FERNANDO ZOBEL DE AYALA (1924 - 1984)
PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY OR SELL A PAINTING BY FERNANDO ZOBEL.
Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo was fortunate on August 27, 1924, to be born into a distinguished family of Manila in the Philippines. His father, Enrique Zóbel de Ayala, a supporting patron of famed artist Fernando Amorsolo, was able to recruit Amorsolo to instruct his young son on art fundamentals.
As a teenager, Fernando Zóbel was enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas to study medicine when he developed a serious medical issue of his own. Bedridden from a spinal defect, he spent many hours sketching landscapes and caricatures to keep his mind occupied. When he was able to return to school, he continued at Santo Tomas and then moved over to Harvard University in 1946, shifting his focus to history and literature. While in Boston, he began painting as a hobby and would soon find a mentor in Boston School associate Reed Champion Pfeufer. Zobel also found artistic encouragement from Reed’s husband, James Pfeufer, as well as their companion Hyman Bloom. With these friends as influences, Zobel allowed himself to experiment with a variety of techniques including aquatints, etchings and serigraphs. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1949, continued studies there in law, and eventually work as curator for the Houghton Library, all the while honing his craft as an artist.
When Zobel returned home to the Philippines, he quickly befriended several local contemporary modernists. Following in his father’s footsteps, he collected works from these artists and used his charm and family name to set up shows for budding artists in a time when the modern art movement was not easily accepted in local galleries. His efforts during this time played a significant role in pushing forward the modernist movement in the Philippines. Then, in 1953, he presented his own one-man exhibition in the Philippine Art Gallery. The following year, he showed work at the Swetzoff Gallery in Boston while he arranged to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. While studying there for six months, he happened to attend an art exhibition by Mark Rothko, which was a catalyst in his own art. Before this exposure, Zobel’s work was mostly realistic with some abstracted exaggerations, and after seeing Rothko’s work he moved into experimenting more with pure abstraction. Not long after, he found influence in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, taking classes in the artform over the next five years under Chinese master Ch’en Bing Sun.
Back home in Manila, Zobel took a faculty position at the Ateneo de Manila University, contributing largely to the school’s fine arts program; he was even awarded later with an honorary doctorate from the school, and given honorary directorship of the Ateneo Art Gallery. After many happy years there, he eventually moved to Spain to focus on his painting full-time. In Spain, he created his best known series, “Saetas”, utilizing a surgical syringe to apply superbly fine lines of paint. This series would be followed by “Serie Negra”, obviously influenced by calligraphy, and took four years to complete. By the early 1970’s, Fernando had completed another series of paintings called “Dialogos”, which were his own abstract reconstructions of museum paintings he’d been drawn to. He did a similar series influenced solely by Cuenca’s River Jucar, and later a series titled “Las Orillas” that continued to deal with the river theme. By this time, his reputation as a powerful figure in art had spread, and he was holding one-man shows in Madrid, New York and Paris.
In 1963, Zobel founded the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, Spain. As he’d continued serving as a patron of the arts over many years, he was excited to hold a show at the new museum in 1966, featuring his impressive personal collection which included work from Saura, Rivera, Tapies, Chillida and several others. Shortly after this successful exhibition, the family business, Ayala y Companñía, he’d helped to manage for several years, agreed to open the Ayala Museum in Makati City to promote both Zobel’s work and that of emerging Filipino artists.
Fernando Zobel was honored in 1983 by King Juan Carlos of Spain when he was granted the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bella Artes. That same year, the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Sevilla organized a huge retrospective of Zobel life’s works. Sadly, the following year on June 2, four years after a damaging stroke, the generous and passionate artist was fatally struck by a heart attack in Rome, Italy. After his passing, Zobel was awarded a Gold Medal from the city of Cuenca, and years later he also received posthumously the Presidential Medal of Merit. A traveling retrospective of his work was held in Cuenca and Seville in 2003. The artist left behind a prolific collection of diverse abstract and non-objective modern art that is most often described as sophisticated, sensitive and joyous. His love for making art was evident in every piece he made, and could only be matched by his deep appreciation for the art of others; and countless artists have benefited from his enthusiasm and support, in the Philippines and across the globe. Known in his personal life as an uncommonly friendly, kind and giving man, Zobel spirit also lives on in the many lives he touched by sharing his connection to art and the art of human connection.
