PROPERTY FROM THE PRISCILLA L. CHIONGBIAN COLLECTION

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

Literature: Paras-Perez, Rodolfo. Manansala. Manila: PLC Publications, 1980. Full color illustration and painting description on page 170.

ABOUT THE WORK

Manansala’s Flight of Fancy From Binangonan To Los Angeles Regarded as one of the key figures in Philippine art history, National Artist Vicente Manansala ornamented the country’s art scene with his vibrant hues and prolific masterpieces. He is known for his innumerable and diverse body of works: landscapes and portraits, realism and abstraction, created with oil, acrylic, watercolor, graphite, etc. Each medium he used served a specific purpose in his artistic expression. Manansala’s pieces are characterized by his folksy, earthy, and sensuous subjects featuring the barrio and urban life—or a bridge between them. Manansala is most known for his cubism paintings, a style he first encountered when he studied in Canada in 1949. Finally understanding the ins and outs of cubism, Manansala modified and improved it to his liking, making it his own genre. This modification resulted in Manansala’s highly regarded transparent cubism, simplifying objects to their most basic geometric shapes without distorting or completely fragmenting them. This style, along with his kaleidoscopic and vibrant colors, created a series of highstanding masterpieces. The work at hand, bearing Manansala’s signature style and colors, was made during his two-month vacation in Los Angeles in 1978. It illustrates a vase and a bowl atop a table—all are glasses. On the vase were three roses in different colors—pink, red, and yellow—and a lone piece of a bird of paradise flower. However, Roses with Bird of Paradise is not just a still life. It’s a rich tapestry of symbolism and meaning. The roses, often associated with love and passion, also carry a hint of danger with their spiky thorns. The bird of paradise, on the other hand, symbolize freedom. Their flower, resembling a bird in flight, represents the ability to soar above conflict and restriction; it seems to be flying towards the blue wall, a color associated with peace and serenity. This piece, therefore, could be a portrayal of the Philippines’ fight for peace and freedom, or it could simply be a depiction of the lovely flowers Manansala saw in LA. Throughout his career, Manansala continuously graced the country with his exceptional talent: paintings in different sizes, mediums, styles, and subject matter. Indeed, his transparent cubism set him apart from his contemporaries, whose works materialized in fragmented cubism and distortion, a venerated technique that cemented Manansala’s name in Philippine art. (Jessica Magno)