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Lot Essay
'Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907, three years before Manansala was born. It took another thirty-nine years before Manansala had a meaningful encounter with the revolutionary style. Cubism then became the generating force of Manansala's mature works, the stylistic centre of his main oeuvres. It was not a master follower relationship-it was more like extending the premises of a tradition. Cubism did not curtail the dimension of Manansala's vision. He enriched the style and gave it a new sense of place.' (Rodolfo Paras-Perez, Manansala, Plc Publications, Manila, 1980, p.75)
It is no doubt that cubism freed Manansala's vision from the genre tradition of direct transcription of nature as well as the supremacy of emotion of Abstract- Expressionism. It provided the artist with a visual idiom to continue working in the figuration mode, articulating new ways to record the Filipino everyday life and images such as the Jeepneys, Barong- Barong, Sabungero and vendors at the market such as the present lot Fish Vendors (Lot 458), were amongst the artist's favourite subjects.
It is apt to say that the artist 'indigenised' cubism in the Philippines. Folk or common everyday subjects, were reconstructed utilizing an adapted form of cubism when images were transposed into geometric multi-faceted forms on continually shifting and overlapping planes. For Manansala, cubism did not necessitate a complete disfiguration, in place was a respect for the integrity of the natural forms of the subjects only to be viewed from pluralistic perspectives. Manansala's depiction of the Filipino women bear a solid spirit of resilience exuding quiet energy and presence and they were a particular favourite subject of his as well.
'The women in Manansala's world may walk and live in the city but their values remain pastoral. When the women are not rearing children, they are busy mending a net, threading flowers or rushing to the market in order to barter something. Or, during the leanest hours of World War II, queuing for rice and learning the latest gossip in town. They could be fish vendors patiently seated in some unspecified talipapa, if already grandmothers sitting by the door of Quiapo church selling candles.' (Rodolfo Paras-Perez, Manansala, Plc Publications, Manila, 1980, p.38)
It is no doubt that cubism freed Manansala's vision from the genre tradition of direct transcription of nature as well as the supremacy of emotion of Abstract- Expressionism. It provided the artist with a visual idiom to continue working in the figuration mode, articulating new ways to record the Filipino everyday life and images such as the Jeepneys, Barong- Barong, Sabungero and vendors at the market such as the present lot Fish Vendors (Lot 458), were amongst the artist's favourite subjects.
It is apt to say that the artist 'indigenised' cubism in the Philippines. Folk or common everyday subjects, were reconstructed utilizing an adapted form of cubism when images were transposed into geometric multi-faceted forms on continually shifting and overlapping planes. For Manansala, cubism did not necessitate a complete disfiguration, in place was a respect for the integrity of the natural forms of the subjects only to be viewed from pluralistic perspectives. Manansala's depiction of the Filipino women bear a solid spirit of resilience exuding quiet energy and presence and they were a particular favourite subject of his as well.
'The women in Manansala's world may walk and live in the city but their values remain pastoral. When the women are not rearing children, they are busy mending a net, threading flowers or rushing to the market in order to barter something. Or, during the leanest hours of World War II, queuing for rice and learning the latest gossip in town. They could be fish vendors patiently seated in some unspecified talipapa, if already grandmothers sitting by the door of Quiapo church selling candles.' (Rodolfo Paras-Perez, Manansala, Plc Publications, Manila, 1980, p.38)