Eduardo Chillida

EDUARDO CHILLIDA JUANTEGUI (San Sebastian, 1924 - 2002).
"Aldikatu V".1972
Etching and aquatint on paper, P.A. copy.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 76 x 100 cm.(print); 91,5 x 115 cm.(frame).

"Aldikatu V" belongs to one of the most solid stages of Eduardo Chillida's graphic production, when the artist explores in engraving the same spatial problems that articulate his sculpture. The title -in Basque- refers to the idea of transformation or displacement, a concept that here translates into a dynamic play of black masses that seem to expand beyond the limits of the paper.

The composition is constructed by means of wide surfaces of deep black, obtained through aquatint, which contrast with incisive lines generated by etching. The forms, emphatic and almost architectural, do not describe recognizable figures: they are structures that confront and interpenetrate each other, creating tensions between weight and lightness, full and empty.

As in his sculptures in iron or steel, Chillida conceives space not as a passive void, but as an active element in dialogue with matter.

Presented as an artist's proof, it retains the particularly careful character and closeness to the creative process that distinguishes this type of specimens, underlining the experimental and reflexive dimension of the artist's graphic work.

Throughout his life, Chillida received numerous awards, including the Carnegie Prize, the Rembrandt Prize, the Wolf Foundation of the Arts Award and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. He was an academician of San Fernando, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Honorary of the Royal Academy of Arts of London and of the Imperial Order of Japan.

In addition to his Chillida-Leku Museum in Hernani, he is represented in museums and collections around the world, such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the MOMA in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Tate Gallery in London or the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.