PROPERTY FROM THE DR. AND MRS. JOSE SAN GABRIEL COLLECTION
Fruit Vendors
signed and dated 1977 (upper left)
oil on canvas
34" x 39" (86 cm x 99 cm)


PROVENANCEAcquired directly from the artist
EXHIBITEDAyala Museum, Images of Nation: Vicente Manansala as Social Realist (In Celebration ofNational Heritage Month 2010 and the birth centenary of Vicente Manansala), Makati City, 27May - 4 July 2010
LITERATUREParas-Perez, Rodolfo. Manansala. Manila: PLC Publications, 1980.Illustrated on page 26 and painting description on page 27.Images of Nation: Vicente Manansala as Social Realist (Exhibition Catalog).Makati City: Ayala Foundation, Inc., Filipino Heritage Festival, Inc.,and Friends of Manansala Foundation, Inc., 2010. Published in conjunctionwith the exhibition "Images of Nation: Vicente Manansala as Social Realist"at the Ayala Museum. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 49.

Vicente Manansala: The Greatest Filipino Painter of the 1970s Manansala was at the height of his artistic and commercial powers during the 1970s. Ask anyone well-versed in the arts during the 1970s, and they can proudly and wholeheartedly profess that “Manansala is the greatest living Filipino painter.” Although Manansala had already exposed himself abroad through the numerous study grants he had received, the 1970s witnessed his works being exhibited in major international cities. This included the 1971 show in New Zealand, in which his early work I Believe in God (which he mistook as a very beautiful Botong when he saw it in The Manila Times), was loaned by the National Museum and a late 1977 exhibition at the International Monetary Fund Center in Washington, D.C. In fact, during this fruitful decade, Manansala’s shows in the country were instant blockbusters; the entire show would be sold out in a quick snap. There was his 1974 exhibition at Silay, Negros Occidental, in which all 40 art pieces were sold in only ten minutes, breaking a record for a Philippine exhibition, as a report in the periodical Woman’s Home Companion. “For more than 20 years, Manansala has been receiving invitations from museums and galleries abroad for one-man shows,” says the article. “But he has turned them all down. That is because, although a prolific artist who religiously paints every day, he cannot gather enough pieces for one-man shows. His works are bought before they are even started.” In another show, in December 1977, art critic Leonidas Benesa wrote in the Philippines Daily Express that all 16 artworks were sold before the exhibit had even opened. Benesa raves about its rarity in the Manila art world, saying that before Manansala, only Tabuena had achieved this feat. In one 1971 interview, Manansala admits that he had lived comfortably enough, thanks to his art and the incessant demand patrons had built upon it. But despite the wild gush of success, Manansala remained homespun and humble. In Binangonan, Manansala would always stroll along the hilly terrain of his environs, painting prodigiously and always greeting his neighbors with a radiant smile. His neighbors would always attest to a modest man who was always all smiles at them and was friendly to the underprivileged. which was his wife’s ancestral home. Dr. San Gabriel’s daughter vividly recalls that their father loved Fruit Vendors as “it was not the usual painting with color.” “He would talk about how impressive it was that he could make a monochrome painting come to life, and that the faces of the women were multifaceted; you can view them as front facing or side view,” she says. The work at hand is a valuable memento from Manansala’s prime decade. More than the blockbuster period from when it was painted, this piece is palpable proof of Manansala’s constant experimentation. Manansala renders the painting solely in a black-and-white palette. For him, black-and-white compositions are more important than colored ones, saying in a 1973 interview with Cid Reyes that a painting’s valor shines brighter in a black-and-white painting. He cites his idol Picasso’s Guernica as a prime example.