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Lot Essay
Fernando Zobel is a significant name within the study of abstract art in Asia. Originally from Manila, Philippines, Zobel studied medicine at Harvard, and later enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he encountered seminal influences such as the Boston abstractionists and Mark Rothko whose minimalism, clean lines, and interlocking colour washes would shape the evolution of his ensuing works. Zobel later moved to Spain, where he became an active participant in the artistic climate of the city and eventually also a teacher and mentor to the rising generation of art students, founding the Museo de Arte Abstracto Espanol in Cuenca.
In this selection of three distinctive and important works from Fernando Zobel, we can observe the varying forms and concepts he sought to employ within his artistic explorations. Estudio II de Movimento detrás de Facetas (Study of Movement Behind Facets II) (Lot 2215) reveals Zobel's interrogations of the pictorial grid, a centuries-old underlying painterly concept from classical art which was raised to the fore during the era of Modernism as abstract artists sought to redefine the architectural fundaments of visual language. Painted in 1964, it references Zobel's Saetas series of the 50s, with its use of monochromatic hues and thinly delineated lines, similar to those derived from a surgical syringe as used in Saetas compositions.
"The grid, like the construction scaffolds which inspired his Saetas, was the cornerstone of Zobel's sense for order, not always in its rigid mechanical form, but often manipulated to create more spatial variations. Any movement within his paintings occurred within the context of axial references set by Zobel's grid."
- Dr Rodolfo Paras-Perez
The axial gradients, interlocking squares, and shifting black tones which radiate outward render this a particularly rare and unique composition in Zobel's existing canvases, positioned in between the Saetas and the later Serie Negra body of works. Estudio II de Movimento detr?s de Facetas (Study of Movement Behind Facets II) also displays the title of the artwork inscribed on the front of the canvas and signed by the artist - something Zobel only did when the artwork was dedicated as a gift for a relative or an intimate friend.
In contrast, La Vista-40 (Lot 2216) depicts Zobel's experimentations with spatial void and balance, mediated with a pale background hue intended to give a certain three-dimensional effect through alternately layering and tapering the texture of the wash. The opalescent colour tone reflects the ephemeral effect of light, as it passes over a landscape, or 'vista', over the course of a day; occasionally appearing more radiant and translucent as inspired by the midday shimmer of Spanish sunlight, but also furrowing and growing dense as it embraces the nooks and crannies of the landscape's surface. Zobel's grid continue to remain in evidence as fine lines weave geometrically across the pictorial surface. The entire composition is a symphony of the lightest and most delicate elements of Zobel's characteristic style.
Following experimentations with the grid and visual space, Esbozo de Gesto (Slow Movement) (Lot 2217) narrates Zobel's preoccupation with the ability to render movement upon canvas in its barest and simplest form. A student of science, Zobel was keenly familiar with the cause-and-effect principle of physics - that energy, once set in movement, cannot cease to exist. Its motion continues to ripple through the environment regardless of whether it persists to be visible or slips beneath the tangible surface like ripples in water. What can be controlled however, is the speed at which it travels, and the domain which it inhabits. Esbozo de Gesto (Slow Movement) is a reflection of this principle, the trickle of a controlled gesture across a defined surface; the wending of a slowly undulating line until it is swallowed up into the larger void of Zobel's golden-washed backdrop - yet the definitive movement, once created by the artist, continues to exist beyond the realm of our perception.
In this selection of three distinctive and important works from Fernando Zobel, we can observe the varying forms and concepts he sought to employ within his artistic explorations. Estudio II de Movimento detrás de Facetas (Study of Movement Behind Facets II) (Lot 2215) reveals Zobel's interrogations of the pictorial grid, a centuries-old underlying painterly concept from classical art which was raised to the fore during the era of Modernism as abstract artists sought to redefine the architectural fundaments of visual language. Painted in 1964, it references Zobel's Saetas series of the 50s, with its use of monochromatic hues and thinly delineated lines, similar to those derived from a surgical syringe as used in Saetas compositions.
"The grid, like the construction scaffolds which inspired his Saetas, was the cornerstone of Zobel's sense for order, not always in its rigid mechanical form, but often manipulated to create more spatial variations. Any movement within his paintings occurred within the context of axial references set by Zobel's grid."
- Dr Rodolfo Paras-Perez
The axial gradients, interlocking squares, and shifting black tones which radiate outward render this a particularly rare and unique composition in Zobel's existing canvases, positioned in between the Saetas and the later Serie Negra body of works. Estudio II de Movimento detr?s de Facetas (Study of Movement Behind Facets II) also displays the title of the artwork inscribed on the front of the canvas and signed by the artist - something Zobel only did when the artwork was dedicated as a gift for a relative or an intimate friend.
In contrast, La Vista-40 (Lot 2216) depicts Zobel's experimentations with spatial void and balance, mediated with a pale background hue intended to give a certain three-dimensional effect through alternately layering and tapering the texture of the wash. The opalescent colour tone reflects the ephemeral effect of light, as it passes over a landscape, or 'vista', over the course of a day; occasionally appearing more radiant and translucent as inspired by the midday shimmer of Spanish sunlight, but also furrowing and growing dense as it embraces the nooks and crannies of the landscape's surface. Zobel's grid continue to remain in evidence as fine lines weave geometrically across the pictorial surface. The entire composition is a symphony of the lightest and most delicate elements of Zobel's characteristic style.
Following experimentations with the grid and visual space, Esbozo de Gesto (Slow Movement) (Lot 2217) narrates Zobel's preoccupation with the ability to render movement upon canvas in its barest and simplest form. A student of science, Zobel was keenly familiar with the cause-and-effect principle of physics - that energy, once set in movement, cannot cease to exist. Its motion continues to ripple through the environment regardless of whether it persists to be visible or slips beneath the tangible surface like ripples in water. What can be controlled however, is the speed at which it travels, and the domain which it inhabits. Esbozo de Gesto (Slow Movement) is a reflection of this principle, the trickle of a controlled gesture across a defined surface; the wending of a slowly undulating line until it is swallowed up into the larger void of Zobel's golden-washed backdrop - yet the definitive movement, once created by the artist, continues to exist beyond the realm of our perception.