This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Don Rafael Perez-Madero confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Private Collection, Manila / San Francisco

ABOUT THE WORK

Champion of Filipino art, friend to many of the Philippines’ Thirteen Moderns, and devoted to the cause of abstract art in Spain and this country, Fernando Zóbel continues to be one of the most exciting names in Philippine art. No greater testament could there be of this than his second appearance — in a little more than 50 years — at the Venice Biennale. In 1962, Fernando Zobel exhibited at the Spanish Pavilion. He had by that time become a pivotal figure in the Philippine modern art scene. His father was the industrialist Enrique Zobel de Ayala, patron to Fernando Amorsolo who bankrolled the young painter’s study in the Real Academia de Bellas Arts de San Fernando, or the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in Madrid. Amorsolo is said to have taken the young Fernando under his wing, as a result, giving him art lessons — an irony perhaps not lost on Amorsolo when Zobel joined the ranks of mutineers who pledged allegiance to abstract art in the 1950s. Fernando had after all enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas in 1942 (as opposed to the national University of the Philippines) as a student in medicine, where he almost certainly would have fallen under the thrall of its firebrand professor, the dean of the College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Victorio Edades. The Venice Biennale describes Zóbel as “a transnational artist” : He was born in the Philippines, educated at Harvard University and was mentored by the American couple Jim and Reed Pfeufer (the latter being active in the Boston School of art.) Ultimately, he would become a respected figure in both this country and madre España. He “lived in Spain after 1960 and formed close ties with Spanish artists during the ascendancy of Spanish abstract painting. Zobel would found the Museo del Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, Spain in 1966.” “Zurbarán SL - II” is a homage to Francisco de Zurbarán’s most famous work — the “Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose” (1633.) The S.L. in the title most probably being shorthand for “still life” and the ‘II’ indicating that there may have been various versions. Zurbarán himself painted various paintings, one being “A Cup of Water and a Rose” (now at the National Gallery of London) and others of pottery jars at the Prado in Madrid. “Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose” more properly features citrons, a larger, more bulbous, rougher-skinned variety of lemon, resting on a shimmering silver dish. They are alongside oranges wreathed in leaves and flowers inside a finely-woven straw basket. Beside it, in turn, is a rose resting on a silver saucer (of the kind that would arrive in Spain from South America.) Zurbarán, born 1598, died 1664, specialized in religious works (portraits of monks and saints), so there may be something in some scholars’ view that the objects are allegories for the qualities of the Blessed Virgin Mary — citrons for faithfulness, water for purity and the flower for the Mystic Rose. The still life, however, is most important because of its almost magical composition dubbed ‘so pure and so perfect’ by one art critic. Zurbarán appears to have selected the most ordinary of domestic objects — fruit, a cup, a mismatched saucer, water, the dross and base metals of everyday existence — to transform them into an almost mystical experience. Zobel, on the other hand, decided to take apart this enigmatic work : Instead of the objects resting on a highly burnished table-top — which would capture their reflections — he chose to divide the field, paralleling what Zurbaran did, into three sections. The basket of oranges is now mirrored by a amorphous slab of grey and ecru; as is the cup on the silver plate. The rose now melds into the reflection. In addition, Zobel chose to color block the various areas, using a bright yellow in particular to highlight the right side. He would use this technique in future works a decade later. To celebrate Zobel’s homecoming to the Venice Biennale, there could be no other more fitting work than this one, dating from his Rhode Island period, with all of a young artist’s exuberance and optimism. -Lisa Guerrero Nakpil