala Corp chair and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and wife Lizzie, art and culture activist Maribel Ongpin, designer Rajo Laurel, fashion icon Tingting Cojuangco, glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, actor Diether Ocampo, artist Sam Penaso, historian Xiao Chua, artist Mav Rufino, Lifestyle Channel exec Ces Drilon, Lopez Museum's Mercedes Lopez and Maritess Pineda were among the well-heeled and best-dressed.
AWARD WINNER. Prize winner at the 1959 Art Association of the Philippines' Annual Exhibition and Competition, the magnificent 60-by-70-inch, oil-on-canvas Space Transfiguration has been more defined and deliberated, harked and hailed, than other museum pieces both here and abroad.
Joya faced off with Abstract Expressionism in a two-year study grant in the United States, painting Space Transfiguration upon his return.
Inspired by NASA's initial crack to reach the moon, art critic Alice Guillermo once suggested Space Transfiguration marks a vital period in the evolution of Joya's career when he started experimentations toward larger scale works. He eventually pursued it as his best works were large formats.
The most grandiose is the five-meter-by-eight-meter Ang Pagdiriwang mural, known as the "largest abstract painting in the Philippines," at the main lobby of the Philippine International Convention Center where Benedicto "Bencab" Cabrera assisted.
It is a remarkable work as far as the ACC is concerned as Joya was its first grantee. The former Ford Foundation, ACC has been aiding Filipino artists and scholars through grants since 1963. Over 6,000 grants have been given to individuals and organizations.
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE. Joya is a multimedia artist who distinguished himself by creating an authentic Filipino abstract idiom that transcended foreign influences. Espousing the value of kinetic energy, spontaneity in painting, which became significant artistic values in Philippine art, his paintings clearly show his mastery of "gestural painting" where paint is applied intuitively and spontaneously, in broad brush strokes, using brushes or spatula or directly squeezed from the tube and splashed across the canvas.
He was conferred the National Artist for visual arts in 2003, eight years after passing on, for his pioneering efforts in developing Filipino abstract art.
Space Transfiguration is always mentioned in his legacy of a large body of work of consistent excellence.
Space Transfiguration had the best chance to breach the Philippine record in this auction as it is artistically Joya's most important work, the largest in size with the highest minimum bid among the strong but distant contenders.
And it delivered. But buyer information is strictly confidenrial at Leon Gallery.
The National Gallery of Singapore and Ateneo Gallery are Joya's eager and important collectors. If Space Transfiguration is acquired by a foreign buyer, this means the Philippines loses ownership of an important Filipino painting that is declared a National Treasure.
Testifying that Philippine modern srt is what powers the current boom in the Philippine auction industry, it also undeniably validated Leon Gallery's bragging rights as the source of certified record holders.
It was never Juan Luna's A Do… Va La Nave? which was twice wrongly reported in the media by the auction house that sold it as record holder.
If Leon Gallery is making headway in the auction industry, it is due to high credibility, excellent public relations and the innovative push and pull of Philippine art and Filipino artists.
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