Eduardo Chillida

Galerie Lelong, Zurich

The Vanthournout Collection, Belgium

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, The Vanthournout Collection, 14 November 2006, Lot 4

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals two minor rub marks to the extreme back corners of the base.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Created in 1998, Untitled is a powerful exposition of Eduardo Chillida’s exploration of interior space and the concept of the void when encased within sculptural form. Recalling the sculptor’s iconic Wind Combs from 1977, installed on the cliffs of San Sebastiano, the current work is formed of elegant interlocking iron curves that succeed in projecting a sense of sculptural solidity whilst simultaneously suggesting natural forms in their delicacy of construction. Within Untitled there is a dynamic tension between the weighty immobility of iron, and the implied movement of the curling beams that rise from it, playing on a balanced dynamic of opening and enclosing, introspection and extroversion: an embrace which succeeds in being simultaneously intimate and structurally elemental. At one end of the work the lower body opens out in a funnel shape, while the arms seem to hold back this aperture, and are crossed defensively. Tantalisingly, their cupping hooks almost, but not quite, touch: the energy of capturing the instant before touching rather than the great moment itself multiplies the kinetic tension, as the viewer wills the implied but unfulfilled contact to complete itself. Chillida commented on this sensation of tactile attraction and conjunction of forms within his work, stating that: “There is an occult communication between everything near” (Eduardo Chillida quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute of Art, Chillida, 1979, p. 21).

In its exquisite fusion of solid form and empty space, Untitled gathers together the concerns and nuanced visual vocabulary that dominated Chillida’s creative process throughout his career, and can be viewed as the product of a sculptor at the height of his creative powers. Success and recognition came early to Chillida, with an exhibition at the prestigious Salon de Mai in 1949 after only one year of working as a sculptor, and never left him. But despite his success in France, in 1951 Chillida returned to his native Basque country to learn blacksmithing, where thanks to the mines at the feet of the Pyrenees, iron working has a tradition dating back to 3,000 BC.

According to the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard: “Eduardo Chillida wanted to know muscular space without fat and heaviness. The world of iron is all muscles. Iron is the straight, the certain, the essential force” (Gaston Bachelard in: “Le Cosmos du fer”, Derrière le Miroir, no. 90-91, October-November 1956, n.p.). Untitled reveals Chillida’s masterful utilisation of iron as a material of extraordinary creative potential, rendering an object of great beauty from a material more traditionally associated with the strengths of industrial development, whilst serving as an elegant miniature encapsulation of Chillida’s working practices and aesthetic theories. Chillida arguably found his true vocation when working with metal, which garnered him a well-deserved status as one of the greatest sculptors of the Twentieth Century, taking his place within the pantheon of internationally renowned sculptors that include Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore and Anthony Caro.