Boston and enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design where he saw an exhibition by Mark Rothko. Rothko's paintings made an impression on Zobel that increased his interest in painting abstractly. When he returned to Manila, Zobel started in having interest in Chinese and Japanese art and took up calligraphy classes until 1960. During this time, he joined the faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University and later was given an honorary doctorate and was made honorary director of the Ateneo Art Gallery for his contribution in education and as patron of the arts. To make a name for himself as a full-time painter, he later resigned from his position in the Ayala Corporation and moved to Spain. Saetas and Serie Negra series Zóbel is best known for his first artwork series called the Saetas. Named after the liturgical song sung in Holy Week in Spain, they were developed for the most part in the Philippines. Zóbel faced the technical problem of how to achieve the lines that his theme required, lines that were, in his own words, "long, fine, and controlled." The artist's use of a surgical syringe to eject fine lines of paint was a hallmark of this series. After the Saetas, Zóbel began a series called Serie Negra or Series in Black influenced by Chinese Calligraphy. The Serie Negra was started in 1959 in Madrid and continued for four years. Later life and death He founded the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español at Casa Colgadas in the town of Cuenca, Spain in 1963. The museum was expanded in 1978, and in 1980 Zóbel donated its collection to the Fundación Juan March, which then incorporated it into its own collection. Zóbel was a mentor and collector who aided the careers of Spanish modernist painters including Antonio Lorenzo, Antoni Tàpies, Eusebio Sempere, Martín Chirino López, Antonio Saura and many others. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Zóbel was working on a series of paintings called Dialogos which were his abstracted variations on paintings he admired in museums. He also made a series of paintings inspired by the Júcar River. After suffering a stroke that left him slightly impaired, he created a series called Las Orillas that elaborated on the theme of rivers. In 1983, King Juan Carlos of Spain bestowed upon Zóbel, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, a prestigious award to individuals or