PROPERTY FROM THE PRISCILLA L. CHIONGBIAN COLLECTION

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

Vicente Manansala’s oeuvre is intensely and obviously Filipino. With his jewel-colored palette and noticeable Filipino elements decorating his canvases, one need not take a second look to see how the Philippines has deeply inspired him. The country and its culture have cemented their way into Manansala’s body of works, immortalized in the hands of the maestro. However, Manansala has ventured out of the Philippine shores to further hone his artistic skills. First at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Banff and Ecole de Beaux Arts de Montreal Canada in 1949, Ecole de Beaux Arts of the University of Paris in 1950, and then at the Otis Institute in Los Angeles in 1967, Manansala ventured into Europe in 1974. He visited Berlin, Rome, Frankfurt, Munich, and Amsterdam, among others, soaking in the historically and artistically rich region of Europe. This European influence is evident in these 1976 watercolor paintings. With one dated from London and another from Barcelona, Manansala’s European sojourn is well documented by the artist himself. These pieces, unlike Manansala’s clear-cut transparent cubism, utilize the malleable and easily layered watercolor; the medium creates a diffused effect, a great touch on the city scene Manansala depicts. The result is a softer, hazier image with Manansala masterfully translating the rainy day fog of his London piece and the bright sun in his Barcelona work in his canvas. As a member of the Thirteen Moderns and the neo-realists, Manansala’s impact cannot be understated. “Manansala’s vision of the city and his fundamentally native Filipino approach to his subjects would influence numerous artists who took up his folk themes within an urban context,” says his artist biography at the Geringer Art website. Indeed, his works revel in the novel, steadfastly barreling through the conservative to create his path that would cement his place in Philippine art history. (Hannah Valiente)