{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1912,"auction_id":4,"set_id":5,"lot_number":"16","artist":"Fernando Zóbel (1924 - 1984)","title":"a.) Abstract
b.) Sketchbooks, by Fernando Zóbel","starting_price":500000,"signed_dated":"a.) signed (lower right); ca. 1953
b.) 80 pages; published by Carmelo and Bauermann, 1954","medium":"a.) oil on paper
b.) Condition: Cover shows slight signs of wear at spine
but inside pages are pristine.","size":"a.) 8 1/4\" x 11 1/4\" (21 cm x 26 cm)
b.) 7 1/2\" x 4 3/4\" (19cm x 12 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"The book Sketchbooks is dedicated and signed by Fernando Zóbel thus: 'Para Sally – El librito este y ademas todo lo bueno que hay '(For Sally – This little book and all the good things it has in it)'","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"\"The work at hand is among the last surviving pieces\nfrom Fernando Zobel’s first foray into abstraction\nin 1953, as the artist would destroy many of his\nearliest abstract pieces.

\n1953 would mark several significant milestones in Zobel’s\nlife and career. He would be elected the Art Association\nof the Philippines (AAP) President, founded by Purita\nKalaw-Ledesma in 1948. 1953 would also represent his\nstruggles between two spectrums of his art: figurative and\nabstraction.

\n\nAt the Philippine Art Gallery in 1953, Zobel held his debut\nsolo show, exhibiting Philippine and religious themes\n(with hints of social critique and commentaries relating to\nthe milieu of post-war Manila) rendered in a figurativ style\nreminiscent of Henri Matisse, who was a significant influ\nnce on Zobel in these early years. That very same year\nwould also mark his first v nture into abstraction.

\nThe work at hand belongs to Zobel’s seminal encounter and\nexperimentation with abstraction, particularly with nonobjective\nart, a style he included in his course, Introduction\nto Contemporary Painting, at the Ateneo Graduate School,\nin 1952. There, Zobel taught that “a painting need have\nno relation with the appearance of natural subjects. It\ncan deal either with emotions (organic school: abstract\nexpressionism) or with constructions (geometric school).”

\nIn this piece, Zobel shows his distinct kind of vibrant and\nconfid nt spontaneity that would gradually emerge in his\nfuture ventures into abstraction, beginning particularly in\nthe Saetas. The vivid colors of Matisse can be seen. Blots\nof interchanging colors of dark blue, light blue, and black\nare rendered in a pointillist-like technique.

\n\nZobel even participated in the Philippine Art Gallery’s\nFirst Non-Objective Art Exhibition in 1953. His works Plaza\nand Tenaza/Snappers were deemed two of the most\ndistinguished by the poet and art critic Aurelio Alvero,\nwho went by the nom de plume “Magtanggol Asa.” Alvero\ndescribes non-objective art in the exhibition catalog: “In\nthis new trend, the artist does away with the depicting of\nthe external of the object. He goes into the internal which to\nhim is definitely more valuable. He fragmentizes his subject\nand finally reassembles the fragments into a composition\nthat completely eliminates cognizable representation.”

\nBut Zobel's initial delve into abstraction would only last for\na while, as he would destroy many of his earliest abstract\npaintings and return to his figurativ Philippine themes,\nin keeping up with the Neo-Realist spirit of brashness in\nthe face of reconstruction and rehabilitation of a post-war\nPhilippines. It can be remembered that Zobel had formed\nprofound friendships with the champions of Neo-Realism\nduring this time: the PAG stars Arturo Luz, H.R. Ocampo,\nAnita Magsaysay-Ho, and Vicente Manansala.

\n\nVillalba Salvador notes that Zobel destroyed many of his\ninitial abstract pieces “as he found such endeavors to be\nlacking in meaning and also somewhat incoherent.” Thus,\nthis particular piece is a rare, indispensable memento\nof Zobel’s earliest excursion into what would eventually\nbecome his legacy in Philippine art.

\n\nThis lot includes Zobel’s Sketchbooks, published in 1954.\nZobel conceived the book as something one can carry\nin the pocket and bring everywhere. “In a sense, these\nsketchbooks are a kind of diary,” Zobel writes in his\nforeword. “Primarily, they contain quick impressions of\nthings observed, but in many cases, there are studies,\nmore or less elaborate, for future paintings.” Sketchbooks\nincludes Zobel’s studies for Carroza (1953), his awardwinning\npiece at the Art Association of the Philippines\n(AAP) Annual in October 1953. (Adrian Maranan)\"","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"

Fernando Zóbel (1924 - 1984)
a.) Abstract
signed (lower right)
ca. 1953
oil on paper
8 1/4\" x 11 1/4\" (21 cm x 26 cm)

b.) Sketchbooks, by Fernando Zóbel
80 pages
published by Carmelo and Bauermann, 1954
7 1/2\" x 4 3/4\" (19cm x 12 cm)
Condition: Cover shows slight signs of wear at spine
but inside pages are pristine.

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