Remarkable historical memorabilia, art masterpieces, and antiques on the auction block this weekend

León Gallery continues its exciting series of auctions this year with the Magnificent September auction on September 14, highlighting rare finds history buffs and art connoisseurs would definitely compete over.

The Magnificent September Auction 2019 starts at 2 PM on 14 September 2019. G/F Eurovilla 1 Rufino corner Legazpi Streets, Legazpi Village, Makati City

1. Juan Luna's

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Above "Una Chula"; signed (lower left); oil on canvas; 18 1/2” x 15 1/2”; (47 cm x 39 cm)

Well-known for illustrating striking and commercially lucrative depictions of women of the streets of Madrid, the Filipino painter and Revolutionary activist, Juan Luna, portrays the face of seriousness and struggle in his Chula Series or Chula Studies, a succession of paintings created about the barrio-bajo women, meaning the poor-district working class women of Madrid, Spain known as the chulas.

Jose Rizal described the chulas as: attractive women with black, deep, and passionate eyes wearing mantillas and carrying fans, who are “always gracious”, full of conflagration, affection, jealousy and “sometimes” of revenge.

A Spanish aficionado of Luna’s paintings was once quoted by Graciano López Jaena, describing that Luna’s are “real chulas who stupefy” and are “free and easy chulas” that are witty and with facetiousness and swagger.

By 26 May 1889, however, in his letter to Javier Gomez de la Serna. He avowed his disillusionment with the historical canvas thus: “all historical painting is false starting with the very concept, and those who think that correct drawing, good composition, brilliant colouring and a lot of adornment are enough to make it valid are mistaken.”

This statement however, does not signify Luna’s break with the academic tradition nor his sympathy with impressionism, as many critics earlier presumed, but rather his leaving towards the more progressive faction of the Salon — “the dissident (one),” that he described on 5 May 1890 to Rizal.

Since then, aside from his large, academic paintings, Juan Luna did many small, more intimate works, including portraits. A number of Luna’s portraits show spontaneity and an elusive, spur of the moment quality. Here, interest in the spontaneous, even unfinished qualities of a good portrait of a randomly picked female subject.

Ramon Villegas once wrote: “These quick sketches and close in reviews of his world were done to satisfy only his own standards, to see if what he saw in his mind was as pleasing as what his brush could paint, and what his eyes could see.”

2. Napoleon Abueva's

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Above "Untitled"; Ca.1970; marble; 17” x 5” x 3 1/2”; (43 cm x 13 cm x 9 cm)

Abueva posed the challenge of modernism to his mentor Tolentino and, through his prolific and energetic work, significantly tilted the balance in favour of modernism. After his studies at UP School of Fine Arts, under the Pura Villanueva Kalaw scholarship, Abueva took up his Masters’ studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan on a Fulbright Smith Mundt grant and further trained in sculpture and ceramics at the University of Kansas.

It was in the 1950s that he firmly established his reputation as the pioneering modernist in sculpture.

His reputation as a master capable of crafting classic pieces from different materials began when he burst into the country's art scene in the '50s with "The Kiss of Judas," which he fashioned out of a single adobe block to symbolise betrayal. He went on to earn the description as a "pioneering modernist in sculpture" and in 1976, he became the youngest to be conferred the National Artist award. His versatility in medium and expression eludes facile categorisation.

3. Kamagong Aparador I and Kamagong Aparador II

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Above 2nd Quarter of the 19th century; “babaeng kamagong” hardwood; each: 76” x 48” x 20” (193 cm x 122 cm x 51 cm)
Tatler Asia
Above 2nd Quarter of the 19th century; “babaeng kamagong” hardwood; each: 76” x 48” x 20” (193 cm x 122 cm x 51 cm)

This splendid pair of Philippine cabinets in the late Neoclassical style are made of beautifully burled “babaeng kamagong” hardwood and are decidedly of German Biedermeier inspiration. Both feature carved friezes of continuous, upright acanthus leaves. Below the friezes are inlays of lines and lozenges of “lanite” wood. The doors and sides of the cabinets are inlaid with stylised panels of “lanite” wood in the late Neoclassical style characteristic of Philippine case furniture from 1800 - 1850. All the inlays of “lanite” wood are painstakingly crafted. The cabinets stand on traditional urn-shaped feet. They come from the famous collection of the industrialist Romeo Jorge.