Some Associated Galleries, Schools and Organizations:
Luz Gallery
Harvard University
University of Santo Tomas
Houghton Library
Philippine Art Gallery
Rhode Island School of Design
Ateneo de Manila University
Ateneo Art Gallery
Museum of Abstract Spanish Art
Ayala Foundation
Notable Awards and Recognitions:
Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bella Artes, awarded by King Juan Carlos of Spain, 1983
Gold Medal, awarded by the city of Cuenca, Spain, 2003
Presidential Medal of Merit, awarded by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 2006
Some Notable Works:
Noche Clara
Alcala
La Hoz en Invierno
Sin Titulo
Cuena
Portrait of Eric Pfeufer with Sword and Helmet
Saeta
Seated Man (Nothing III), 1953
As a teenager, Fernando Zóbel was enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas to study medicine when he developed a serious medical issue of his own. Bedridden from a spinal defect, he spent many hours sketching landscapes and caricatures to keep his mind occupied. When he was able to return to school, he continued at Santo Tomas and then moved over to Harvard University in 1946, shifting his focus to history and literature. While in Boston, he began painting as a hobby and would soon find a mentor in Boston School associate Reed Champion Pfeufer. Zobel also found artistic encouragement from Reed’s husband, James Pfeufer, as well as their companion Hyman Bloom. With these friends as influences, Zobel allowed himself to experiment with a variety of techniques including aquatints, etchings and serigraphs. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1949, continued studies there in law, and eventually work as curator for the Houghton Library, all the while honing his craft as an artist.
When Zobel returned home to the Philippines, he quickly befriended several local contemporary modernists. Following in his father’s footsteps, he collected works from these artists and used his charm and family name to set up shows for budding artists in a time when the modern art movement was not easily accepted in local galleries. His efforts during this time played a significant role in pushing forward the modernist movement in the Philippines. Then, in 1953, he presented his own one-man exhibition in the Philippine Art Gallery. The following year, he showed work at the Swetzoff Gallery in Boston while he arranged to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. While studying there for six months, he happened to attend an art exhibition by Mark Rothko, which was a catalyst in his own art. Before this exposure, Zobel’s work was mostly realistic with some abstracted exaggerations, and after seeing Rothko’s work he moved into experimenting more with pure abstraction. Not long after, he found influence in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, taking classes in the artform over the next five years under Chinese master Ch’en Bing Sun.
Back home in Manila, Zobel took a faculty position at the Ateneo de Manila University, contributing largely to the school’s fine arts program; he was even awarded later with an honorary doctorate from the school, and given honorary directorship of the Ateneo Art Gallery. After many happy years there, he eventually moved to Spain to focus on his painting full-time. In Spain, he created his best known series, “Saetas”, utilizing a surgical syringe to apply superbly fine lines of paint. This series would be followed by “Serie Negra”, obviously influenced by calligraphy, and took four years to complete. By the early 1970’s, Fernando had completed another series of paintings called “Dialogos”, which were his own abstract reconstructions of museum paintings he’d been drawn to. He did a similar series influenced solely by Cuenca’s River Jucar, and later a series titled “Las Orillas” that continued to deal with the river theme. By this time, his reputation as a powerful figure in art had spread, and he was holding one-man shows in Madrid, New York and Paris.
In 1963, Zobel founded the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, Spain. As he’d continued serving as a patron of the arts over many years, he was excited to hold a show at the new museum in 1966, featuring his impressive personal collection which included work from Saura, Rivera, Tapies, Chillida and several others. Shortly after this successful exhibition, the family business, Ayala y Companñía, he’d helped to manage for several years, agreed to open the Ayala Museum in Makati City to promote both Zobel’s work and that of emerging Filipino artists.
Fernando Zobel was honored in 1983 by King Juan Carlos of Spain when he was granted the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bella Artes. That same year, the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Sevilla organized a huge retrospective of Zobel life’s works. Sadly, the following year on June 2, four years after a damaging stroke, the generous and passionate artist was fatally struck by a heart attack in Rome, Italy. After his passing, Zobel was awarded a Gold Medal from the city of Cuenca, and years later he also received posthumously the Presidential Medal of Merit. A traveling retrospective of his work was held in Cuenca and Seville in 2003. The artist left behind a prolific collection of diverse abstract and non-objective modern art that is most often described as sophisticated, sensitive and joyous. His love for making art was evident in every piece he made, and could only be matched by his deep appreciation for the art of others; and countless artists have benefited from his enthusiasm and support, in the Philippines and across the globe. Known in his personal life as an uncommonly friendly, kind and giving man, Zobel spirit also lives on in the many lives he touched by sharing his connection to art and the art of human connection.
Some Associated Galleries, Schools and Organizations:
Luz Gallery
Harvard University
University of Santo Tomas
Houghton Library
Philippine Art Gallery
Rhode Island School of Design
Ateneo de Manila University
Ateneo Art Gallery
Museum of Abstract Spanish Art
Ayala Foundation
Notable Awards and Recognitions:
Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bella Artes, awarded by King Juan Carlos of Spain, 1983
Gold Medal, awarded by the city of Cuenca, Spain, 2003
Presidential Medal of Merit, awarded by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 2006
Some Notable Works:
Noche Clara
Alcala
La Hoz en Invierno
Sin Titulo
Cuena
Portrait of Eric Pfeufer with Sword and Helmet
Saeta
Seated Man (Nothing III), 1953
