Eduardo Chillida

One of the most important sculptors of his generation, Basque artist Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002) created monumental public sculptures that adorn buildings and public places worldwide. From Eulogy to the Horizon to Tolerance by Dialogue to the eighty-ton weathered steel work De Musica, which stands in front of the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Chillida’s work has enjoyed wide critical acclaim for its ability to convey tensions in space.

 

The first English-language book to consider Chillida’s entire career, Eduardo Chillida begins with the artist’s earliest work in Paris in the late 1940s and continues on to his return to the Basque Country, where he moved away from the clay and plaster studies of the human form that had been the focus of his work and began creating the large-scale metal sculptures for which he is best known. Among the most powerful of these metal works is Wind Combs, three segments of steel anchored to the rocks at the edge of the San Sebastian Bay. Later in his career, Chillida experimented with other media, including alabaster and wood. Also included in this book is a creative dialogue entered into in the 1960s with the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who discovered an affinity with Chillida’s exploration of space.

 

Presented here are more than two hundred full-color images—selected by the artist’s son, Ignacio Chillida—that form a rich and varied exploration of the entire scope of Chillida’s career.