Vicente Manansala’s Market Scene

The Artist

Vicente Manansala was born in Pampanga in 1910 and studied at the U.P. School of Fine Arts and later continued to study in Canada and Paris. He started out with creating abstract images from realistic ones, but never attempting to discard the initial one. Later, Manansala dabbled with abstract images, which paved the way for the concept of “cubism” which basically is, “reducing reality into images” (http://www.lopezmuseum.org.ph/gallery_manansala.html). He died in 1981 and was only regarded as a National Artist after his death in the same year.

Market Scene

There was no prevailing ideology that influenced his art, he only believed in the power of the artist to recreate reality according to what he feels and not only on what he sees. Art, for him, was a representation of the general reality, only made personal by the artist himself. It was a communication between the reality, the artist and the colors that would breathe life to an idea.

For my part, I chose his Market Scene painting, painted in 1975. It is one of his paintings which employed “cubism” as manifested by the angles and planes floating around to form the whole picture through different shades and colors. In his painting, the edges of the cubes were made lighter and softer to create emphasis on the picture he was portraying, thus his “transparent cubism” technique. If the edges had been sharp, then his art would be reduced into an abstract image, a form of art that he had revolutionized by fusing realism and cubism.

He might not be a genius as Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo were, but his use of “cubism” in the Market Scene made him unique from all his contemporaries. His painting was brilliant, with the blending of colors into shadows and shades into textures to make a picture in an otherwise abstract figure. Cubism is generally defined as the tweaking of a picture to create an abstracted representation but with Manansala’s art he fused these abstracted cubes to form one picture.

In addition, the use of cubes and planes in his painting contributed to the balance and asymmetry of colors and the painting itself. It is not too heavy, nor is it too light. Although the colors range from orange to black, the shades of blue and white make it easy to the eyes.

The emphasis lies on the life at the market area, an everyday activity. But here, Manansala made use of the traditional baro’t saya of the women, something which did not exist in the mid-70’s. Here, it can be clearly deduced that while he had moved on from doing abstracted paintings, he had not let go of his belief that art could be something else other than reality itself.

The Colors and Art

I liked how the orange and blue blended well together through the different shades and colors. Somehow, it looked so orange and dark to me, but looking at it closely, I realized that there were other shades other than yellow and orange. It took a while before the blue color registered and I regard this as a bad thing. Although they blended well together, the shades of blue were offset by the strong yellow and orange shades.

In the same vein, Manansala’s “Jeepneys” painting was characterized by strong shades of orange that filled the transparent geometric planes of his art. In “Jeepneys”, he used different shades of orange to convey the polluted area of Manila, as well as the heavy traffic that characterizes a typical city in the Philippines. To quote, “filling up the entire pictorial space, Jeepneys successfully conveyed the feeling of heat, pollution, noise and claustrophobia caused by the city’s menace – traffic” (http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultarts/comarticles.php?artcl_Id=169). In the same way, Manansala employed the colors of orange, yellow and brown to show the typical market scene in the Philippines which is generally described by housewives as busy, dirty and “populated”. This image evokes the stench of dead pigs as their carcasses were hung upside down and of the stink of the freshly-caught fish while buzzes of shouts and conversations fill the air.

The Time Span

Although painted in the year 1975, Manansala’s painting was a reflection of his own time. It seemed like a depiction of a long-lost Spanish era, but Manansala’s painting was a reflection of his era, the American period, as manifested by the traditional clothes worn by the women in his painting. In 1910, life in the Philippines is on its way to modernity under the American regime. No longer were we slaves of the Spaniards, but we were under the “spell” of the Americans. In my own opinion, he painted this in 1975 to depict the ever-changing traits of the Filipino women and also to serve as a reminder of the era that’s passed.

He grew up in an environment where women were the traditional Maria Claras, but by the entrance of the “retro” period, women became undoubtedly freer and more liberal in terms of fashion, career and world view. Women served two purposes: as a household caretaker and as well as a career woman. I think Manansala wanted to bring back the time wherein women were basically caretakers of home. - ALEXIS LAURA FELICIANO

Photograph Source:
http://iloko.tripod.com/Manansala/Marketscene_Manansala.jpg

Trees And Brushstrokes

A lifeless tree surrounded by colorful stones against a mountain backdrop. The set of paintings of Prudencio Lamarroza called the Amburaya Series shows just that.

