‘A Painter With A Heart’
Remembering Vincente S. Manansala , National Artist in Visual Arts
By. Quennie Ann J. Palafox, National Historical Institute

 Those who knew “Mang Enteng”, he was the master of Philippine modern art and duly recognized as one of the most prolific and versatile Filipino artists who ever lived. He made a big name in the modernist movement, along with Cesar Legaspi and H. R. Ocampo. He had produced breathtaking masterpieces and his works were done mostly in the figurative mode, reflecting the society and the local environment, in transparent overlapping planes of what he called cubism.

 As Dr. Rod Paras-Perez wrote, ‘painting for Manansala was both a compulsions and most precious possession’. He saw art as a consecration. For Manansala, the consecration formed the pattern of his life and the discipline for his art.

 Vicente Silva Manansala was born in Macabebe, Pampanga on January 22, 1910 to Perfecto Manansala and Engracia Silva. Manansala spent his childhood in Intramuros. At the age of 11, he started to earn his keep by working as bootblack, newsboy, and caddy. A year later, he enrolled at the Manila South High School, but dropped out after a quarrel with a teacher.

 Not wanting to disappoint his father who valued education so much, he decided to take courses at the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines. Among his teachers were such famous artists as Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo, Ireno Miranda, Fabian de la Rosa. He was only 19 when he graduated, the youngest among the batch of 1930.

 In 1931, he was employed by the Manila Advertising Company. He resigned a year later to join the staff of the Philippine Herald as an illustrator. He stayed on this job until 1934, when he signed up with a British ship, the Silver Palm, as a mess boy. Upon his return to Manila in 1935, he rejoined Herald, doing the illustrations for the creative works of such writers as Nick Joaquin and Joe Rodas.

 Manansala married Hermenigilda Diaz in 1937 in Binondo Church and they had a son named Emmanuel.  Aside from the Herald, Manansala also worked for Photo News as chief layout artist. He lived the ordinary life of a layout artist and illustrator that his poor house in Callejon Reina was just above estero. They were so poor their house did not even have chairs. He started to gain recognition as a painter in 1940 when his “Pounding Rice” won the grand prize at the national exhibition in the University of Santo Tomas.

 When war broke out in 1942, he and his family fled to Cavite. After two months, they moved to Masantol, Pampanga. There, he supported his family by fishing and doing portraits in exchange for four gantas of rice or eight gantas of palay. It was during the war that his early sketchbooks and award-winning student paintings were burned in Intramuros.

 When peace was restored, the family returned to Manila. Manansala earned a living by doing postcard-size pencil portraits of American soldiers. He worked as an illustrator for Liwayway and as a layout artist for Saturday Evening News magazines in 1947. After a couple of years, he was with Ramon Publication and Evening News as staff artist.

 Manansala had always dreamed of studying abroad to perfect his craft. His dream was realized in 1949 when he was granted a UNESCO art fellowship to Canada. At the École de Beaux in Banff and Montreal in Canada, he was adjudged one of the five best artists. Another grant, courtesy of the French government, enabled him to attend École de Beaux Arts in Paris. He studied stained glass techniques at Greenland Studio in New York City on a specialist grant from the State Department of the United States.

 Manansala taught at UST for seven years from 1951 to 1958. He was so passionate with his art that he gave up teaching in 1958 for a full-time painting. In 1957, he started working on the “Way of the Cross” murals at the UP Chapel of Holy Sacrifice. The others murals he painted can be found at the Philippine Heart Center for Asia, UP Arts and Science lobby, Cultural center of the Philippines. On his own, he went to Los Angeles in 1967 and studied at the Otis Art Institute. Manansala joined prestigious local and international exhibition where his works won awards and prizes. His artistic excellence was given due recognition while he was alive. Among the numerous awards he received were the UP Outstanding Alumni Award in 1957 and Republic Cultural Heritage Award, 1963,

 Manansala died on August 22, 1981, of uremia. Shortly after his death, the government conferred on him posthumous National Artist Award for Visual Arts August 27, 1981.

  On January 22, 1984, on the occasion of the 74th birth anniversary, his widow donated to the government their Binangonan residence, which was declared a national landmark by the National Historical Institute in 1984.

 Mang Enteng’s birth centenary will be celebrated on January 22, 2010 through the cooperation of the National Historical Institute, the Friends of Manansala Foundation and the Holy Angel University. A memorial mass and wreath laying ceremony will be held at the Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina in the morning.  In the afternoon, there will be launching of the reproductions of selected paintings of the artist at Galeria de las Islas in Silahis Center, 744 Calle Real de Palacio, Intramuros at 4 pm.

 Two exhibits of the artist’s work are scheduled for May 2010 which is Heritage Month. Other collateral items for sale such as frameable prints, bookmarks, and postcards will be released within the year.