Views across the landscape of Madrid through the graphic production of Fernando Zóbel

Abstract

Fernando Zóbel, born in Manila in 1924, was a key figure in Spanish Abstract Art in the 1950s and 1960s. A multifaceted artist, businessman, collector and cultural benefactor, he founded the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca in 1966. Zóbel stood out as a chronicler of his time, documenting his vision of the world through field notebooks, drawings, photographs and writings. The analysis of his work, and particularly of the sketchbooks that he almost always carried with him, allows us to understand the social, historical, political and cultural context of an era. Zóbel used drawing as a tool for analysis and knowledge, complementing his observations with handwritten notes. His creative process included photography as a graphic resource, allowing him a profound interpretation of the landscape and society of Madrid of that period. His sketchbooks offer a detailed view of the Madrid of the time, through graphic series of everyday urban landscapes and social portraits. The record of the characters of different neighbourhoods and the cultural activities of the time show his perspective of the atmosphere that characterised the capital in the second half of the 20th century.