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拍品专文
After almost two years, I gradually realized my use of color was quite erratic. I could use any combination of two colors, as long as it had some vibration. I think that anything unnecessary in a work of art is superfluous, and can even become distracting, weakening and hindering. I gradually removed color until I was left with black strokes on a white background.
- Fernando Zobel (Rafael Perez-Madero, Ediciones Rayuela, Zobel: La Serie Blanca, Madrid, Spain, 1978)
Aracili (Lot 14) is a magnificent composition by master abstractionist Fernando Zobel; an important transitional work from early 1959 as Zobel moved from his experimental Saetas series into the acclaimed Serie Negra: a series focusing mainly on monochrome, where the gradients of black color played the definitive role. Aracili displays the accomplishments of the Saetas period, notably in its refined thin lines laid down through the innovative use of a surgical syringe, and a sophisticated handling of space. However, unlike the fixed compositions of Saetas, Aracili is a tour-de-force of gestural dynamism, displaying near-calligraphic brushwork and Zobel's unparalleled instinct for visual balance - revealing the virtuosity which would define his progress into the 1960s.
Christie's is grateful to Rafael Perez-Madero, author of "Zobel: La Serie Blanca" and co-curator of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia's 2003 retrospective of Fernando Zobel, for the following catalogue entry:
We refer to the year of 1959, a turning point for the painter, when he finishes the Las Saetas series and commences to what we know now as the Serie Negra or the 'Black Series'. This series includes this present work, Aracili, and we will obviously understand it better if we observe its origins, that previous stage which is perhaps the most abstract in Zobel's work.
During this preceding stage, although his work hints at direction and movement, everything is expressed metaphorically by using lines - bare lines - that already anticipate calligraphy, the mere shadow of his hand movements on the canvas, and which manifests for the first time in this particular piece, Aracili. In addition to the line movement of previous paintings from the 1950s, Aracili includes speed within that movement, as well as direction, space, light; and alongside it all, volume and scale, but never leaving the consistency of his method and technique:
"By focusing on black and white, I lost the vibrations produced by the contrast between colors. I found an equivalent to this by sweeping a dry brush on the black oil paint, which transformed the linear nature of Las Saetas, suggesting speed, light and even volume." - Fernando Zobel
However, Fernando Zobel's painting, of a remarkably intellectual nature, does not suggest anything randomly or by chance. Starting in 1958, Zobel is surrounded by circumstances that favor this change in his pictorial language. Firstly, in late 1958, he becomes acquainted with the Spanish abstract informalist movement, the "El Paso" group, and expressionistic painting in black and white, with which Manolo Millares, Antonio Saura, Rafael Canogar and even Luis Feito were experimenting. Secondly, he participates in a series of Chinese archaeological excavations on the Calatagan Peninsula in the Philippines, which intensifies his interest in Chinese art, and makes him resume his lessons in Oriental calligraphy, which he would later teach as a Professor of Art at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Zobel's painting naturally reflects these new experiences, rooted in two remote and different cultures. On one hand, Spanish Informalism reveals to him the possibilities of black and white painting, but he stays away from its more dramatic and visceral vein of expressionism. On the other hand, his painting integrates motion - and not informalist motion - but calligraphic motion, which is though-out, pondered upon, founded through movement and shape, and where, as I mentioned, he leaves traces of his hand's energy on the canvas and which is related to Chinese calligraphy due to its primary techniques and use of empty space. Although Zobel always tried to clarify the subject of his possible Oriental influences:
"As a painter, I think my relationship with Oriental painting, although real, is not as important as people believe. I can mention several reasons which I think may suggest this: having being born and lived in the East, having been a Professor of History of Oriental Art and my interest for all things related to it; also for the use of black on white (my paintings would have appeared less Oriental to the critics if I had painted with brown, blue or yellow strokes) and also the frequent use of a white background to highlight an area of black patterns, which may be relatively small, but very intense." - Fernando Zobel
However, it is interesting to see that Chinese calligraphy begins to become more apparent and important in his painting, as do other related aspects, such as movement, but also the speed of draughtsmanship, and above all, gesture. It is during these years that critics and historians begin to acknowledge the influence of Oriental art on him, and his relationship with it. Perhaps because Zobel was very acquainted with Oriental art, having studied and taught it, and was therefore less conscious of this alleged influence himself, but this relationship may have been more evident to Western eyes.
Fernando Zobel's preoccupations are also expressed in the stark contrast between opposing values and contradictory elements: black and white, stillness and speed, weightlessness and space, which all somehow bring us closer to the natural philosophy of the yin and the yang. These juxtaposing forces oppose yet complement each other, and it is during the search for this precise artistic balance, that this period produces Zobel's strongest and most expressive work.
