Eduardo Chillida

Galerie Lelong, Zurich
Acquired directly from the above in 1991

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly brighter. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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"The overlapping arms of this sculpture draw the energy inward. Each segment is in direct relationship to the other parts, touching at some point. The sculpture is self-contained: rounded forms gracefully envelop one another, holding the energy in an unseen interior space that is strongly felt, although difficult to access" (Dena Merriam describing the public sculpture Helsinki in: Giovanni Carandante, Eduardo Chillida, Cologne 1999, p. 274).

Intrinsic to Eduardo Chillida's eponymous, monumental and celebrated public sculpture that was executed and installed in Porthania Square in the Finnish capital in the same year, the present work contains much of the presence and power of its larger relative, while also operating on a more intimate and introspective scale. Consisting of corten, weathering steel, in which the beautiful oxidised patina protects the metal from corrosion, this sculpture was forged through colossal heat and pressure to curve the square-section lengths into lyrical harmony. The positive and negative space of the sculpture, and the way in which the forms seem both to compete against each other and resolve into unity creates a cycle of dissonance and cohesion. Created in the same year that the entire Martin Gropius Bau building in Berlin was devoted to a retrospective celebrating the artist, and the Kunsthalle in Basel staged an exhibition with works throughout the city, Helsinki possesses the hallmarks of an iconic sculptural language that is immediately recognisable and attributable to this legendary artist.