Provenance: Acquired directly from the Artist, and thence by direct descent to its present owners.

ABOUT THE WORK

FISHES THAT FEED THE SOUL Lasting Symbols of the Spirit — and Plenty and Prosperity by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL By 1969 — the year ‘Fish Vendors’ was painted — Vicente Manansala was flush with success. He was not only the recipient of an armful of awards, (including the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1963), his one-man shows would attract thousands of guests on opening night. His latest show — the entire one, consisting of 40 paintings — would be snapped up in a matter of minutes by adoring collectors according to newspaper reports. He was undoubtedly one of the immortals among the “Thirteen Moderns’ of his once and future mentor, Victorio Edades. In the company of the arch-Neo Realist Hernando R. Ocampo, he would next become part of the most significant art movement of the country; and originate his own highly recognizable style that would be dubbed by art critics as ‘Transparent Cubism.’ Manansala had several sides to his art : The first being the abstracts produced under the aegis of the legendary Philippine Art Gallery. The second was his turns at a Filipino cubism, influenced by his interest in stained glass techniques and butterfly collection. Both of these facets were used to depict the Filipino condition, from life in the slums to queuing for rice rations to the narratives of candle vendors and vegetable hawkers; FISHES THAT FEED THE SOUL Lasting Symbols of the Spirit — and Plenty and Prosperity by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL while all the while, speaking its truth in all its beauty. The beauteous film star Celia Flor (neé Trinidad Teodoro who would later become Mrs. Jose “Peping” Escaño Corominas) would meet Vicente Manansala in 1970. It was thanks to an introduction made by her bosom friend and Manansala aficionado Lucy Cruz, wife of the political pundit, later Philippine ambassador to the Hague and the United Kingdom. Unsurprisingly Manansala would ask her to pose in the nude for a portrait, a flattering invitation to which she obliged. She would then acquire other works from him, including a view of Holland Park and this remarkable work called “Fish Vendors.” In the work at hand, two women are surrounded by the bounty of the sea — dozens of baskets literally filled to the gills of fish of all shapes and sizes. There are a record number of them, 35 to be exact, with three blue, speckled crab for good measure. The fish would be a coded symbol of Christianity and its devout followers evading Roman persecution. It would become spiritual shorthand for the peace and serenity in the centuries to come. In Asia, the fish is both symbolic of ‘plenty’ and the prosperity it would bring. For both Celia Flor, who relished it everyday in her London home, and the maestro Mang Enteng, that was certainly most true.