PROPERTY FROM THE PRISCILLA L. CHIONGBIAN COLLECTION

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

Ever the prolific artist, National Artist Vicente Manansala continued to relentlessly pursue the art of drawing. At the height of his career, Manansala would rise well before the sun to sketch for hours on end and he pursued both abstraction and realism with similar fervor, resulting in stacks of studies that showcased Manansala’s dexterity. “[Drawing] is the most important weapon a painter must possess. Without it, he is at a loss,” he said in 1953 as noted in Rod Paras-Perez’s Manansala Nudes. In continued pursuit of excellence, Manansala studied drawing at the Otis Art Institute in California in 1967 when he was already decades into his career with an impressive list of achievements already under his belt. More than a decade after his enrollment, Manansala created this 1979 Nude. More than showing Manansala’s masterful handle at technique and shadows, his nude pieces following his overseas education show the revitalization of his art – by then, he had deconstructed and reconstructed the human figure and learned to view them in a different light. As he played with the dynamics of light and shadow, Manansala expertly wielded the charcoal to create a masterpiece that indicates depth, emotions, and dedication. (Hannah Valiente)