National Gallery Singapore presents Fernando Zóbel: Order is essential, the museum’s first-ever solo exhibition dedicated to transcontinental abstract artist Fernando Zóbel (1924–1984) and Singapore’s inaugural showcase of his work. Opening on 9 May, the exhibition features over 200 pieces — including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and archival materials. It introduces Zóbel to new audiences, offering fresh insights into his multifaceted contributions as an artist, patron, collector, and scholar, and foregrounds his role in bridging cultural contexts and enriching global dialogues on modern art.

Zóbel was an avid traveller, a cosmopolitan thinker and writer, and a pioneering collector who formed two modern art museums in the Philippines and Spain — Ateneo Art Gallery in Manila and Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca. Born in the Philippines to a prominent Spanish family, his lifelong, extensive interest in the world shaped his expressionist and abstract works in drawing, printmaking, painting, and photography. Zóbel’s artistic practice and inspiration spanned Asia, Europe, and North America, highlighting his global stature as a pivotal figure in modern art. His ability to synthesise diverse cultural impulses and artistic tendencies — from Asian calligraphy to American Abstract Expressionism — created a rich, layered body of work that invites deeper exploration.

The exhibition title Order is essential is a quote from Zóbel on his artistic philosophy of how beauty and tranquillity emerge from order. This brings to light a surprising dimension of Zóbel’s practice of abstraction, revealing how he had a meticulous and controlled creative process which involved multiple iterations before finalising his works. He is also well known for his signature method of using a syringe to control thin lines of paint — first featured in the artist’s Saeta series — a technique that became his defining contribution to modern art.

Fernando Zóbel: Order is essential builds on Zóbel: The future of the past, which opened at Museo Nacional del Prado (2022) in Spain and was later restaged at the Ayala Museum (2024) in the Philippines. Expanding on key narratives, the Gallery’s distinct and fresh iteration introduces exclusive works and offers a unique perspective on Zóbel’s artistic evolution and transcontinental practice.

Dr Patrick Flores, Chief Curator at National Gallery Singapore, and the Project Director and Co-curator of the exhibition, says, “We are honoured to present the first solo exhibition of Fernando Zóbel in Singapore, offering an expanded and dynamic narrative that situates this remarkable transcontinental artist as both a key figure in global modernism and a vital link across modernist traditions and art worlds. His work resonates with those who are drawn to art that transcends singular cultural boundaries and speaks to a broader human experience.” Dr Flores added, “By contextualising Zóbel’s practice within Southeast Asian and global art histories, Fernando Zóbel: Order is Essential affirms the Gallery’s commitment to shaping new perspectives of art and deepening cross-cultural dialogue. Our close collaborations with esteemed institutions such as the Museo Nacional del Prado, Fundación Juan March, and the Ayala Museum reflect our dedication to presenting exhibitions that enrich the understanding and appreciation of post-colonial and modern art regionally and beyond.”

Manuel Fontán del Junco, Director of Museums and Exhibitions at the Fundación Juan March and Director of the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, says, “Working side by side with National Gallery Singapore has been quite an experience: that of seeing Zóbel's work with a gaze that is closer to his origins in Asia than ours. We have completely opened to the Gallery the doors of our collection of works by the artists Zóbel collected and to whom he gave his first institutional support in the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, which he founded when our country lacked museums. That the Gallery’s curators lucidly asked us from the beginning to include works by these artists would have thrilled Zóbel as much as it has thrilled us.”

Structured around the United States, the Philippines, and Spain, where he practised from the 1940s to the 1980s, this survey invites audiences to reflect on how modernism took different forms in each place and time, and how Zóbel’s practice navigated and bridged these cultural environments. Spanning two gallery spaces and five sections — “Half of this haunted monk’s life”, “With every single refinement”, “Thin lines against a field of colour”, “Movement that includes its own contradiction”, and “The light of the painting” — the exhibition also introduces key international artists Zóbel engaged with and collected throughout his career, such as Mark Rothko, Antoni Tàpies, and Liu Kuo-sung, whose original works will be displayed alongside his own. These dialogues offer a broader view of global art movements, enriching the exploration of artistic conversations through Zóbel’s lens.

