Eduardo Chillida

EDUARDO CHILLIDA (San Sebastian, 1924 - 2002).
"Homage to Picasso".1972.
Etching and aquatint on paper, copy 89/90.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Measurements: 33 x 35 cm.(print); 77 x 55 cm.(paper); 93 x 73 cm.(frame).

Chillida pays tribute here to the master from Malaga from his own plastic language, radically personal and far from any direct figurative quotation. The print is articulated by means of a network of black, compact and emphatic forms, which are intertwined in an almost architectural structure.

The combination of etching and aquatint generates a surface of great material density: deep blacks contrast with areas of vibrant white, where the incised lines reveal the artist's direct gesture on the plate. The tension between full and empty, between mass and breath, constitutes the true compositional axis of the work.

The wide margin of paper surrounding the image reinforces its central presence and underlines the importance of space as an active element, a constant in all of Chillida's production, both in sculpture and graphic work.

Throughout his life, Chillida received numerous awards, including the Carnegie Award, the Rembrandt Award, 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.