This particular painting from the Amburaya series has a tree that resembles that of a Narra. The other paintings have a different tree but basically the concept is the same. A dead tree and colorful stones. One might think that it’s such a boring thing to paint. Seriously, there is nothing special about trees and stones.

However, that is the beauty of the Amburaya paintings. Its simple objects are juxtaposed by the complexity of what it signifies. The trees and stones signify the damage that nature has sustained because of people’s abuse.

The artist’s ideologies are very much present in this painting. It is a painting about the damage done to nature. And Lamarroza is a painter with a soft spot for nature. He’s an environmentalist. Lamarroza’s love for the environment is very much present in the painting.

The Amburya series actually signifies the dried up river of Aburaya in Ilocos. The dead tree shows what happened to the ecosystem of Aburaya due to the abuse of people. The colorful stones represent the remains of the once majestic river.

Lamarroza gives new aesthetic to dead trees and stones. Never has a dead tree and a bunch of stones looked so pretty. There is so much detail in the painting that one can see the really tiny dots that give texture to the painting. The use of contrasting colors really gave emphasis to its content. The tree stands out due to its texture and color.

Not only is the painting a masterpiece but it is also a stand. It is a protest for nature and never has a protest looked more been more aesthetically pleasing. - MAE EDILLON

A Painting Calls For Compassion

Drawing inspiration from the impoverished life of most Filipinos, Joey Velasco depicted in his painting – Hapag ng Pag-asa (Table of Hope) – 12 children sharing meal with Jesus Christ. Those children, in real life, have been victims of social injustices in the Philippines. Each of them has their own stories to tell.

According to Velasco in a speech in one of his lectures, these are the children whom he found in the streets of Manila and Quezon City and by which he paid to pose for him. But later on, through his partnership with Gawad Kalinga, he helped these children and their families to have their own homes where they can start anew with their lives.

Hapag ng Pag-asa is a simulation of the Last Supper but instead of the 12 Apostles, 12 street children are sitting beside Jesus. Canvassed using oil, the painting of Velasco is said to have a resemblance with the works of Rembrandt and Caravaggio. The three painters used the technique called grisaille, a French word which means “grey tones.” By definition, it is a monochromatic technique using various shades of grey. It can either stand alone as a finished artwork of black and white or it can be a basis or framework for a full colored artwork.

We may notice that in the painting Hapag ng Pag-asa, apart from the color gray, we can see some shades of yellow, blue, brown, and red. Here, we may assume that Velasco used the grisaille as his base for this painting to give a luminous effect on the characters. Furthermore, the use of bright colors that contrasts with the black background highlights the figures. Apparently, the use of grisaille adds with the drama and realism of the painting, moreover, it emphasizes the personality and emotion present in the artwork.

In terms of balance, the painting appears to have an equal weight on both sides: left and right, even though more children are situated on the right side of Jesus. This is because the figures on both ends (a big boy vs. two small boys) with unequal weight but similar in terms of height cancels out the unevenness or the imbalance.

When one will look closely to the painting, Jesus and the 12 children are not actually dining in a ‘table’ but rather as Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J. described as “a big delivery box, knocked apart and nailed together again” to give a complete impression of a table.

In this Velasco’s own version of the Last Supper, the face of Jesus Christ was lean and soiled unlike that of Da Vinci’s where Jesus’ face was neat and perfect. Velasco also used imagery to show how Jesus is in communion with the street children and is “breaking bread” with them.

The painting has been featured not only in galleries but also in schools and churches. Those who had seen the painting said that it is an ‘eye-opener’ for those who were still blinded by their fortunes and who have forgotten how many of their neighbors are suffering from poverty. It is a ‘reality check’ of how most of country’s poor children have been corrupted of their right to live a healthy life. - NIKKI ANGULO

Photograph Source:
http://www.geographyofgrace.com/2007/08/table_of_hope_2.html