Manila exhibits celebrate Vicente Manansala's birth centennial

MANILA, Philippines - In celebration of Vicente Manansala’s birth centenary, the Friends of Manansala Institute and the Filipino Heritage Festival Inc., in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), pay tribute to the artist with a number of exhibits of his masterpieces. These expositions will be held in various museums in Manila as part of the National Heritage Month 2010.

The first exhibit, titled “Si Mang Enteng… Encountering Manansala,” will be on view at the Tall Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum from May 20 to July 31, 2010. The exposition will refocus on Manansala’s persona, the man behind the mastery, through anecdotes and testaments from his colleagues, peers, patrons and collectors with whom he developed deep, personal friendships.  

During the exposition’s opening, First-Day stamps featuring a number of Manansala’s masterpieces will be launched and sold by the Philippine Postal Corporation. Collateral activities such as lectures and workshops are scheduled for the duration of the exhibit. 

More of Manansala’s works of art will be put on display at the Ayala Museum from May 26 to July 4, 2010. Dubbed “Images of a Nation: Vicente Manansala as a Social Realist,” the exhibit will showcase the National Artist’s masterworks depicting the social realist sensibility of a leading neo-realist painter. In contrast to the brilliant landscape and genre paintings rendered in his signature transparent cubism, the paintings gathered for this exhibition show a somber and darker temper and palette. Among the pieces that will be exhibited is of the “Madonna of the Slums,” a 1950 portrait of grim postwar realities and one of his most iconic works.

“Mga Gawa ni Mang Enteng,” a third exhibit, will be mounted at the GSIS Museum from May 18 to October 30, 2010. His works will also be featured at the Ateneo Gallery and the Yuchengco Museum.

The Filipino Heritage Festival is supported by National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Department of Tourism, Friends of Manansala Institute, Metropolitan Museum, Ayala Museum, GSIS Museum, Ateneo Gallery, Yuchengco Museum and Philippine Postal Corporation.