Untitled
signed and dated 1964 (lower left)
watercolor on paper
23" x 31" (58 cm x 79 cm)

PROVENANCE Private Collection, London


The 1960s witnessed Vicente Manansala emerge as the leading artist – and a bon vivant – among the first generation of Filipino modernists. In 1963, the Republic Cultural Heritage Award, the precursor of the Order of National Artists Award, was bestowed on him by then-president Diosdado Macapagal. As Manansala rose to prominence, his works became the most coveted among the elite art patrons of the country. It was also during this decade when Manansala received the SmithMundt Specialist Grant to study stained-glass techniques in New York (1960), as well as the opportunity to hone his virtuosity at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles (1967). That Manansala created art that reflected the postwar urban experience can best be seen in this water color on paper work from 1964. A colorful and playful rendering of a community, this painting shows us his concentrated passion for color, lines, shapes, and places.