\"…Cubism freed Manansala's vision from the genre tradition of direct transcription of nature in the fifties,\" wrote the noted art critic Rod. ParasPerez in one of his essays in his 1980 seminal book on the Cubist maestro. \"With passionate élan, Manansala explored all possible directions within a basically cubist framework.\"
\nManansala himself said in his landmark interview with Cid Reyes in mid-1973 that Cubism \"is always my go-to style, a style I'll always return to until I die.\"
\nCubism was Manansala's lifeblood, his source of living, both financially and existentially.
\nWhen Manansala was granted yet another opportunity to study abroad in early 1960, this time as a recipient of the US Department of State's \"Foreign Specialist Grant\" or the \"SmithMundt Program,\" serendipity came to him like the speed of light. While riding a cable car in Los Angeles, \"a stained glass on top of a table with lights under it,\" as Manansala described it, quickly caught his attention. \"At that time, I was studying stained glass at Greenland Studio,\" he said. The vibration and scintillating color fascinated me. Sabi ko, “Pwedeng gawin sa painting ito!” [I said to myself, this can be done in my paintings!].\"
\nThe Sabungero (cockfighter) is a theme Manansala would always revisit in his paintings. He once recalled in the Cid Reyes interview that he was a cockfighter in his bachelor days, only ceasing from this rowdy pastime when he married Hilda.
\nThis Sabungero from 1965 is a most consummate example of Manansala's \"stained-glass\" technique. Painted in Los Angeles during his extensive travel around the world with Hilda, the work comes off as a full-circle moment for the maestro. It was in L.A. where he first encountered the gleaming allure of stained-glass art; it would also be in \"La-la-land\" where he would paint this exemplar of his remarkable series.
\nIn this work, Manansala's thicker and more defined rendering of lines that outline the figures resemble the lead that provides the design of a typical stained-glass window. While the beautifully chaotic interplay between line and color infuses physicality into the surface and further abstracts the figures, Manansala's evervibrant and dynamic palette retains the integrity of their form.
\nThe cover story of This Week's 4 September 1960 issue featured Manansala's experimentation in the stained-glass style. The feature wrote:
\n\"One of the country's well-known modern painters, Vicente Manansala, has been influenced by stained glass artists. In fact, Manansala himself, who teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts at UST, is already a stained-glass artist.
\n\"He studied the art for four months in New York this year as a recipient of the US Department of State foreign specialist grant (Smith-Mundt Program) with the cooperation of the American Council on Education. His latest paintings show the influence of stained glass. \"
\nA stained-glass window is simply made of multi-colored glasses held together by lead. The lead outlines the main constituents of the design and also gives its meaning and rhythm to the masses of color.\"
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