Eduardo
Chillida
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Eduardo
Chillida Juantegui
(10 January 1924 –
19 August 2002)
Born Eduardo Chillida Juantegui
10
January 1924
San Sebastián, Spain
Died 19 August 2002 (aged 78)
Donostia,
Basque Country, Spain
Occupation Sculptor
Notable for his abstract works
hillida's sculpture Berlin (2000) for the Office of the Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzleramt) in Berlin
Early
life and career
Born in
San Sebastián (Donostia) to Pedro Chillida and the soprano Carmen Juantegui on
10 January 1924. Eduardo Chillida grew up near hotel Biarritz, which was owned
by his grandparents.[1] Chillida had been the goalkeeper for Real Sociedad, San
Sebastián's La Liga football team, where his knee was so seriously injured that
he had five surgeries, ending a promising football career. He then studied
architecture at the University of Madrid from 1943 to 1946. In 1947 he
abandoned architecture for art, and the next year he moved to Paris, where he
set up his first studio and began working in plaster and clay. He never
finished his degree and instead began to take private art lessons. He lived in
Paris from 1948 to 50 and at Villaines-sous-Bois (Seine-et-Oise) from 1950 to
1955.[2] In 1950 Chillida married Pilar Belzunce and later returned to the San
Sebastián area, first to the nearby village of Hernani and in 1959 to the city
of his birth, where he remained.[3]
He died
at his home near San Sebastián at the age of 78.
Work
Chillida's
sculptures concentrated on the human form (mostly torsos and busts); his later
works tended to be more massive and more abstract, and included many monumental
public works.[4] Chillida himself tended to reject the label of
"abstract", preferring instead to call himself a "realist
sculptor". Upon returning to the Basque Country in 1951, Chillida soon
abandoned the plaster he used in his Paris works – a medium suited to his study
of archaic figurative works in the Louvre.[5] Living near Hernani, he began to
work in forged iron with the help of the local blacksmith, and soon set up a
forge in his studio. From 1954 until 1966, Chillida worked on a series entitled
Anvil of Dreams, in which he used wood for the first time as a base from which
the metal forms rise up in explosive rhythmic curves.[6] He began to make
sculpture in alabaster 1965.[2] Rather than turn over a maquette of a sculpture
to fabricators, as many modern artists do, Chillida worked closely with the men
in the foundry. He then usually added an alloy that caused the metal to take on
a brilliant rust color as it oxidizes.[7]
From
quite early on, Chillida's sculpture found public recognition, and, in 1954, he
produced the four doors for the basilica of Arantzazu, where works by other
leading Basque sculptors – Jorge Oteiza, Agustin Ibarrola and Nestor
Basterretxea – were also being installed. The following year, he carved a stone
monument to the discoverer of penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming, for a park in
San Sebastián (it subsequently disappeared, but a new version has been
installed on the promenade at San Sebastián bay).[4] By the early 1970s, his
steel sculptures had been installed in front of the Unesco headquarters in
Paris, the ThyssenKrupp building in Düsseldorf, and in a courtyard at the World
Bank offices in Washington
At their
best his works, although massive and monumental, suggest movement and tension.
For example, the largest of his works in the United States, De Musica is an
81-ton steel sculpture featuring two pillars with arms that reach out but do
not touch. Much of Chillida's work is inspired by his Basque upbringing, and
many of his sculptures' titles are in the Basque language Euskera. His steel
sculpture De Música III was exhibited at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the
UK, as part of a retrospective of Chillida's work.
Chillida's
cast iron sculpture Topos V has been displayed in Plaça del Rei, Barcelona,
since 1986.
Chillida
also conceived a distinguished oeuvre of etchings, lithographs and woodcuts
since 1959, including illustrations for Jorge Guillen's Mas Alla (1973) and
various other books.[2] Some of his bi-dimensional works are used as logos by
Basque organizations such as the University of the Basque Country and Gestoras
pro Amnistía.
