Lot description
PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE DON EUGENIO "GENY" LOPEZ JR. COLLECTION Novalis II oil on canvas 16" x 16" (40 cm x 40 cm) PROVENANCE Don Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Collection León Gallery, The Magnificent September Auction 2021, Makati City, 11 September 2021, Lot 28 LITERATURE DE LA TORRE, Alfonso (Director). In collaboration with Rafael Pérez-Madero. Fernando Zóbel. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (1946-1984)-Catálogo Razonado de Pinturas de Fernando Zóbel (1946 - 1984). Madrid-Manila: Fundación Azcona, Fundación Juan March, Ayala Foundation and Fernando Zóbel Heirs, 2023. Nº cat. 66-14, p. 327. Paras-Perez, Rod. Fernando Zóbel. Manila: Eugenio Lopez Foundation Inc., 1990. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 104. EXHIBITED The Luz Gallery, Fernando Zóbel: One-man Exhibition of Paintings, Manila, 19 March - 1 April 1966 The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Fernando Zóbel Retrospective, Manila, October 1992 Fernando Zobel presents a beautiful masterpiece that demonstrates his deeply layered art style. Emphasizing restraint and atmosphere over overt imagery. Referencing Novalis—a German poet whose writing explored themes of introspection, spirituality, and the infinite —Zobel curates an introspective image that highlights a reflective terrain. One that invites contemplation, in which its stillness and subtle shifts invite viewers to feel the scene At first glance, Zobel's masterpiece feels like a dissolving landscape, as if it were at the moment when the image of the terrain slowly fades into the past. The restrained palette of the sky, horizon, and ground establishes an atmospheric tone that creates divisions within the composition: One feels open, spacious, and distant, while the other becomes denser, darker, and grounded. The faint vertical band near the center right provides a sort of "veil" that interrupts the continuity of space between the two visual fields. Such division can be read as a shift in time or perception—like you're looking at the same terrain in two different moments in time. Establishing a strong movement through stillness. In essence, Fernando Zobel's Novalis settles quietly between landscape and abstraction as well as presence and disappearance. Instead of reading the scene conventionally, Zobel invites the observers to feel the scene itself. To let the gaze wander around the canvas and slowly digest every subtle shift and stillness present. The longer they look, the more it feels like a distant memory that they couldn't quite place. Every mark and shift in tone seems intentional, contributing to a balance between control and spontaneity. (Mark John Castañeda)
