Aguilar, Alteira Nicole Camacho, Quennie Dominguez, Cellito Kho, Janine Marjorie Palanca, Victoria 4T3 Ms.

Siao December 10, 2009

Humanities Vicente Manansala (Written Report)

VICENTE MANASALA Life, Works and Critiques

Biography:
Since forty-three years ago I have been drawing and up to now I still am. Why? Because I know that drawing is the most important weapon a painter must possess. Without it he is at a loss. And any painter could only achieve such a treasure by practicing one or two hours or more every day. When a painter begins to imagine a certain symbol or thought to be expressed in visible and tangible, material form, he starts to draw in order to materialize his thoughts. Now how can he a painter be able to accomplish these if his hands cannot follow what his mind or feeling dictates? How? The painter's hand then must follow him. His hands must serve as his slaves. Then you have something there. Now that is only the beginning. And I repeat, only the beginning, an introduction to fine painting. And the rest-only heaven knows. Don't think this is the only thing a painter needs. There are more things for him to learn and study and just as important as learning how to draw is working hard very hard."

-Vicente Manansala Vicente Silva Manansala (22 January 1910-1981) is a neo-realist painter of the post-war period and a Philippine modern painter known for popularizing Cubism. In 1981, he was posthumously recognized as one of the National Artists of the Philippines in Visual Arts. His signature style is based on Cubism, but rather than breaking down figures, shows them through transparent angular forms. Manansala was born in 1910 in Macabebe, Pampanga. He is the son of Perfecto Q. Manansala and Engracia Silva the second of eight children. As a newsboy and bootblack in Intramuros, he expressed his early creativity designing kites and making charcoal sketches. At 15, he studied under the turn-of-the-century painter Ramon Peralta while doing signboards for a painting shop. The year before he started college, he worked as a painter of movie posters. He married Hermengilda Diaz in 1937. He died in 1981 in Makati.

He studied at the UP School of Fine Arts for 1926-1930 . He went abroad for further studies on a six-month UNESCO grant to Ecole de Beaux Arts in Banff and Montreal, Canada in 1949 and a nine-month French government scholarship to the Ecole de Beaux Arts, Paris in 1950. In 1960 he received a U.S. Dept. of State Specialist grant to study the making of stained glass in New York. He also took further studies at the Otis Art Institute in 1967. In 1970, he received a German grant and went to study in Zurich. Manansala was a billboard painter and laborer at the Ipo Dam Construction in 1930. He also worked as a an illustrator in 1941 for the Cultural Office of the Japanese Occupational Government. In 1941 he won first Prize in USTs National Art Exposition for "Pounding Rice". His first one-man show was in 1951, at the Manila Hotel. This was subsequently followed by 7 others. He became one of the Thirteen Moderns and with Hernando Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi formed the triumvirate of neo-realists. Manansala taught at the UST School of Fine Arts from 1951-1958. He made numerous murals, including the fifteen stations of the Cross for. U.P.s Church of the Holy Sacrifice; the mural in the Philippine Heart Center; and a fresco mural for the National Press Club. As a member of the Thirteen Moderns and the neo-realists, he was at the forefront of the modernist movement in the country. With the issues of national culture and identity in focus after WWII his works were those of the other early modernists which reflected the social environment and expressed the native sensibility. He held his first one-person show at the Manila Hotel in 1951. Works: Manansala was able to create almost hundred of works using different mediums to express his art. He uses oil on canvas, oil on wood,charcoal, pastels, and watercolors. His major works includes: 1940 Bangkusay Seascape 1948 Banaklaot 1950 Madonna of the Slums 1951 Jeepneys 1967 Reclining Mother and Child Three of his works namely, the Burial, Patuloy ang Buhay and the Planting of the cross can be found at the National Museum of the Philippines.

