Eduardo Chillida

Tasende Gallery, La Jolla
Galería Colón XVI, Bilbao
Private Collection, Spain 
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Munster, Hachmeister Galerie, Eduardo Chillida, 1993
Los Angeles, Tasende Gallery, Eduardo Chillida: Sculptures and Works on paper, 1997, p. 40 and 48, illustrated in colour
Bilbao, Galería Colón XVI, Eduardo Chillida, 2003, p. 47, illustrated in colour  
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Sala Fundación Caja Vital Kutxa, Constelación Gaur. Una trama vanguardista del arte vasco, 2004, p. 117, illustrated in colour 

Alonso Cano, "Las Obras desaparecidas de Chillida", in Interviú, September 2001, p. 20, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are signs of light and unobtrusive oxidisation throughout. Extremely close inspection reveals evidence of extremely minor burnishing to the upper left facing corner tip, towards the centre of the upper extreme outer edge, and to the upper right facing corner tip. Further extremely close inspection reveals a thin and shallow surface scratch towards the lower centre on the reverse of the work.
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Esertoki II is a beautiful example of Eduardo Chillida’s late work that encapsulates the artist’s main focus throughout his career: the shaping of space. Chillida often created a series of works that bore the same title, a method which enabled the artist to explore the different associations he ascribed to a particular concept or material. The third work in this Esertoki series is reflective in form of the present example but of monumental proportions, and remained in the personal collection of the artist, eventually forming part of the beautiful environment of the Chillida Leku Museum.

Having initially studied architecture in Madrid, later turning to pursue his passion for sculpture, a clear sense of the architectural and an exceptional awareness of space are immediately identifiable in Chillida’s oeuvre. Standing in front of Esertoki II,  the viewer is invited to measure their own physicality against the work, mentally assimilating its crevices and openings. With a mastery acquired through years of shaping, stretching and flattening metal, the sculptor here combined sharp and clean edges with a coarse, unpolished finish that belies the earthy material from which the work is made. Over time the steel has oxidised, lending the work with an intricate patina. Art historian Ina Busch has perfectly summarised Chillida’s unique understanding of the materials he chose: “With great austerity and patience the artist allows the material to investigate space, he attempts to locate its basic sound, the rubbing and scraping of spheres turning against one another at different speeds” (Ina Busch, ‘Irrintzina. The Early Iron Sculptures’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, Valencia, IVAM Centre Julio González, Eduardo Chillida: Elogio del Hierro, 1998, p. 187).

Ever since his return from Paris in 1951, where he spent some important and formative years, Chillida lived and worked in his homeland, the Basque Country. The tradition of Basque culture is a key element that permeates Chillida’s work, not only in the use of traditionally Basque materials and techniques, but also in the exploration of ancestral symbols and ideas. Translating from Euskera as ‘bench’ or ‘seat’,  Esertoki II pays homage to the typical architecture of the Basque Country, where the big stone houses that populate the hilly landscape have simple benches attached to their front walls where villagers socialise. Thus Esertoki II can be seen as Chillida’s particular invitation for reflection and dialogue, an idea he explored further with his work Diálogo-Tolerancia from 1993, which was commissioned by the city of Münster and where two monumental bench-like structures face each other as if in conversation.

In 1990, the year Esertoki II was executed, Chillida erected a towering structure over the coast in Gijón. Naming it Elogio del Horizonte (Praise of the Horizon), the structure opens towards the sea, urging the viewer to look towards the infinite line of the horizon. In a similar way, when looking at Esertoki II one might be prompted to pause and contemplate. As Kosme de Barrañano obseved “Chillida’s work is a place, that is, a pact between the human body and the earth, from which to observe the sea and the sky. It is a pact sealed in concrete or in steel, like a field of action where man becomes aware of his own scale” (Kosme de Barrañano, ‘Geometry and Tactual: The Sculpture of Eduardo Chillida 1948-1998’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Chillida 1948-1998, 1998-99, p.48).