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Monument
to Tolerance, Fuerteventura
According
to Chillida's plans for a Monument of Tolerance, an artificial cave is to be
bored into the mountain. The huge cubic cave, measuring 40 metres (131 ft)
along each side, is to be dug from inside a mountain that has long been revered
by the inhabitants of the dusty, barren island to the south of Lanzarote. About
64,000 cubic metres of rock will be taken away from the mountain, which rises
out of an arid landscape in the north of the island, to create what Chillida
called his 'monument to tolerance'. Chillida's original idea was for visitors
to experience the immensity of the space.[8]
The
project has been in development since 1994, eight years before Chillida's
death.[9] In 2011 local authorities decided to go ahead with a project by
Chillida inside Mount Tindaya on Fuerteventura despite concerns from
environmentalists.[8] As of 2013, local officials are continuing to seek €75
million in private funding.[9]
Dialogue
with Heidegger
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In the
early 1960s Eduardo Chillida engaged in a dialog with the German philosopher
Martin Heidegger. When the two men met, they discovered that from different
angles, they were "working with space" in the same way. Heidegger
wrote: "We would have to learn to recognize that things themselves are
places and do not merely belong to a place," and that sculpture is thereby
"...the embodiment of places." Against a traditional view of space as
an empty container for discrete bodies, these writings understand the body as
already beyond itself in a world of relations and conceive of space as a
material medium of relational contact. Sculpture shows us how we belong to the
world, a world in the midst of a technological process of uprooting and
homelessness. Heidegger suggests how we can still find room to dwell therein.
Chillida
has been quoted as saying: "My whole Work is a journey of discovery in
Space. Space is the liveliest of all, the one that surrounds us. ...I do not
believe so much in experience. I think it is conservative. I believe in
perception, which is something else. It is riskier and more progressive. There
is something that still wants to progress and grow. Also, this is what I think
makes you perceive, and perceiving directly acts upon the present, but with one
foot firmly planted in the future. Experience, on the other hand, does the
contrary: you are in the present, but with one foot in the past. In other
words, I prefer the position of perception. All of my work is the progeny of
the question. I am a specialist in asking questions, some without
answers."
Other
philosophers who have written respectfully about Chillida and his works include
Gaston Bachelard and Octavio Paz.[10]
Elogio
del Horizonte (Eulogy to the Horizon), concrete (1989), Gijón, Spain
Elogio
del Horizonte (Eulogy to the Horizon), concrete (1989), Gijón, Spain
Toleranz
durch Dialog, Münster, Germany
Toleranz
durch Dialog, Münster, Germany
Haizearen
orrazia (Wind comb), San Sebastián, Spain
Haizearen
orrazia (Wind comb), San Sebastián, Spain
Elogi de l'aigua, Barcelona, Spain
Elogi de l'aigua, Barcelona, Spain
Monumento
(1971), Thyssen-Hochhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany
Monumento
(1971), Thyssen-Hochhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany
A short
mast with a plastic flag hanging from a building. The flag has a white
background, a black symbol with bold strokes and a hollow inside. The flag also
has the letters "nistia" partially visible in red.
A flag
with the logo of Gestoras pro Amnistía
Exhibitions
Chillida
exhibited his early work in 1949 in the Salon de Mai at the Musée d'Art Moderne
in Paris, and the next year took part in "Les Mains Eblouies", a show
of postwar art at the Galerie Maeght.[6] After his first solo exhibition at the
Clan Gallery in Madrid in 1954, Chillida exhibited his work in more than 100
one-man shows. He also participated in many international exhibitions,
including the Venice Biennale (1958, 1988 and 1990); the Pittsburgh
International, where he received the Carnegie Prize for sculpture in 1964 and,
in 1978, shared the Andrew W. Mellon Prize with Willem de Kooning; and
Documenta II, IV and VI.[3] His first comprehensive retrospective in the United
States was mounted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1966. Major
retrospectives of Chillida's graphic and sculptural work have since been
mounted by the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (1979), Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York (1980), Palacio de Miramar in San Sebastián
(1992); and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (1999) and
the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1999).
In
2025-2026, the San Diego Museum of Art exhibited his work in Eduardo Chillida:
Convergence.[11]
Major
public works
Major
public works by Chillida are in Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt and Dallas.
A large body of his work can be seen in San Sebastián. One, Haizeen orrazia
(The Comb of the Wind) a collaboration with Luis Peña Ganchegui, is installed
on rocks rising from the Cantabrian Sea at La Concha bay in Sebastián. Perhaps
his best-known work in the United States is in front of the I.M. Pei-designed
Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. De Musica features two pillars with
branches that reach out but do not touch. In Washington, a Chillida sculpture
is inside the World Bank headquarters. In 1997, a sculpture by Chillida was
also on extended loan from Tasende Gallery outside Beverly Hills City Hall, on
occasion of Tasende Gallery opening their Los Angeles showroom with a solo
presentation by Chillida.[12] In 1986, he installed House of Goethe, a large
piece that is a tribute to the German poet and dramatist, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, in the city of Frankfurt.[7] His monument Diálogo-Tolerancia
(Dialogue-Tolerance) was installed in Münster in 1993 to celebrate the Peace of
Westfalia. Chillida's sculpture Berlin (2000) for the Federal Chancellery
(Berlin) is interpreted as a symbol of German reunification: two crossing hands
create a common – in a sense spiritual – place.
