Accompanied by a certificate issued by Don Rafael PerezMadero confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist León Gallery, The Jim and Reed Pfeufer Collection Auction, 6 February 2015, Lot 29

ABOUT THE WORK

As a young boy, Fernando Zobel would find himself at the doorstep of the Pfeufers’ Cambridge, Massachusetts home. His whimsical stories and cartoons eventually captured both the hearts and minds of the entire family. After their initial meeting, Jim and Reed Pfeufer took Zobel under their wing in order to further develop his innate artistic talent. As head of the graphic design department at the Rhode island Graphic Design, Jim was able to bring in Zobel as a visiting instructor in 1954. Many of their conversations, both verbally and their letters showcase Zobel’s undying gratitude for the family’s support. Over the next 40 years, Zobel kept a strong bond with the Pfeufer family. His occasional and intimate appearances were graciously christened with an unbroken chain of communication through lovingly written letters. The Pfeufer family’s care and aid was undoubtedly instrumental to Fernando Zobel’s artistic success and legacy. To them, Zobel was not merely a welcome guest but an important part of the family. Indeed a talented Filipino and one of Spain’s major artists, Fernando Zobel’s saetas---inspired by the Andalusian song of lamentation sung during the religious procession on Good Friday---were the outgrowth of Zobel’s experience of Abstract Expressionism in the United States following his visit to Mark Rothko’s exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1955. Aside from convincing him that nonfigurative art has a deep and lasting quality, the Rothko exhibition strengthened Zobel’s commitment to abstraction and unfolded to him the potential of color. Governed by movement, Zobel abandoned the traditional paintbrush and used surgical glass syringes to control the long, fine lines he traced on the canvas to produce calligraphic lines of the utmost precision, this technique became the hallmark of his Saeta series. With controlled and graceful delicacy, the lines of his saetas converge in a dense cluster that seems to pulse energy. Highly significant to the development of Fernando Zobel’s artistic style and identity, the Saeta series marked a definitive break from his earlier figurative works and turning towards abstraction.