In 1956, Fernando Zobel joined the faculty of Ateneo de Manila University. He was 32 years old and had spent 6 years in the family business at Ayala y Cia. He was undergoing a transition in his painting. Giving up the influence of the Boston style, and inspired by the color fields of Rothko, he was groping toward his own visual vocabulary. While teaching, he was also studying Chinese art.