Upon purchase by Romeo Jorge from antique dealer Gerardo Esposo in 1992, the interesting wood of the cabinets was identified with certainty as “babaeng kamagong” hardwood by the legendary antique dealer and woodworker, “Manila’s romancer of wood” Osmundo Esguerra (coined by Ramon N. Villegas in 1990), known as “Omeng.”

These two remarkable, matching cabinets of “kamagong” hardwood were acquired separately by Romeo Jorge, not together as could be assumed. Intrepid antique dealer Gerardo Pagala Esposo (“Gerry”) found the first aparador in an old house in Santa Ana, Manila in 1992 and sold it to Jorge. (One must remember that Santa Ana, Manila during the Spanish period was a picturesque, riverside community with many rich residents — Spaniards, mestizos, and Filipinos alike.) Seven months later, Esposo found the matching second, smaller aparador in another old house, still in Santa Ana, owned by a relative of the seller of the first aparador.

It became apparent that the two “his and hers” cabinets had originally been owned by the 1830s progenitors of the sellers’ families.

These beautiful and exceedingly rare pair of “kamagong” cabinets were proudly installed in Romeo Jorge’s living room, alongside so many other Filipiniana treasures.

4. Romulo Galicano's

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Above The Lagoon - Vancouver; signed and dated 1992 (lower right); oil on canvas; 35” x 45” (89 cm x 114 cm)

The waterlilies remind the viewer of Monet, but the graceful presence of swans brings a happily saccharine reality check to the vision. Romulo Galicano developed an extraordinary intimacy with the outdoors and strove for a spiritual understanding based on unspoken emotion.

Born in 1945 to a family of artists from Carcar, Cebu, Galicano studied intensively under his uncle, the Cebuano maestro Martino Abellana. Galicano grew up as the personal student of his uncle, the Cebuano master Martino Abellana. At age 13, he became part of his uncle’s household. The close relationship of maestro and apprentice made

Galicano the direct and immediate heir to Abellana’s artistic heritage. The mastery of colour and tone, composition, techniques and materials came from lessons he learned from his early youth.

He took up fine arts at the University of the East where he was under the tutelage of Florencio Concepcion, who taught him abstract designs. From 1969 to 1975, he painted with the Dimasalang group, named after the street in Sampaloc, Manila where he once lived in the late 60s and through the 70s. Many impressionist artists have been identified with the Dimasalang group, with writer Emilio Aguilar Cruz providing guidance and inspiration.

The group promoted impressionism and representational art when modern art was at its peak — a quiet revolution wherein the dominance of modern art was softly challenged by re-emergence of the traditional representational art. The group was responsible for bridging the gap between the two movements in harmony.

“The Lagoon - Vancouver”, painted in 1992, while still strongly reflecting Galicano’s Dimasalang roots, has its very French Impressionistic use of colours and romantic theme.

5. Fernando Amorsolo's

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Above signed and dated 1950 (lower right); oil on canvas; 9” x 12” (23 cm x 30 cm)

Fernando Amorsolo’s delight in the female nude is at its most sumptuous in works such as this riverside scene, one of many versions he did. Here, the painting is vigorous and spontaneous. His instinctive feeling for life — both human life and the life of nature — being expressed in brilliant colours with great warmth.

The pose itself echoes statues at museums and art academies, reflecting Amorsolo’s classical training. The comparisons with classical statuary would give the painting an added complexity of resonance, but here it seems purely a pretext for freedom amidst nature. The equally glowing presence of the washerwoman gives the classical allusions a welcome reality check.

6. Juvenal Sanso's

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Above Ca. 1980; signed (lower right) acrylic on paper; 23” x 33” (58 cm x 84 cm)

About his creative process, Juvenal Sanso reveals: “First, I think of things in space, in light and the objects spring out of the picture slowly.” Thus like the abstract impressionism of his Parisian milieu during his aesthetic formation in the mid 1950s, Sanso painted from the unconscious, but unlike abstract expressionism, the physical presence which he painted transcended to the sublime.

