Provenance: My parents, Allan & Paula Kline, moved to Manila in 1957. Allan was hired by C.A.R.E. and this was his first post. Coincidentally, my mother’s parents, Ruth & Dawson Zaug, also moved there in 1958. My grandfather was in the exotic wood veneer business. I was born in Oct. 1959, and we left the Philippines in 1960. While there, they befriended the young Manansala. As appreciators of art, they both bought, and were given, several of his paintings. In 1969, we moved back to Manila for a second tour. In between, we had lived in India, Iran, & Chile. My parents re-connected with Manansala, and bought, or traded for, several more. -Carly Sax

ABOUT THE WORK

Engaging with the genres of the figurative, city scenes, landscapes, even still life, Manansala’s diverse body of work created a very personal, authentic version of Filipino modernism, one with a healthy deference to traditional Filipino forms. Manansala stays close to the homely figures which he simplified to their basic representation. Alice Guillermo writes: “he went through a black and white phase of crucifixions and Madonna and child paintings ...” In this black and white watercolor, Manansala puts more emphasis on the everyman; the lumpish, almost caricatured figures suggest a realist novel. In pure watercolor, immediacy and spontaneity of the pictorial effect is the key to success, even much more so in dark, brooding themes. In this brooding image, watercolor released Manansala’s skills in executing both linear and tonal elements. Guillermo adds: “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. As a whole, Manansala reinterpreted or indigenized cubism as he drew his themes from the familiar Filipino environment.”