Vicente Silva Manansala

was a Philippine cubist painter and illustrator. Manansala was born in January 22, 1910 and died on August 22, 1981. As a member of the Thirteen Moderns and the neo-realists, he was at the forefront of the Modernist Movement in the country. With the issues of national culture and identity in focus after WWII, his works were akin to those of the other early modernists, which reflected the social environment and expressed the native sensibility.

Vicente Manansala

“Sabungero”

1964

Oil on Canvas

27.5x35in

Manansala developed Transparent Cubism, wherein the "delicate tones, shapes, and patterns of figure and environment, are masterfully superimposed". A fine example of Manansala using this "transparent and translucent" technique is his composition here, The Sabungero (cockfight aficionado), 1964.

I chose this artwork because the cubist aspect of Manansala's work rests largely on the geometric faceting of forms, and in the shifting and overlapping of planes. But his facets and planes are broader than in original cubism as they bring out larger rhythms. As a whole, Manansala reinterpreted and indigenized cubism as he drew his themes from the familiar Filipino environment.