7. The Bantug Virgin

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Above Late 18th – Early 19th century (circa 1775 – 1825); Ivory statuette on a giltwood base, encased in an engraved glass cloche, the giltwood top cover surmounted by an outsized silver gilt crown with “gravado” decorations; ivory: 12” x 4” x 4 1/2” (30 cm x 10 cm x 11 cm); virina: 38” x 18 1/2” x 13” (97 cm x 47 cm x 33 cm)

Long before the current trend of repatriation of similar Filipino treasures from Spain, this precious statuette of “La Inmaculada Concepcion” (The Immaculate Conception of Mary) in the renowned Antonio Bantug Collection, along with an earlier, rococo-style statuette of “La Immaculada Concepcion” at the Museo Oriental in Valladolid, Spain, was considered by the generation of prewar art and antique collectors to be the highest point of Filipino ivory sculpture — Dr Arturo de Santos, Felipe Hidalgo, Dr Domingo Lerma, Antonio Tuason, Arch Luis Ma Araneta, Atty Salvador Araneta and Victoria Lopez – Araneta, et al.

The Virgin Mary is depicted as a young lady with her hands held together in prayer, looking to her left. It is obvious that the sculptor's intent for the statuette was to radiate the Christian – Roman Catholic qualities of “fe, esperanza, y caridad” (faith, hope, and love). The sculptor also succeeded in endowing the small image with “uncion sagrada,” a little – understood, elusive, venerable quality to a Roman Catholic image much discussed and sought after by “santo” specialists and collectors. The beautiful and delicate face is that of a 14 year – old, the age when she conceived and bore her son Jesus Christ. Her exquisite hands are positioned on her right side with palms together in prayer, in counterpoint to her face. Her long hair, flowing over her shoulders, is delineated painstakingly. Her generous mantle (or cape) flows softly from her left shoulder to her right shoulder then descends gracefully to wholly envelop her lower right side, as if a gentle breeze was flowing from that direction. The borders of her dress and mantle are painted with leaves and flowers in the traditional “estofado” manner of the time. She stands atop the evil serpent on a globe with gilt decoration, also rendered in ivory. The exquisite, originally gilded “peana” (stand) of “baticuling” wood (Litsea obtusata) carved with leaves and flowers in a distinctly Sinitic rococo style features a flanking, incorporated pair of candleholders for the many expected evenings of prayer and veneration. An outsized, contemporaneous silver-gilt crown with “ysot” and “gravado” decoration (circa late 18th century – early 19th century), a museum piece in itself, tops the assemblage. The much – vaunted “La Immaculada Concepcion” from the legendary Antonio Bantug collection is a stunning ensemble, and is definitely a masterpiece of an expert Chinese – Filipino craftsman.

8. Rodel Tapaya's

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Above signed and dated 2007 (lower left and verso); acrylic on burlap; 16”x 14” (41 cm x 36 cm)

Rodel Tapaya’s paintings make him the equivalent of an epic storyteller. Considered as one of the most active artists in Southeast Asia. His breakthrough came when he was awarded the coveted Top Prize in the Nokia Art Awards which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting studies in New York and Finland. Tapaya, also won the Phillip-Morris Philippine Art awards in 2007. The strain of narratives that he puts into his canvas ranges from historical, satirical, mythical, and folkloric themes to contemporary scenes.

Where is the naughty cat hiding? In this work of art, Tapaya gives focus on a usual contemporary scene in every pet loving Filipino household. A playful rendition on the Filipino favourite game of hide and seek, a serious look of annoyance creeps on her strong face as the owner problematically searches for her astray cat. On the other hand, the cat from a distant stretches relaxingly, while a sly smile and a vengeful look is written on its face.

The woman seems preoccupied by other mind-boggling thoughts; perhaps she is also quite lost? This poses another question: Is the woman solely looking for her cat or also in the midst of searching for her true self?

