For Fernando Zobel, Order, Like Light, Was Essential

Showing at Singapore National Gallery until the end of November, Fernando Zobel's "Order is Essential" is a wide-ranging sequel to the exhibit in Madrid last year during the painter's centennial, and the recent Ayala Museum retrospective.

- JUANIYO ARCELLANA

A main group photo shows Zobel and his peers during the abstract expressionist and modernist movements; future national artists Jose Joya and Hernando Ocampo are there, with Zobel standing far right, a smile on his face reflecting half of his haunted monk's life.

There is a generous collection of his Saeta series, the painter's experiments and expositions with lines and grids almost like maps of cities; an untitled piece in orange and black suggests use of a syringe to control the outlay of lines, and also makes us appreciate simple tools like the pencil, ruler and masking tape in making art.

"If you look at Fernando Zobel's artwork, you can see how he uses lots of different lines," reads the show's pamphlet. "He loved to experiment and believed that every mark meant something. His drawings and painting weren't random—they were thought out carefully... Do you think he painted them quickly? He didn't. He actually planned everything out first. He did lots of sketches before creating the final artwork which he painted according to plan."