PROPERTY FROM THE HOLY ANGEL UNIVERSITY COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

It was eleven years ago, in March 2012 at Holy Angel University (HAU), Pampanga during the launch of the Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) that a whole wing was dedicated to National Artist, Vicente Manansala. Friends of Manansala Foundation, fellow artists and art critics, including grand-daughter and artist Ronna Manansala, along with the center’s Executive director Robert Tantingco unveiled the university’s collection of Manansala sketches, his studio and personal memorabilia. This collection was but a handful from the lot that HAU had acquired. It was a fitting tribute to one of Pampanga’s illustrious sons, honoring his life and art. Mang Enteng, as he is fondly called by those close to him, was posthumously awarded the honor of National Artist for Painting in 1981 and is dubbed the father of transparent cubism. Holy Angel University in celebration of its 90th year auctions off some of Manansala’s sketches from their private and unseen collection. Proceeds of which will go to The Manansala Endowment Fund for selected scholarship programs. It is in keeping with the spirit and legacy of its original co-founder, Don Juan D. Nepomuceno. Don Juan Nepomuceno had plucked out a young artistic student from shyness, discouragement and obscurity during the university’s silver jubilee of 1958. He and his son Nestor Nepomuceno commissioned this young artist to paint several portraits including Don Juan and his wife, followed by Joseph McMicking, Jr. of the Ayala Corp. Archbishop Pedro Santos and many others in 1963. The young artist went on and enlisted at Dale Carnegie and was able to make a name for himself. This among countless stories of giving education and opportunities to the less privileged are all revealed in the Holy Angel University’s diamond year history book, Destiny and Destination by Robert Tantingco. 75 PROPERTY FROM THE HOLY ANGEL UNIVERSITY COLLECTION Vicente Manansala (1910 - 1988) Cucho-Cucho (Study) stamped Manansala (lower right) charcoal on paper 30 1/4 x 22 1/4 (76 cm x 56 cm) P 150,000 In the realm of fine arts, a master’s secret is always a treasure trove of esquisses or sketches in sketchbooks, paper napkins, scratch paper, cardboard. Any writing material is literary carte blanche or free game for any artist. The urge and inspiration can strike anywhere. Manansala’s mental machinations is a fury and flurry of studies upon studies of the same subjects. His bucolic and Filipiniana folk scenes, Catholic imagery and even his perspective on social poverty and hardship that the common Filipinos face, then and now are littered in the many pages of paper. Picasso’s bull sketches are Manansala’s many studies and sketches of the Philippines’ beast of burden, the lowly but formidable kalabaw/carabao. Paris, a famous playground of the artists of the modern movement, was also Manansala’s playground during his study grant in the fifties. Sketches of les gens de Paris and les boquinistes de Seine line many of his sheets of paper. His experimentations for what is to be his transparent cubism is tested through pencil, charcoal, in different shading effects.