- Chillida, Eduardo
- b. 1924, San SebastiánSculptorChillida, Spain's leading sculptor, studied architecture at the University of Madrid from 1943 to 1946 before deciding to become an artist in 1947. He moved to Paris in 1948, exhibited at the Salon de Mai in 1949, and then returned permanently to San Sebastián in 1951, feeling the need to return to his Basque roots. He denied ever having come into conflict with Franco's regime. He established a growing reputation in the 1950s, receiving the Gran Premio Internazionale di Scultura at the Venice Biennale in 1958. His sculptures in the 1950s, made out of forged iron with the assistance of a local blacksmith, were in the tradition of metal sculptures established by his countryman Picasso, in collaboration with Julio González, between 1928 and 1932, and also had affinities with the contemporary post-WWII vogue for abstract symbolist image making, but they were simpler and more abstract than Picasso's essentially figurative sculptures and showed little of the existential angst of sculptures by contemporaries coming to terms with war, violence, degradation and loss.Three preoccupations run through his work: materials, space and the quest for a public sculpture. His abiding concern with the quality of his materials, an enhanced materiality, meant that his sculptures changed both form and content with changes in media. His wrought iron sculptures dramatically exploit the solidity and weight of massive units of iron, defying gravity in the exploration of space. In 1959 he experimented with wood and steel, and in 1965, inspired by a visit to Greece in 1963, with its whitewashed buildings reflecting the intense light, he began a series of sculptures in alabaster called Elogio de la Luz. (In Praise of Light). He has worked in both stone and concrete and in 1973, with the assistance of Joan Gardy Artigas, he began a series of sculptures in terracotta. His preoccupation with the unfolding relationships between massively solid forms and space gives his sculptures an architectural character which relates back to his years studying architecture in Madrid. Form frames space, and ostensibly manmade geometric shapes, cut through naturally shaped forms, enhance the quality of the material. His wish for a public sculpture has resulted in an increasingly monumental fusion of sculpture with architecture in commissions for prestigious sites throughout the world: notably, Comb of the Wind IV (1969) in front of the UNESCO building in Paris; Alrededor del vacío V (Surrounding the Void V) (1970) in the courtyard of the World Bank in Washington DC; Monumento (1971) in front of the Thyssen building in Dusseldorf; Lugar de encuentros III (Meeting Point III) (1972–8), underneath the Castellana bridge in Madrid; Monumento de los fueros (Monument to Basque Law) (1975), in the main square in Vitoria which he designed with the architect Luis Peña Ganchegui; Combs of the Wind (1977) at Donostia Bay, San Sebastián; Gure aitaren etxea (1988) monument in Guernica; and Elogio del horizonte (In Praise of the Horizon) (1990) at Gijon.Among numerous awards and honours, he received the Diano Marina Prize in Milan in 1974, membership of the Royal Academy, London, in 1993, the Prince of Asturias Prize in Fine Arts in 1987 and the Order for Science and Art from Germany in 1988.See also: sculpture; visual artsNICHOLAS WATKINS
Encyclopedia of contemporary Spanish culture. 2013.