Eduardo Chillida
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Eduardo Chillida 1 a d a m g a l l e r y Graphic Works 24 CORK STREET London W1S 3NJ t: 0207 439 6633 13 JOHN STREET Bath BA1 2JL t: 01225 480406 e: [email protected] www.adamgallery.com Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) is a major figure in twentieth century art. During his lifetime he exhibited widely in museums in european cities including the Hayward Gallery, London as well as throughout the USA including at the Guggenheim, New York and the National Gallery, Washington DC. His work is now held in the permanent collections of many major museums such as Tate Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. Numerous sculptures commissioned for public places can be seen internationally, such as his monument to German reunification near the Chancellery in Berlin. Chillida represented Spain in two Venice Biennales where he was awarded the International Grand Prize for Sculpture (1958) and the Kandinsky award (1960). He has received many major international awards for his work, including the the Gold Medal of Fine Arts, Madrid (1981), the Great Prize of the Arts of France (1984), and the Imperial Prize of Japan (1991), whilst in the UK he was elected an honorary Royal Academician, London (1983) and a member of the Academy of Boston and New York, USA (1995). In 1998, he had a major retrospective at the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid and a comprehensive retrospective at the opening of the Guggenheim, Bilbao in 1999. Kosme de Barañano, the Curator of this Guggenheim show, described Chillida as ‘one of the three pillars of sculpture in the twentieth century’ (alongside Constantine Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti). Chillida sold early pieces of work to Chagall and Braque then in 1956 had his first show with Maeght in Paris; one of France’s foremost dealers. He exhibited there alongside Miro, Chagall, Giacometti, Calder, Braque and Léger and many of these artists became friends with whom he exchanged works. His work has inspired writings and catalogue essays by leading philosophers including Martin Heidegger (‘The Art and the Space’1969), Emile Cioran and Gaston Bachelard (who wrote the essay, ‘The Cosmos of Fire’, for his first exhibition at Maeght Gallery) as well as poets Jorge Guillen and Octavio Paz. Chillida met Heidegger in 1968 at the Venice biennale and the following year illustrated his ‘Die Kunst Und Der Raum’. Born in San Sebastián, Northern Spain, in 1924, Eduardo Chillida studied in Madrid before moving to Paris in 1948 to concentrate on sculpture and fine art. There he became friends with the artist Pablo Palazuelo, and his work evolved from a figurative to a new abstract style. His association with Frank Lloyd Wright and Joan Miro strongly influenced him in his use of drawing in space, light and volume. Chillida returned to San Sebastián in 1950 with his new wife Pilar Belzunce, where they had eight children, and lived until his death in 2002. Chillida was proud of his Basque background and demonstrated his respect for the Basque culture by entitling many of his works in Euskera, the Basque language. He set up the Chillida Leku Museum in the countryside surrounding San Sebastián for the permanent display of his work. He has also left a permanent legacy with works such as the Combs of the Wind (Peines del Viento, 1977) on the shoreline of San Sebastián bay. Dutrou studio St. Paul 1976 © Photo Walter Dräyer Chillida began working in lithography, etchings, silkscreen and woodcuts in 1950, and printmaking represented a significant part of his artistic output thereafter. His graphic works are not mere references to his sculptural work, but artistic expressions in their own right and like his sculpture, they display a preoccupation with form, space and framing. Martin van der Koelen has described Chillida’s main preoccupation as “the concept of space and its determinedness by formed matter, the relation between emptiness, volume and their mutual limits”. Absence is therefore as important as presence. The balance of dualities such as black/white, heaviness/lightness and emptiness/fullness give Chillida’s work a universal importance: a forum to contemplate our boundaries and freedoms. In Chillida’s early graphic works, the composition was often dominated by unconnected strokes (see Aldati, 1967, cat. no 3). During the 1960s he also developed black panes with white internal lines to form compositions. This idea continued well into the 1970s (see Sakondu, 1968 (cat. no 5) or Charles Racine, plate IV, 1977 (cat. no 11). These black block-like surfaces, with straight lines and perfect angles, gave the appearance of recognizable