Thunder and Lightning at Salcedo Auctions

J. Elizalde Navarro, "Man With Kite", 1954, Oil on Wood, 45 x 36.8 cm. Sold for P800,000.00 plus buyer's premium

Things went crazy on Saturday afternoon, and I don’t mean the freakish March weather. The standing room only crowd inside the Salcedo Auctions saleroom stayed oblivious to the darkening sky, the thunder and lightning that heralded blinding sheets of rain better suited to the middle of August than the beginning of summer. All eyes focused on auctioneer Andrew Thomas as he presented lot after lot of the auction house’s sale of Important Philippine Art, and hammered the close on some truly spectacular sales.

National Artist J. Elizalde Navarro set the afternoon’s frenzied tone. His Man With A Kite, a 1954 oil on wood cubist piece from his Japanese series was hotly contested, finally closing at P800, 000.00 (plus buyer’s premium), three times its estimated price of P280, 000.00 – P350, 000.00. A foot high (32cm) wooden sculpture by Ross Arcilla came up next, also selling way above its high estimate of P32, 000.00 at P120, 000.00. At that point, the audience knew that they were in for a surprising time.

All of National Artist Vicente Manansala’s four available pieces achieved solid prices. A whimsical, experimental 1955 oil on canvas, Praying Mantis and Mask closed at P650, 000.00 (estimated between P230, 000.00-P260, 000.00). Fellow National Artists fared just as well with significant pieces from Federico Aguilar Alcuaz and Cesar Legaspi. Alcuaz’s charming Painter’s Studio from 1979 sold at P500, 000.00 (estimated P220, 000.00-P240, 000.00) while spirited bidding ensued for Legaspi’s Two Nudes from 1980, finally closing at P640, 000.00 (estimated P320, 000.00 – P450, 000.00).

Jose Joya’s Frontier Forest from 1991 made its way into an important Philippine collection for P480, 000.00 (estimated P295, 000.00-P320, 000.00). Nena Saguil also did well: a small, beautifully detailed untitled pen and ink drawing from 1972 sold at P110, 000.00 (estimated P55, 000.00-P80, 000.00), while her more substantial shaped canvas, also untitled, sold slightly above estimate at P280, 000.00. A third piece, with its distinctly religious connotations (she turned Jehovah’s Witness later in life), remained unsold.

A rare figurative work by Roberto Chabet, Untitled (Sitting Figure with Plants), from 1959, still signed with his real surname of Rodriguez, also proved a crowd favorite, closing at P430, 000.00 (estimated at P200, 000.00-240,000.00).

Applause greeted the end of a frenetic bidding war between two live bidders and some telephone bidders for Ronald Ventura’s Academic. By the artist’s standards, this painting from 2005 can be considered microscopic, measuring just 66.4x 50.8 cm (26.14x 20 inches). By no stretch can you even label it a major work. That apparently does not matter as the hunger for Ventura’s works go on unabated. Final price P2, 400,000.00, plus buyer’s premium, five times its high estimate.

Other young artists fared just as strongly. A small, early Lynyrd Paras, 2005’s Burning Rose, 45.7 x 70 cm (27.5 x 18 inches) sold for P140, 000.00 (estimated P35, 000.00 – P45, 000.00), while Rodel Tapaya’s Nonito, originally exhibited at Alliance Francaise in 2008, went for P200, 000.00, slightly above its high estimate of P190, 000.00.

This sale was headlined by three of Philippine art’s most important names: Fernando Amorsolo, Felix Resureccion Hidalgo, and Juan Luna. They achieved mixed results. The two Amorsolo lots, a 1920 Conte crayon portrait on paper, which Salcedo Auctions had chosen as the catalogue’s cover, and the haunting Bataan, a 1949 oil on canvas rendition of a woman lamenting the carnage that World War II inflicted, both stayed within their estimates. Portrait of a Spanish Lady sold for P280, 000. 00 (estimated P250, 000.00 – P380, 000.00), while Bataan achieved a final price of P2, 800, 000.00 (estimated between P2.7 and P2.9 Million).

The final bids for the beautiful Portrait of a Lady in a Red Panuelo, from circa 1881-1883, painted during Hidalgo’s stint in Madrid, and Otoño en Ocres (Ochre Autumn), Luna’s impressionistic landscape from circa 1885, did not reach the reserve prices set by their consignors of P3, 100, 000.00 and P5, 500, 000.00 respectively. They came close, however, with the last bid for the Hidalgo coming in at P2, 800, 000.00 and for the Luna at P5, 100, 000.00; still significant amounts that may perhaps pave the way for negotiated sales.

Do we attribute these consequential amounts spent on art to a buoyant economy fuelled by a bull market or to a genuine acknowledgement of the importance of our artistic heritage? I suspect we can safely say a bit of both. And that surely will mean that Manila’s art scene turns ever more interesting.

Salcedo Auctions’ Important Philippine Art sale was held on 24 March 2012 at their saleroom, Unit 104-B, Ground Level, Three Salcedo Place, 121 Tordesillas St., Salcedo Village, Makati. Phone (632) 964-4996/ 659-4094. For more information and auction results visit www.salcedoauctions.com

Ronald Ventura, "Academic", 2005, oil on canvas, 66.4 x 50.8 cm sold for P2.4M plus buyer's premium, Rodel Tapaya, "Nonito", 2008, oil on canvas, 121.9x 91.4 cm/ 4ft x 3 ft, sold for P200,000.00

Lynyrd Paras, "Burning Rose", 2005, oil on canvas, 70x 45.7 cm, sold for P140,000.00

From left, Anita Magsaysay Ho serigraph, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, "Painter's Studio", 1979, oil on canvas, 48.2x58.4 cm, sold for P500,000, Roberto Chabet, "Untitled (Sitting Figure with Plants)", sold for P430,000.00, and Fernando Amorsolo, "Bataan", 1949, oil on canvas, 101 x 121 cm, sold for P2.8M

Roberto Chabet, "Untitled (Sitting Figure with Plants)", 1959, acrylic on board, 49.2x46 cm, sold for P430,000.00

Danilo Dalena, "Babae...Ngayon at Kailanman", 1977, oil on canvas, 122x 76 cm/ 4x2ft, sold for P390,000.00, (bottom right) Emmanuel Garibay, "Cigarette Boy", 1994, oil on canvas, 80x70.5cm. sold for P200,000.00

Galo Ocampo, Untitled, 1972, watercolor, 74x51.5 cm, sold for P260,000.00 and Solomon Saprid, "Beggar", 1970, wood, 15x108x23 cm, sold for P75,000.00

Vicente Manansala, "Barong Barong", 1966, Tempera on Paper, 49.5x66cm, sold for P260,000.00 and "Praying Mantis and Mask", 1955, oil on canvas, 40x30 cm, sold for P650,000.00

From left, Virginia Ty Navarro, "Fisherman With Catch", 1991, brass, sold for P50,000.00, Virgilio Aviado, "Bulol", woodcut A/P, 125.5x 27.7 cm, sold for P28,000.00, and Lirio Salvador, "Sandata 12", 2005 , Mixed Media, sold for P80,000.00