{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":40038,"auction_id":61,"set_id":89,"lot_number":"135","artist":"Fernando Zobel  (1924-1984)","title":"Chopo","starting_price":800000,"signed_dated":"signed (lower left) titled and dated 1975 (verso)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"24” x 24” (61 cm x 61 cm)","property":null,"coa":"This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Don Rafael Perez-Madero confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Fernando Zobel may have represented Spain in the 31st Venice Biennale in 1962, the same year in which his works were  included in an important group show of contemporary Spanish abstract art, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City,  but there will always be the strong oriental facet in the oeuvre of this Filipino-Spanish artist.\nZobel has always been fascinated with Chinese characters.  He transformed them into abstractions of images and symbols  by reducing them to their basic visual elements.  Reductive abstraction is the foundation of Zobel’s aesthetics.  His art displays  an oriental influence in its simplicity of form and composition.\n \nAside from giving Filipino artists the feeling of belonging to the international mainstream, Fernando Zobel introduced the color black, which traditionally had been taboo in the local scene, and later used calligraphy in painting.  The use of black in defining contour and movement in his forms was generally regarded as innovative.  In “Chopo,” a glowing white field makes for  a backdrop for a feathery, nebulous calligraphic formation.\n \n“The actual painting is the final and clearest realization of the idea.  Put it like this, it sounds terrible, but to see it in the studio being done step by step is actually a hallucinatory and a very fascinating process.”\n“Chopo” is both a revelation of the mystery of the transparent, and an homage to the Chinese calligraphic techniques that  originally inspired Zobel in this aesthetic experience.\nAlthough it appears to have been done spontaneously, the work is a product of a classical technique that is at the same time  oriental in discipline.  In classical Chinese painting, endless repetitions of the same subject are required before one considers himself ready to paint.\n \nThe calligraphic spontaneity of his work, as well as his concern for the unification of canvas and colors, visible here, represent his sympathy with Oriental thought.\n \nIn 1978 Cid Reyes asked Fernando Zobel: “What is the first step you take when working on the canvas? Do you decide where  to apply the first brush mark and then go on from there, allowing the painting to ‘grow on its own’?”\nFernando Zobel replied: “Not really. I find the process hard to describe, but it certainly has little to do with “growing on its own.” It’s more like a process of removing obstructions and distraction.”\nCid Reyes adds: “And accidents – do you contrive their occurrence at all?”\nFernando Zobel replied: “I don’t believe in accidents.  There are surprises, however.  That good old subconscious, bless it.”","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Fernando Zobel</strong> (1924-1984)<br /><em>Chopo</em><br />signed (lower left) titled and dated 1975 (verso)<br />oil on canvas<br />24&rdquo; x 24&rdquo; (61 cm x 61 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":3200000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":3200000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":3737600,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":38569,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/61/89/lot/135.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":134,"next":136,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}