Fernando Zobel

A Gift from the Artist to the Present Owner in 1979
Private Collection, Europe

The work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas, which is clear and taut. There is light wear and handling around the edges of the work, along with gentle networks of craquelures predominantly on the left register, upper middle section and along the right border. Otherwise, the paint layers are healthy and intact. Examination under ultraviolet light shows minor retouching predominantly along the bottom border (near the signature). Framed.
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Prior to the conception of Naranja Ocre, Fernando Zobel had abandoned all use of colour in his Serie Negra series. For Zobel, colours had become arbitrary, detracting from the work of art. Instead, black became the main focus, with the artist conferring his attention to line and shape as a means of expressing his emotions and what he termed “qualities of remembered experiences, things that struck me”. Upon his return to colour in 1963, it was evident that his Serie Negra had greatly refined his sensitivity to his application of polychromatic paint. Observing our emotional capacity to associate colour with space and memories, Zobel began employing it as a point of reference or as a device to conceal, and at times a means to achieve a sense of transparency or opaqueness.

The present lot is an excellent example of Zobel’s enhanced understanding of colour, coupled with his highly systematic abstract vernacular. 1945 marked an artistic awakening for the artist, when he discovered the colour field paintings of the American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. It was Zobel’s desire to find a means to achieve a similar effect through the use of line – to achieve “the expression with the detail” – which led to his Saetas series. It was in this particular series that he began to develop his singular technique of using a hypodermic needle to create long fine lines as a means to express the feeling of movement.

Naranja Ocre, meaning ‘orange colour’ in Spanish, delicately arranges swooping plates of colours alongside one another, in order to study the various effects which alter their states. The bright orange to the left of the canvas is a study of the effect of the mixture of white and orange paint, while the earthy orange to the right studies the mixture of orange and black. The deep indigo in the centre, a contrasting colour to the orange, serves as a variable to observe the type of visual effect that is achieved. Naranja Ocre encapsulates the careful, almost scientific approach that Zobel applied to the study of painting, always deliberate and thoughtful. The delicate fanning out of paint and well-balanced apportioning of the canvas through gentle lines retains his signature style, and serves as a reminder of Zobel’s unparalleled understanding and control over the material.

Naranja Ocre is a testament to Zobel’s perfectionism, for despite its experimental nature, it has the echoing of his signature forms and commitment to balance and proportion. It is an artefact of his discipline and dedication as a painter, as well as a record of his deep understanding of his craft. For Zobel, painting was not just the act itself, but a deeply philosophical activity that required cultural and intellectual dexterity. As he said in an interview “[t]he thing is, there has never been, in all the history of painting, a good painter who was ignorant about painting.”