Trained in the Philippines, Europe and America, graduated from Harvard and finally settled in his beloved Spain in the 1960s, Zóbel developed a deep and dazzling knowledge of the artistic and literary traditions of the West and Asia.

Created after the artist's life-changing move to Spain, Los Cuervos exemplifies the artist's newfound joy in the creation process. By the 1960s, Zóbel enjoyed major institutional success and recognition. He was included in major surveys of 20th century Spanish art, including Before Picasso: After Miro at the Solomon R. Guggenhei Museum in New York (1960), Modern Spanish Painting at the Tate Gallery in London (1962) and as part of the Spanish Pavilion at the 31st Venice Biennale (1962).

Recently, November 2022 - April 2023, Museo Nacional del Prado held a retrospective of the artist's works in dialogue with the paintings in the Prado titled Zóbel. The Future of the Past.

The present lot was painted in 1970, when landscape and nature played an increasingly important role in his later work. The title Los Cuervos suggest that the artist was inspired by a school of crows, yet it is not painted by imitation but as a memory of an experience. In a misty field of greys, bronze-like bronze, Zobel's wistful strokes create layer upon layer the essence of a panoramic landscape. While small black spots in the left side of the composition suggest the flight of the birds mid-air.

This rare composition, is a stat.mes nt to the cerebral labor that goes into understanding even a singular moment. A meditation on cognitive expression, Zobel's paintings address the underlining influence memory has upon experiences, or within the artist's worldview.