9. Mark Justiniani's

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Above mixed media; 28”x 9 1/2” (71 cm x 24 cm)

In the appropriation of Justiniani, the artwork peel the layers of the social system that makes the humour possible and critique it through the very means by which laughter is made potent: kitsch, parody, military and even scatology depending on how one takes it. Our country's history is one in which there are myriad hidden messages through which the artist Mark Justiniani reflects upon the complexities of the world.

His art is as rich in its challenges for the viewer whose desire is for a subtler understanding of the world. Reinforcing these methods is the mirror that reflects images faithfully, but rather treacherously, as words recall history or draw some sinister nexus between seemingly discrepant terms. The engagement, therefore, between image and the technology of reflection is not locked in imitation or repetition, or the anxiety or burden of authenticity, but in critique and circumvention.

10. The Rizal Tampipi

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Above a.) 15” x 12” x 17” (38 cm x 30 cm x 43 cm) | b.) 18” x 16” x 30” (46 cm x 41 cm x 76 cm)

Rizal’s ‘Noli Me Tangere’ was considered so dangerous that mere possession of it would lead to arrest. It cost our national hero, in fact, his life.

Thus the Noli was secreted in this ‘Tampipi’ (or a container woven of palm leaves), which was in turn hidden in a larger rattan and cane baul or chest. (Both are included in this lot.)

According to Rizal family lore, a maid sat on it, calmly sewing, while the Guardia Civil, searched the premises to no avail, during an unexpected raid.

This sacred Rizal ‘Tampipi’ — a symbol of our hero’s defiant spirit and our people’s thirst for freedom no matter the cost — has been handed down through the generations of the family of José Rizal.

It has been safeguarded by the family of Narcisa Rizal (1852 - 1939). Sisa was the third child of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonzo. She was also Rizal’s most devoted sister, “pawning her jewels and peddling even her sayas” to send money to Rizal in Europe. She was brave enough to visit Rizal at Fort Santiago before his death. After Rizal’s execution, she tracked down his unmarked grave in the Paco Cemetery, bribing the groundsman to put a cryptic “RPJ” (his initials in reverse) on it.

It survived the Philippine Revolution as well as the Second World War, when it was rescued and kept in the safekeeping of Antonio Bantug, husband of Asuncion Lopez-Rizal, grand daughter of Narcisa.

— Lisa Guerrero Nakpil

11. The Murillo Velarde Map of 1734

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Above (Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas Dedicada al Rey Nuestro Señor Por el Mariscal d Campo D. Fernando Valdes Tamon Cavallo del Orden de Santiago Govor. y Capn. General de dichas Yslas, by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde 1734) Engraved and printed by Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay 1734

Known as “the most famous Philippine map”, the “Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas” was published in Manila in 1734 by the Jesuit father Pedro Murillo Velarde.

This ‘Holy Grail’ of Philippine Maps is singularly and historically important not only because it influenced several generations of map-makers but also provided an important record of the islands, seas and moreover, the people of our country. It was also the culmination of two centuries of map-making and was the most accurate till them and long after.

— Lisa Guerrero Nakpil

12. Andres Barrioquinto's

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Above signed and dated 2017 (lower right); oil on canvas; 84” x 60” (213 cm x 152 cm)

The sap of Surrealism rises from the roots of Barrioquinto’s dreams to nourish his figurative paintings. The latent eroticism has as its necessary compliments, the intense fertility symbolised by the lush clusters of butterflies which envelopes her like a partial cape and links her to mother earth. It remains an intensely lyrical and romantic image, with its jewel like butterflies perched at the child body, as if on nectar.

Barrioquinto speaks double visual language, fantasy and realism; he creates surreal details that are still within the realm of hyper-realism, no distortions, no visual nightmares; and these inventions remain quite rational.

Generally, the only whim (bizarrerie) which isn't afforded by Barrioquinto — he doesn't create a visual language that is absolutely unclear. His portraits of human heads and bodies (as in this one) covered in butterflies and other excesses of fantasy, are greatly admired and will remain a source of fascination for generations to come.

Credits

Images  

León Gallery

Words  

Jaime Ponce de Leon / Lisa Guerrero Nakpil