Tracing Zóbel’s artistic journey across continents

The exhibition opens with “Half of this haunted monk’s life,” a prologue that traces the arc of Zóbel’s artistic evolution through a poignant pairing of his first and last recorded paintings. Spanning decades, this juxtaposition captures the breadth of his journey — from an early expressionist work inspired by a study of Vincent van Gogh to the final painting he was working on before his passing, which evoked the presence of a bridge over a river in Spain where he lived. Together, these works speak to Zóbel’s lifelong dialogue with the past and the future — a conversation between early influence and sustained introspection that shaped the course of his artistic practice.

“With every single refinement” explores Zóbel’s formative years in New England, United States, where he began his journey as a professional artist. During this time, he immersed himself in studying culture and art history while engaging with the vibrant art circles of Boston and Rhode Island. Influenced by leading abstract expressionist artists such as Mark Rothko and Franz Kline, Zóbel was exposed to a wide range of artistic tendencies — from satire to Bauhaus and photography. His intellectual development and meticulous creative process are showcased through sketches from his personal notebook, made while attending art history classes at Harvard University, as well as in a portrait of his mentor, Jim Pfeufer, who later taught him lithography and engraving at the Rhode Island School of Design. This rich, experimental environment encouraged Zóbel to explore various mediums, refine his technical skills, and lay the foundation for the distinctive artistic approach that would continue to evolve throughout his career.

The next section, “Thin lines against a field of colour”, delves into Zóbel’s artistic production in Manila, where he distilled key principles and motifs that reflected the vitality he saw in his birthplace. This quality is reflected in a selection of lithographs and paintings of religious sculptures that served as a significant source of inspiration for his exploration of modern art. While remaining rooted in the Philippines' cultural and material forms, Zóbel began experimenting with cubism and informalism. Also featured in this section are exclusive artworks from his renowned Saeta series, created using his innovative method of applying long, continuous lines of paint with a syringe (without a needle). An actual syringe used by Zóbel is on display alongside the surrounding Saeta paintings, spotlighting the signature technique he employed throughout his career to create his distinctive works. Historical calligraphy and works by Asian artists from his collection are also exhibited, highlighting Zóbel’s multifaceted role as an artist, patron, and collector and his deep engagement with broader artistic practices.

“Movement that includes its own contradiction” revisits Zóbel’s time in Madrid, Spain, where he took up residence in 1961. Central to this section is his Serie Negra (Black Series) created in the spirit of the Art Informel movement. During this period, Zóbel refined his approach to abstraction while gaining broader international recognition. A selection of paintings on display reveals how Zóbel drew on the formal qualities of artworks by European and North American artists he had long studied — from Lorenzo Lotto to John Singer Sargent — and reinterpreted their masterpieces through his own abstract technique. Photographs taken during his time in Europe are also on display, offering insight into how his exploration of photography played a pivotal role in shaping his devotion to abstract painting.

The exhibition's concluding section, “The light of the painting”, presents works from Zóbel's later years in Cuenca, Spain — a historic city whose natural landscape and medieval architecture deeply inspired his mature artistic explorations. This section highlights his increasingly monochromatic investigations, in which he responded sensitively to the surrounding environment: the gorge, the houses nestled in the valley, the plateau, and the banks of the Júcar and Huécar rivers. Zóbel also continued his photographic practice in Cuenca, treating photography as a form of sketching and a memory tool, capturing moments and scenes that could later inform his paintings. On display are photographs of views of Cuenca and works from his football series, in which movement is rendered through a combination of photography, sketches, prints, and paintings. These works range from more figurative representations to highly abstracted impressions, showcasing his fascination with capturing motion and the passage of time.