Fernando Zóbel

Private Spanish Collection (acquired directly from the artist in 1968)

Private Spanish Collection (inherited from the above in 2006)

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西班牙私人收藏（1968年直接購自藝術家）

西班牙私人收藏（2006年繼承自上述來源）

The Philippines born Spanish artist Fernando Zóbel was a driving force behind the Cuenca School of artists in Spain. Educated in Spain, the Philippines and at Harvard in America, Zóbel’s oeuvre is a constant mediation between light, color and essence: an attempt at revealing truth through reduction to an abstract essence in lyrical abstraction. Living a dual existence between Spain and the Philippines, Fernando Zóbel was “the quintessential transnational who spent much of his life searching for his roots”.

Sol y tractor II (Lot 6207) was originally purchased from the artist in 1968 and is an excellent example of Zóbel’s enhanced understanding of color, coupled with his highly systematic abstract vernacular. 1945 marked an artistic awakening for the artist, when he discovered the color field paintings of the American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, at the Rhode Island School of Design. It was Zóbel’s desire to find a means to achieve a similar effect through his observations of nature, distilled and expressed through line and form.

Sol y tractor II, meaning “Sun and tractor” in Spanish, delicately arranges swooping plates of colors alongside one another, in order to study the various effects that alter their states. The bright, luscious orange at the center of the canvas emanates warmth and echoes the sultry sunset rays upon farmland, while the contrasting black calligraphic strokes suggest the vibrating energy of a tractor working in the field. What is especially unique about the work is the artist’s use of geometric shapes, a circle and rectangle, rendered in saturated greens. These striking forms, as well as the subtle hues impeccably blended throughout the canvas, encapsulates the careful, almost scientific approach that Zóbel applied to the study of painting, always deliberate and thoughtful.

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西班牙裔菲律賓藝術家費南度．索培爾是西班牙昆卡派藝術圈的靈魂人物。索培爾曾於西班牙、菲律賓及美國哈佛大學就學，他注重光影、色彩與精神面貌之間的交流與平衡，並嘗試在抒情抽象中萃取出更純粹的抽象風格，從而揭示生命的真相。居於西班牙及菲律賓兩地的索培爾，被形容為「純粹的跨國者，花費一生中大部分光陰尋找他的根」 。

《太陽與曳引機II》 （拍品編號 6207）於1968年面世，並完美示範了索培爾對色彩更進一步的了解，以及他極具系統性的抽象視覺語彙。1945年，索培爾在美國羅德島設計學院欣賞到美國抽象表現畫家馬克．羅斯科的色域繪畫，因而深受啟發，這是其藝術生涯中一個覺醒的轉捩點。索培爾自此渴望藉著觀察大自然，並運用精煉而滿有表現力的線條及形體，達至類近抽象表現主義的效果。

《太陽與曳引機II》在西班牙語裡意謂「太陽與拖拉機」，而藝術家在本作中精妙地建構了好幾層並排的色調，從中探索色調在相互影響之下的各種視覺效果。畫布正中央的橙色散發著溫暖的光芒，有如日落時映照在農田上的光線，與書法般的黑色筆觸形成強烈的對比，令人聯想起拖拉機在田地裡運行時的強力。藝術家在本作中運用的幾何圖形——塗上飽滿的綠色的圓形及長方形——是本作的獨特元素。這些惹人注目的圖形，配合周遭完美地相互融合的低調色彩，揭示了藝術家滿懷深思熟慮、近乎科學化般小心精密的繪畫手法。