Lot description
Vicente Manansala (1910 - 1988) Pila sa Bigas signed and dated 1975 (upper left) oil on canvas 39” x 33” (99 cm x 83 cm) Provenance: The San Gabriel Family Literature: Paras-Perez, Rodolfo. Manansala. PLC Publications, Manila, 1980, p. 223. Images of Nation, Vicente Manansala as Social Realist. Ayala Museum Foundation, Inc. 2010. p. 45 Exhibited: Images of Nation, Vicente Manansala as Social Realist. Ayala Museum. Makati City. May 27 - July 4, 2010. WRITE UP: The scene depicted here is undoubtedly one of Manansala’s most iconic. Featuring a group of commonfolk lining up for their fill of rice, Pila sa Bigas captures Manansala at his technical and conceptual prime. The piece features Manansala’s characteristic form of cubism, one that is defined by its noticable sense of transparency and downward brushstrokes. In it, his figures are rendered through distinct and angular lines, exemplifying the nuanced complexity of his central forms. While his colors follow a much more lenient structure, in that they are rendered in an asymmetrical manner, this form of aesthetic dissonance is what gives the piece a sense of movement and life. The piece also acts as a form of social commentary that is reminiscent of modern times. The work aims to galvanize the viewer to ask and inquire instead of being blinded from their poverty of the brethren. At the period at where The San Gabriel Manansala Manansala was composing this series, food rationing across the archipelago was commonplace and stringent rations for rice through the National Grains Authority (present-day, the National Food Authority) for which housewives and even their own children lined up every single day. Thus, Manansala effectively channels the trials and tribulations of the everyday Filipino into a piece that no longer sees them as a mere statistic or population, but as subjects of both compassion and justice. His work effectively humanises the individual by rendering each face with an ingrained sense of personality and depth, emphasizing that they are not merely forms or figures meant to bring together a work of art, but the central subjects of concern. The end result is an engaging work of art that speaks deeply to the humanity that resides within each of us. For Manansala, depression and poverty are not seen as badges of shame, rather it is a call to arms for the Filipino people to rise up and claim their future as their own.
