Tags: Paintings, Visual arts
By Anna Valmero
MACABEBE, PAMPANGA – National Artist Vicente Manansala is regarded as a “social realist”, depicting in his paintings the country’s struggle for a national identity after the Second World War.
His works distinguish him as the pioneer of transparent cubism in the country and one of the prewar “Thirteen Moderns”. Manansala immortalized in his paintings the reality seen by someone who lived to see the ravages during and after the Second World War.
His images of postwar Manila’s urban landscape included makeshift shanties, women vendors, jeepneys, beggars and cock fighters, and depicted the search for national identity after the war. All of them turned into pulsating images through cubism and his knack for using layers and planes to make space explode while staying true to the geometric shapes of his subjects.
Manansala’s paintings were described as masterpieces that merge the barrio and city cultures together. His “Madonna of the Slums” shows a mother and child from the countryside who became urban shanty residents in the city. In his “Jeepneys,” Manansala combined the elements of provincial folk culture with the congestion issues of the city.
“Shunning Fernando 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,” says Eric Zerrudo, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.
His art was forged in the streets of Manila, although Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga on January 22, 1910. He started working at age seven as a shoeshine boy, news boy and caddy at the Club Intramuros golf course.
At 15, he entered the preparatory school of then leading scenographic painter Ramon Peralta, where he learned to draw while doing signboards for a painting shop. He took courses at the School of Fine Arts in UP while working as billboard painter and then as illustrator and layout artist for Philippine Herald and Photo News – all this, while doing hard labor on the side during the construction of the Ipo Dam. He also became part of Liwayway and Saturday Evening News magazines years after.
When the war broke out, most of his works in his house in Intramuros were not salvaged. He moved his family to Cavite and Pampanga. To support his family, he worked as a fisherman and did portraits in exchange for palay or rice. (Click here to view a timeline of Manansala’s life.)
Going back to the city after the war, Manansala also painted several historical murals including the Stations of the Cross for UP Diliman Chapel, mural for Philippine Heart Center, and the fresco mural for the National Press Club.
It was only late in his life, during the 1970s, that rich art patrons – riding in their Mercedes Benz, as described by some accounts- would flock his home to buy items in his studio. (Writer Alfredo Roces described him as the “darling of the social set”) After his death in 1981 in Makati, he received a posthumous award as National Artist for Visual Arts.
To celebrate Manansala’s ingenuity and influence, the Philippine Postal Corporation launched the Vicente Manansala Stamps on May 20 at the Metropolitan Museum.
As testament to his greatness, The Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Lopez Memorial Museum (Manila), the Philippine Center (New York City) and the Singapore Art Museum house works by Manansala.
According to his biography at the Lopez Museum:
“Reality as truth, a precept drilled into his young mind before, had to be pushed back to the most remote recesses of his consciousness. Even when he looked for lessons from the Masters, he constantly reminded himself: “I must scratch deeper, try to grasp the roots, dip into the mainsprings, and thereby feel the pulse, feel the makings of what drives these creators to create, how much of themselves they give away in their toil, how much of the human being in them they crucify to turn out works of great importance.”
Manansala, who favored the styles of Picasso and Cezanne, believed that the “true beauty of art lay in the process of creating it.” He himself said that painting is not just an art form but a venue for the artist to communicate his feelings and vision of realities and influence his viewer’s perception of reality.
Manansala’s paintings are exhibited until July 31 at the Tall Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila; “Images of a Nation: Vicente Manansala as a Social Realist” is on view until July 4 at the Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. corner De la Rosa St., Makati; “Mga Gawa ni Mang Enteng” is on view until Oct. 30 at the GSIS Museum, GSIS Bldg., Financial Center, Pasay City.
Animation Arts Training and Workshops Concerts and Performances Culture Dance Film Graphic Arts Indie Internet Literature Movies Music Obituaries Paintings Performing Performing Arts Photography Sculpture Showbiz Television Theater Visual arts
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
