He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1930. He is credited with developing transparent cubism, where delicate tones, shapes and patterns of figure and environment are masterfully superimposed. Manansala was a major influence to other neo-realists like Malang, Antonio, Belleza and Baldemor. Likewise, his approach to transparent compositions can be cleaned in Joya’s later morphic abstractions as well as Olazo’s diaphanous series. 1930. He received a UNESCO grant to study at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris in 1950. He painted the murals “Stations of the Cross” in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice in UP Diliman. His paintings are in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Lopez Memorial Museum, and the Singapore Art Museum.