Rafael Perez-Madero
April, 2013
- Fernando Zobel (Rafael Perez-Madero, Ediciones Rayuela, Zobel: La Serie Blanca, Madrid, Spain, 1978)
Aracili (Lot 14) is a magnificent composition by master abstractionist Fernando Zobel; an important transitional work from early 1959 as Zobel moved from his experimental Saetas series into the acclaimed Serie Negra: a series focusing mainly on monochrome, where the gradients of black color played the definitive role. Aracili displays the accomplishments of the Saetas period, notably in its refined thin lines laid down through the innovative use of a surgical syringe, and a sophisticated handling of space. However, unlike the fixed compositions of Saetas, Aracili is a tour-de-force of gestural dynamism, displaying near-calligraphic brushwork and Zobel's unparalleled instinct for visual balance - revealing the virtuosity which would define his progress into the 1960s.
Christie's is grateful to Rafael Perez-Madero, author of "Zobel: La Serie Blanca" and co-curator of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia's 2003 retrospective of Fernando Zobel, for the following catalogue entry:
We refer to the year of 1959, a turning point for the painter, when he finishes the Las Saetas series and commences to what we know now as the Serie Negra or the 'Black Series'. This series includes this present work, Aracili, and we will obviously understand it better if we observe its origins, that previous stage which is perhaps the most abstract in Zobel's work.
During this preceding stage, although his work hints at direction and movement, everything is expressed metaphorically by using lines - bare lines - that already anticipate calligraphy, the mere shadow of his hand movements on the canvas, and which manifests for the first time in this particular piece, Aracili. In addition to the line movement of previous paintings from the 1950s, Aracili includes speed within that movement, as well as direction, space, light; and alongside it all, volume and scale, but never leaving the consistency of his method and technique:
"By focusing on black and white, I lost the vibrations produced by the contrast between colors. I found an equivalent to this by sweeping a dry brush on the black oil paint, which transformed the linear nature of Las Saetas, suggesting speed, light and even volume." - Fernando Zobel
However, Fernando Zobel's painting, of a remarkably intellectual nature, does not suggest anything randomly or by chance. Starting in 1958, Zobel is surrounded by circumstances that favor this change in his pictorial language. Firstly, in late 1958, he becomes acquainted with the Spanish abstract informalist movement, the "El Paso" group, and expressionistic painting in black and white, with which Manolo Millares, Antonio Saura, Rafael Canogar and even Luis Feito were experimenting. Secondly, he participates in a series of Chinese archaeological excavations on the Calatagan Peninsula in the Philippines, which intensifies his interest in Chinese art, and makes him resume his lessons in Oriental calligraphy, which he would later teach as a Professor of Art at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Zobel's painting naturally reflects these new experiences, rooted in two remote and different cultures. On one hand, Spanish Informalism reveals to him the possibilities of black and white painting, but he stays away from its more dramatic and visceral vein of expressionism. On the other hand, his painting integrates motion - and not informalist motion - but calligraphic motion, which is though-out, pondered upon, founded through movement and shape, and where, as I mentioned, he leaves traces of his hand's energy on the canvas and which is related to Chinese calligraphy due to its primary techniques and use of empty space. Although Zobel always tried to clarify the subject of his possible Oriental influences:
"As a painter, I think my relationship with Oriental painting, although real, is not as important as people believe. I can mention several reasons which I think may suggest this: having being born and lived in the East, having been a Professor of History of Oriental Art and my interest for all things related to it; also for the use of black on white (my paintings would have appeared less Oriental to the critics if I had painted with brown, blue or yellow strokes) and also the frequent use of a white background to highlight an area of black patterns, which may be relatively small, but very intense." - Fernando Zobel
However, it is interesting to see that Chinese calligraphy begins to become more apparent and important in his painting, as do other related aspects, such as movement, but also the speed of draughtsmanship, and above all, gesture. It is during these years that critics and historians begin to acknowledge the influence of Oriental art on him, and his relationship with it. Perhaps because Zobel was very acquainted with Oriental art, having studied and taught it, and was therefore less conscious of this alleged influence himself, but this relationship may have been more evident to Western eyes.
Fernando Zobel's preoccupations are also expressed in the stark contrast between opposing values and contradictory elements: black and white, stillness and speed, weightlessness and space, which all somehow bring us closer to the natural philosophy of the yin and the yang. These juxtaposing forces oppose yet complement each other, and it is during the search for this precise artistic balance, that this period produces Zobel's strongest and most expressive work.
Rafael Perez-Madero
April, 2013