Fernando Zóbel
La Nutria
1962
Oil on canvas
129.5 x 19.5 cm
This black-and-white painting was completed during Fernando Zobel's Serie Negra period (1959-1962), which was characterized by his "energetic gestures...balanced by the discipline and restraint of Japanese sumi-e, given Zóbel’s affinity with Zen Buddhism."
Paintings from this period have been ascribed to the influence of Spanish Informalism and Oriental calligraphy (he had resumed an interest in the latter after the discovery of Chinese artifacts in the family estate in Calatagan, Batangas). Zobel himself described the technique as "the use of a lot of white background to highlight a relatively small but very intense area of black graphics."
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