Singapore exhibit reexamines Fernando Zobel’s role in Southeast Asian modernism
Fernando Zobel de Ayala gets a deeper and more studied look in Order is Essential at the Singapore National Gallery.
Beyond the discussion of forms, techniques, and tasks of modernism, Singapore’s National Gallery espouses cosmopolitanism as a vital approach to and reach of Zobel. This provides a broader scope and a deeper reading of Zobel de Ayala’s works, as he was among the early proponents of modernism in Southeast Asia.
I like the curatorial direction on Zobel via cosmopolitanism, which makes him borderless and crossing cultures. Usually, cosmopolitanism is associated with the well-traveled elite like Zobel.
There is a danger in aligning “order” with a linear time element—that is, early work, middle work, and decline of the artist and systems. However, time through the lines of Zobel is a function of shifts and dialogue with older works. He is attributed as thoroughly modern, and yet, Zobel initially latched onto the colonial legacies of Philippine images.
Is something considered modern if it draws from the past? Thus, order here is the way things are recast and recalibrated, and not a clean linear progression of differences. Order is diminishing hierarchies and shifting positions, which Zobel and his cohorts made significant strides in. For Zobel, this was not only in the Philippines but also in greater East Asia and Spain.
Although his image approach is modern, several themes in Zobel’s works in this exhibit are reminiscent of classical and European influences. Among his most notable images is a vast work that displays his signature streaks from an injector filled with paint. He did not merely drip paint randomly but created a sense of calculated motions, as if in a dance.
The work Icaro is named after the Greek mythological character Icarus, who represented the hubris and folly of youth who dared to fly near the sun, which led to his demise. This is the anchor of Zobel’s art that radiated throughout his career. It is not lost on me that Icarus, in Zobel’s work, is not in free fall but soaring near the horizon. It is poised to achieve great heights, marking the early onset of his journey. It is not about the eventual fall, which is part of the order of things, but about setting the directions of the order.
My favorite part of the exhibition is at the end, where you can see an intricate map of encounters and artistic progenies emanating from Zobel. At the lower left is a copy of a painting of Zobel, which resembles this infographic. It is brilliant because Zobel’s lines are the ones that truly compound weights and measures in art history.
You may reach Chong Ardivilla at kartunistatonto@gmail.com or chonggo.bsky.social
