A five-paneled mural by contemporary artists that interpreted the history and heritage of Bahay Nakpil will be auctioned off during Leònexchange’s online auction on Jan. 18 and 19, to raise funds for repairs of the lifestyle heritage museum in Quiapo, Manila.
The museum is famous for having been the residence of Gregoria de Jesus, widow of Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio, until her death in 1943. She later married Julio Nakpil, a musician and another revolutionary, and they stayed in the Quiapo house that was really owned by Nakpil’s sister Petrona and her husband, Dr. Ariston Bautista. Hence the house is officially known as Bahay Nakpil-Bautista.
Petrona was a jeweler, and she transformed a section of the Quiapo structure into the Joyeria Nakpil, which became famous before the war.
In 2017, in time for the 50th anniversary of the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID), Mary Ann Bulanadi, curator of Bahay Nakpil and a design faculty of PSID and the University of Santo Tomas, recreated Joyeria Nakpil for the school’s golden anniversary exhibit at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
To provide a contemporary counterpoint to the recreated space, Bulanadi commissioned for free five artists (the number obviously to represent a decade each of the 50-year-old PSID) to interpret the Bahay Nakpil based on their own individual idioms: Alfred Galvez, Julius Legaspi, Derrick Macuray, Abe Orobia and Jared Yokte.
The pentaptych, titled “Ang Limang Tanawan ng Bahay Nakpil (Five Vistas of the Nakpil House),” now hangs in the Quiapo museum.
“But the painting won’t stay in the house forever,” writes Anson Yu in the exhibit catalog. “It must be sold in order to raise money for Bahay Nakpil’s repair and rehabilitation. This way the Bahay Nakpil-Bautista will continue to inform and inspire Filipinos for generations to come.”
Exciting world
León Gallery, which runs Leonexchange, said the 10th edition of the online market would delight both seasoned collectors and neophyte art collectors looking to get their feet wet in the exciting world of auctions.
Particularly notable is naif surrealist Joan Miro’s “Picasso y el Reventos,” which is signed.
There is a wide array of works from Philippine masters. With a click of a button (and a little patience), superb paintings such as Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s “Manila Bay Series” (painted in 1988) and “Portrait of a Lady,” Cesar Buenaventura’s “Vendors” (signed and dated 1980), Romeo Tabuena’s “Barrio Scene,” Juvenal Sanso’s “Landscape,” and three “Untitled” Mauro Malang Santos paintings from the early 1980s could be yours.
There is also an outstanding selection of contemporary works, such as Jigger Cruz’s “Untitled” work in oil and dated 2009, Emmanuel Garibay’s “Untitled” work and Marcel Antonio’s “Girl with Doll.”
“One can indulge his or her taste for the exquisite at various price points at the upcoming online auction, and all that from one’s armchair or boudoir,” said Ponce de Leon. “The online auction gives clients the convenience of bidding through their mobiles or laptops, without having to trek all the way to where physical auctions happen.” —CONTRIBUTED
Preview of auction lots starts on Jan. 16 at León Gallery in Warehouse 14, La Fuerza Plaza, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City. Visit www.leonexchange.com.