He also painted historic murals such as: Stations of the Cross for UP Diliman Chapel, Mural for Philippine Heart Center, and Fresco mural for National Press Club. His interests includes: Collage, Chinese scroll painting, and Japanese Shibui Style (Duldulao 1993) Analysis to his works: Manasala used form and feeling in unified creation of art. He explored on various forms of slightly abstracted images. He made sensible study and recast them into variations which became more and more abstract, but the original image was never removed. He based most of his works from reality, from simple cocks fighting, still life, a mother and child, candle vendors or even a nude. Manansala consistently worked in the figurative mode, with the exception of a few abstract works. Shunning Amorsolo's rural idylls, he developed a new imagery based on the postwar urban experience. The city of Manila, through the vision of the artist, assumed a strong folk character. He painted an innovative mother and child, Madonna of the Slums, 1950, which reflected the poverty in postwar Manila. Besides the mother-and-child, his subjects included jeepnevs, barong-barong, cockfighters, families gathering for a modest meal, and Quiapo women vendors of various goods. His women vendors sit veiled and hunched over their wares, their brown impassive faces like the archaic bulol, blocklike with broad planes, their large bare feet projecting from the hem of their saya. He did still life's of native fruits, vegetables, and dried fish in the setting of a native kitchen with its folk utensils, palayok, kawali and almires, against capiz windows. The cubist aspect of Manansala's work rests largely on the geometric facetting of forms and in the shifting and overlapping of planes. But his facets and planes are broader than in original cubism as they bring out larger rhythms. Here and there, he incorporates linear decorative patterns, as in the ironwork curlicues of gates and windows. In his work, he developed the style of transparent cubism which was generally shared by his fellow neo-realists Cesar Legaspi and Romeo Tabuena. Unlike analytical cubism, which arbitrarily fragments and dissects the figure into complex abstract compositions with only clues of the subject remaining, Manansala stayed close to the figure which he simplified to its basic geometric shape. He went through the black-and-white phase of crucifixions and madonna-and-child paintings, but, on the whole, he used color in all its folk vibrancy, sensuous appeal, and evocative power. In composition, his works often feature lines of perspective with receding space, although shallow; but recession in depth is simultaneously defined by lines and planes which create spatial ambiguities. His still life's have a tapestrylike quality, the various objects from the domestic

context, not fragmented but left integral, occupy he entire visual field, bright elements on a dark, ambiguous space, and at times showing the influence of I7th century paintings of Dutch interiors with their checkerboard motifs. As a whole, Manansala reinterpreted or indigenized cubism as he drew his themes from the familiar Filipino environment. Other works of Vicente Manansala:

Works in Oil Pila Pila sa Bigas 1980. Oil on canvas. 51 x 84 inches. From the collection of Paulino Que. Sanaklaot. 1948. Oil on Canvas. 23 x 24 inches. From the collection of the Museum of Philippine Art. Fruit Vendor. date, size and media unknown Jeepney. 1951. Oil. 51 X 59 Still life. 1980. Oil on canvas. 24 x 30 inches. From the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Mariano Lao. Sugarcane Harvest. 1964. Oil on canvas. 107 x 119 inches. From the collection of Viring de Asis. Market Scene. 1975. Oil on canvas. 39 1/2 x 34 1/4 inches. Private Collection. Kahig. 1974. Oil on canvas. 38 1/2 x 32 1/2 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Luksong Tinik. 1973. Oil on canvas. 30 1/2 x 26 3/4 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Cat's Dream. 1950. Oil on canvas. 15 x 18 1/2 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Sabungero. 1964. Oil on canvas. 27 1/2 x 35 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Self Portrait. 1960. Oil on canvas. 23 X 27 1/2 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Landscape. 1947. Oil on canvas panel. 12 x 18 inches. Sold to a Museum. Fishes. From the Philam Life Collection.

