The corpus of this Spanish painter born in the Philippines, Fernando Zóbel (Manila, 1924-Rome, 1984), was created over almost a decade and Rafael Pérez-Madero (deceased in 2020) collaborated in this. Personal secretary and one of the greatest experts in the work of Zóbel, he supervised the aforementioned until it was published. It brings together the entire pictorial production of Zóbel between 1946 and 1984, accounting for around two thousand oils on canvas. Together with the Azcona Foundation, the Juan March Foundation and the Ayala Foundation have been co-publishers, with the collaboration of Georgina and Alejandro Padilla Zóbel, niece and nephew, and inheritors of the artist.

Ayala Foundation Inc., established in the Philippines in 1961 by the Zóbel family, is one of the pioneering foundations of the country. Its activities are mainly focused on education, youth leadership, sustainability and culture programmes. Furthermore, Ayala Foundation Inc. supports art through the Filipinas Heritage Library and the Ayala Museum, envisaged by Fernando Zóbel in the 1950s as a museum of Philippine history and iconography. This institution houses a significant collection of the painter’s works and regularly devotes temporary exhibitions to his figure.

The Juan March Foundation has been linked to the person and work of Zóbel since the 1960s. It boasts an extensive representation of the artist’s works in its collection, with Zóbel’s contemporary Spanish art collection being donated by the artist himself in 1980. This has been on show since 1966 in the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, which the Juan March Foundation has managed and overseen ever since. The Juan March Foundation also has a significant part of the artist’s library, as well as his diaries and sketchbooks. Many years of work have been spent digitising, cataloguing and showcasing these.

Alfonso de la Torre, researcher specialised in the production of Catalogues Raisonnés, is recognised at an international level in this field, as he is the author of Catalogue Raisonné of Pablo Palazuelo. Paintings and sculptures (Architecture and utopias) (2015), in addition to the Catalogues Raisonnés of Manolo Millares (Painting, 2004, and Engraved work, 2019) and Manuel Rivera (2009), together with the recent The Graphic Circle. The complete graphic work of Salvador Victoria (2023). The Azcona Foundation has been involved in all of these. Alfonso de la Torre’s most recent publication is Fernando Zóbel. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings 1946-1984, which he finished several decades after meeting the artist in person, in 1982, and after having written many essays and carrying out a great deal of research on this fundamental creator.