learning a bit more about Fernando Zóbel, Spanish-Filipino abstract artist

One of the paintings I visit at the Ayala Museum is "Icaro" by Spanish-Filipino abstract painter, Fernando Zóbel. Last year, this was one of the paintings that journeyed to Italy for the Venice Biennale. It was housed at the Fondaco Marcello, along the Grand Canal.

During the Art Fair, I had the opportunity to sit down and listen to the curators of the Zóbel exhibit, entitled "Contrapuntos", give a behind-the-scenes account for this collateral event. The presentations of Ditas Samson and of Guillermo Paneque were eye-openers because I never thought that museum curatorship went beyond collecting and displaying things that the curators liked. The close exception was Federico de Vera's exhibit, of course... but then, he displayed things that he thought were beautiful.

In developing Contrapuntos, a lot of effort went into choosing which pieces were flown in and where they would be placed inside the gallery space.

Ditas Samson described the life of the artist. I'm sitting in the front row, third person from the left.
(Photo from @artfairph's Instagram account) 

The curators talked about breathing spaces, lighting, flow, and complementarity with sculptures made by a contemporary, Pablo Serrano. The end product was a show featuring the pieces that compose the "Saetas" and the "Serie Negra" in a way that the audience felt like they were seeing two exhibits in one gallery... true to the event's theme: contrapuntos. It was quite fascinating.

Guillermo Paneque talked about going into the mind of Zóbel while choosing the featured pieces at the Venice Biennale.

What was more fascinating was that Contrapuntos explored Zóbel's sense of global citizenship. He was both from the East (he's Filipino) and from the West (he's of Spanish descent and he studied in the USA). His search for belonging was expressed in his artistry through the strong but delicate strokes of his syringe (in lieu of a paintbrush) and the colours he used to enliven the canvas.

I have to say that I am not into Filipino contemporary art because it feels forced and the artist appears to be detached from the scene he is painting. But this is not the case in abstract art, which Zóbel zeroed in.

To me, abstract art is like this: If you liked the painting, you liked the painting; no need for interpretations (although the artists are happy to talk about it).