Carabaos. From the Philam Life Collection. Charcoal Works Female Nude from Behind. Charcoal. 19 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches Seated Torso. Charcoal. 19 x 24 inches Nude. 1975. Pastel. 18 x 24 inches Nude. 1972. Charcoal. Figure Study. Charcoal. 10 x 14 inches Reclining Nude from Back. Charcoal. 11 x 14 inches Reclining Nude from the side. Charcoal. 19 x 25 1/4 inches Seated Woman. Pen and Ink. 14 x 10 1/4 inches Seated Nude. Wash. 14 x 10 inches Female Nude on Back. 1972. Charcoal. 28 x 38 inches. From the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. V. Cruz. Watercolor Works Balut Vendor. Watercolor. References:
Duldulao, Manuel D. 1988 (revised edition of 1982 work). A Century of Realism in Philippine Art. Hong Kong: Toppan Printing Company and ORO BOOKS. Duldulao, Manuel D. 1993. Twentieth Century Filipino Artists. Quezon City: Legacy Publishers. Hofilena, Ramon, H. 1974. Manansala. Silay City. 24 p. monograph. 500 copies printed. Paras-Perez, Rodolfo. 1972. From the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Guillermo Damian: Manansala Landscape Watercolors. 20 p. Manila. 23 cm. Paras-Perez, Rodolfo. 1995. Edades and the 13 moderns. (compiled with Belen Ponferrada and Victoria T. Herrera). Manila: National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Committee on Visual Arts. 85 p. 31 cm. http://www.geringerart.com/bios/manansala.html

http://www.lopezmuseum.org.ph/gallery_manansala.html http://filipinopaintings.com/personalities.php?bio=51 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Manansala http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/manansala_vicente_silva/artist/137606/ http://www.visitphilippines.org/guide/8_0_19_1_Arts-and-Literature-.:-VisitPhilippines.org-aBest-Destination-Travel-Guide-by-Travelindex.html http://fil.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Vicente_S._Manansala http://iloko.tripod.com/Manansala/artwork.htm http://www.angelfire.com/id/artseng99/emanansala.html Criticisms to his works: Vicente Silva Manansala was a Filipino cubist painter and illustrator. He developed transparent cubism, wherein the delicate tones, shapes, and patterns of figures and environment were masterfully placed on his canvas. His canvas was colourful, vibrant and very translucent. He is one of the artits who aimed to break away from the traditional representation of the Amorsolo school, which had long represented bucolic visions of the country. To convey the countrys urban changes after World War II, he used semi-figurative distortion and abstraction. His works were those of the other early modernists which reflected the social environment and expressed the native sensibility. At his early age, despite of being poor Manansala has shown his desire towards arts by means of saving his pocket money in order to buy paper and watercolor.

Vicentes unique and superb talent, earned him the title: The National Artist of the Philippines in

The cubist aspect of Manansala's work rests largely on the geometric faceting of forms and in the shift

overlapping of planes. But his facets and planes are broader than in original cubism as they bring out larger

Manansalas coveted artwork, the Madonna of the Slum, is indeed one of the finest works he had ev

Manansala took cubism into another level by means of applying a hybrid technique in this kind of artw

Transparent Cubism here, he stayed close to the figure which he simplified to its basic geometric sh

transparent layers of overlapping planes that diffused some portions of the subjects, but allowing grea areas within the picture.

Manansala's vision of the city and his fundamentally native Filipino approach to his subjects influence who took up his folk themes within an urban context.

Manansala's art exemplified a solution to the problems of the 1950s in terms of the use of modem Wes

and their local transformations, and in terms of the subject matter and content of art reflective of a pe His choice of family-inspired artwork is one of the most favorite subjects, which are commonly depicted in his works. Poverty is also an issue presented in his paintings. Manansalas paintings are focused to poor individuals. It maybe because of his own experience, and his paintings depicts real picture of the lives of poor Filipinos. Vicente Manansala is one of the best contemporary artist the Philippines has ever produced. His contribution to the Philippine art scene is unmatched, proving his works have stood the test of time