TravelswithCharie

I Believe in God, 1948, oil on masonite  One of the group of Thirteen Moderns and Neo Realists, Vicente Silva Manansala had the good fortune to study art in Canada, the United States, France and Switzerland through a number of grants he received from UNESCO, the French government and the U.S. State Department. He studied at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in 1950 under the mentorship of Fernand Léger, a renowned French artist and exponent of cubism. Manansala’s early works were influenced by Fernando Amorsolo whose paintings celebrated Philippine landscapes and local culture. Manansala’s oeuvres portray the working class like the fish and candle vendors, the man with the rooster, or the family praying together (above image). I believe in God is a painting completed by Manansala before he dabbled into cubism. The figures and forms are solid depictions of farmers in the rural landscape. Procession, 1948, oil on canvas 1948 was three years after the second world war. The Philippines was quite d