shapes and helped to infuse the works with a sense of order. He worked mainly with etching, embracing the full materiality of the technique. Instead of the basic rectangular plate, he often cut the etched plate into a shape leaving the shaped plate mark when pressed: the embossment becomes part of the composition. From the 1980s, Chillida used embossing or relief, to give a more pronounced third dimension to his graphic works (see Irudin, 1984, cat. no 19). This use of embossing became increasingly important until it became one of the most significant features of his etching technique (see Parménide: Le Poème, 1999, cat no 25 & 26). We would like to express our gratitude to the Chillida family and Museo Chillida-Leku for their assistance. Studio, Villa Paz 1960 © Photo Waintrob Budd 1 Petite Modulation Eching on Rives BFK paper 1963 Signed in pencil and numbered 18/50 Plate: 9 x 9.5 cm - Sheet: 32.5 x 24.5 cm Van der Koelen 63003. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Atelier Maeght, Levallois. 1 Burni Bizi Etching on Arches with China paper 1967 Signed in pencil and numbered 19/50 Plate: 15.5 x 9.7 cm - Sheet: 38 x 28.5 cm Van der Koelen 67003. Published by Gerd Hatje Verlag, Stuttgart. Printed by Arte, Paris. 2 Aldati Etching on Arches paper 1967 Signed in pencil and numbered 37/50 Plate: 23.8 x 17.8 cm - Sheet: 36.5 x 29 cm Van der Koelen 67004. Published by Gerd Hatje Verlag, Stuttgart. Printed by Arte, Paris. 3 Gaur I Etching on Rives BFK with China paper 1968 Signed in pencil and numbered 30/50 Plate: 17.6 x 22.3 cm - Sheet: 45 x 56.5 cm Van der Koelen 68013. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Arte, Paris. 4 Sakondu Woodcut on China paper 1968 Signed in pencil and numbered 81/150 Plate: 20 x 13.6 cm - Sheet: 37.5 x 28 cm Van der Koelen 68008. Published by Cruz Roja España / Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Fequet et Baudier, Paris. 5 Egimen Lithograph on Japanese paper 1969 Signed in pencil and numbered 56/75 Plate: 23 x 28 cm - Sheet: 41 x 31 cm Van der Koelen 69002. Published by Erker-Verlag, St. Gallen. Printed by Erker-Presse, St. Gallen. 6 Barcelona I Lithograph on Guarro paper 1971 Signed in pencil and numbered 29/75 71.5 x 50 cm Van der Koelen 71018. Published by Sala Gaspar, Barcelona. Printed by Damían Cuas, Puresa, Barcelona. 7 Aldizkatu I Etching on Arches with Japanese paper 1972 Signed in pencil and numbered 14/50 Plate: 19.2 x 21.1 cm - Sheet: 60 x 56.5 cm Van der Koelen 72026. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Arte, Paris. 8 Zeihartu II Etching on Rives BFK paper 1973 Signed in pencil and numbered 30/50 Plate: 39.7 x 47.9 cm - Sheet: 91.5 x 79.5 cm Van der Koelen 73010. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Atelier Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence. 9 Atzapar Etching on Rives BFK paper 1973 Signed in pencil and numbered 36/50 Plate: 40 x 30 cm - Sheet: 79.5 x 60 cm Van der Koelen 73023. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Atelier Morsang, Paris. 10 Charles Racine: La Clairière de son corps. (Plate IV) Etching on Auvergne paper 1975 Signed in pencil and numbered 19/40 Plate: 10.5 x 8.8 cm - Sheet: 24.5 x 18.5 cm Van der Koelen 75010. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. Printed by Atelier Morsang, Paris. 11 Dardaratu Etching on Duchêne paper 1981 Signed in pencil and inscribed HC (aside from edition of 50) Plate: 13.1 x 12.7 cm - Sheet: 26.5 x 25.5 cm Van der Koelen 81012. Published by Galeria Maeght, Barcelona. Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián. 12 Ozendu Drypoint on Rives BFK paper with China paper 1981 Signed in pencil and numbered 25/50 Plate: 12.3 x 13.2 cm - Sheet 65 x 50 cm Van der Koelen 81003. Published by Galeria Maeght, Barcelona. Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián 13 Korapillo II Dry point on Rives BFK with Japanese paper 1982 Signed in pencil and numbered 24/50 Plate: 18 x 19.3 cm - Sheet: 65 x 50 cm Van der Koelen 82003. Published by Galeria Maeght, Barcelona. Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián. 14 Goiti Woodcut on Lafranca paper 1983 Signed in pencil and numbered 31/50 Plate: 5.2 x 4.5 cm - Sheet: 28 x 15.5 cm Van der Koelen 83015. Published by Galerie Galart, Genève. Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián. 15 Emile M. Cioran: Ce maudit moi. (Plate VI) Etching on Rives paper 1983 Signed in pencil and numbered 40/150 32 x 24 cm Van der Koelen 83013. Published by Erker Presse, St Gallen. Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián. 16 Lizardiren Leihoak IV Etching with resin on BFK Rives with China paper 1984 Signed and numbered 2/50 Plate: 19 x 15 cm - Sheet: 50 x 69 cm Van der Koelen 84001.