Collections
Chillida's
sculptures have been collected by major museums, including the Museum of Modern
Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Tate Britain in London;
the Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland; and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In
1986 the Chillida collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
in Madrid was inaugurated; Chillida designed the museum's logo.[1]
The
farmhouse at the Chillida Leku museum
Chillida
Leku
In the
early 1980s Chillida and his wife bought a sixteenth century Basque farmhouse
and surrounding land at Hernani near San Sebastián to establish a permanent
place to display his work in a natural environment. This opened in the 1990s as
Chillida Leku, an open-air museum where visitors could wander among the
sculptures. The museum closed by 2011 but reopened in 2019 with the backing of
Hauser & Wirth, a Swiss modern art gallery. Leku means 'place' in
Basque.[13][14]
Honours
and awards
Buscando
la luz at the Chillida Leku museum
In 2002,
Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque country, awarded its gold medal, the
city's highest honor, posthumously to Chillida and the architect Luis Peña
Ganchegui, for building a square that has come to symbolize Basque re-emergence
following Spain's return to democracy.[15] Other honours include:
(1998)
Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award
International Sculpture Center
(1991)
Recipient of the Praemium Imperiale in Sculpture
(1987) Recipient of the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de
las Artes
(1985)
Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Sculpture
(1983)
Elected an honorary academician by the Royal Academy
(1998)
Elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors
Art
market
Since
2018, Chillida's estate has been represented by Hauser & Wirth. It
previously worked with Pilar Ordovas. Tasende Gallery was the solo US
representative of Chillida from the mid 1980s through the 1990s.Tasende
Gallery’s representation, including several shows arranged with museums and
commercial galleries in the US, presentations at numerous art fairs in the US,
Europe and Japan, an extensive advertising campaign, monograph publications and
symposiums served to widely introduce Eduardo Chillida to the American art market.[16]
In 2006,
Chillida's classic 1961 sculpture, Rumor de Limites, more than doubled
estimates to sell to a collector from the Iberian Peninsula for a record £2
million in London.[17] His corten steel sculpture Buscando La Luz IV (Looking
for the Light IV) (2001) was sold for 4.1 million pounds at Christie's London
in 2013.[18]
References
Eduardo Chillida Archived 5 April 2011 at the
Wayback Machine Fundación Telefónica, Madrid.
Eduardo Chillida Tate, London.
Ken Johnson (22 August 2002) Eduardo Chillida,
Sculptor on a Grand Scale, Dies at 78 The New York Times.
Adrian Searle (21 August 2002), Obituary:
Eduardo Chillida The Guardian.
Eduardo Chillida/Antoni Tàpies Archived 31
March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin.
Obituary: Eduardo Chillida The Daily
Telegraph.
Hilliard Harper (25 October 1986), Chillida's
Sculptures Reach Peak Los Angeles Times.
Giles Tremlett (20 January 2011), Spanish
island allows massive cave to be bored into 'magic' mountain The Guardian.
Laurie Rojas (10 October 2013), Chillida's
Canary Islands cave sculpture still on hold The Art Newspaper.
Robert McDonald (25 October 1986), Small
Sample Of Chillida Is Offered Los Angeles Times
"Eduardo Chillida: Convergence". San
Diego Museum of Art. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
E. Chillida, 78; Spanish Wrought-Iron Sculptor
Los Angeles Times.
Agnish, Ray (17 April 2019). "Sculpted by
time: Eduardo Chillida museum reopens in San Sebastián". The Guardian.
London. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
Museum Chillida-Leku (Hernani, Spain) Archived
17 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
Raphael Minder (14 September 2010), Basque
Giant, Finally Embraced The New York Times.
Anna Brady (16 October 2019), In person: Pilar
Ordovas on playing hard to get and striking out on her own The Art Newspaper.
Colin Gleadell (27 June 2006), Market news:
London's contemporary art sales The Daily Telegraph.
Scott Reyburn (26 June 2013), Basquiat Sells
for $29 Million, Contemporary Sales Start The Daily Telegraph.
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Buscando la luz
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With affection,
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