113th Birth Anniversary of National Artist Vicente Manansala

The #NationalMuseumPh celebrates the 113th birth anniversary of National Artist for Painting Vicente Silva Manansala.

Born in Macabebe, Pampanga, Manansala earned his Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines. He pursued further studies at Ecole de Beaux Arts in Montreal, France and the University of Paris through the UNESCO scholarship grant and French government scholarship, respectively. He was mentored by French artist Fernand Léger who advised him to simplify the shapes and colors in his works. He eventually rendered figures and objects and simplified them into basic geometric shapes while applying layers of colors. This style, which he pioneered and developed, is called transparent cubism. 

For his birth anniversary, we feature his memorabilia of paintbrushes and a serial palette he used to create his pieces. These memorabilia give us a glimpse and make us wonder about the artist’s process in creating their masterpieces. These tell us that Manansala was fastidious about cleaning his materials and equipment, as he would scrape and scrub his hardwood palettes after each use. In contrast, some artists would clean workspaces only after finishing each series of paintings as though they were wiping the slate to start afresh. As you may notice, Manansala may have opted to mix various colors on this particular palette, especially when he was creating larger paintings.

Manansala’s paintbrushes and serial palettes are on loan from the Manansala family. These are on view at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Northwest Hall Gallery at the National Museum of Fine Arts (NMFA), along with some of his works from the National Fine Arts and GSIS collections. You may view other works of National Artist Vicente Manansala at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Hall and the PHILAM Life Hall also found on the third floor of the NMFA.

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Text and photos by NMP-FAD

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