Eduardo Chillida

EDUARDO CHILLIDA JUANTEGUI (San Sebastián, 1924–2002).
“Korapillo I, 1982.
Drypoint engraving on paper. Print no. 27/50.
Work reproduced in Van der Koelen. 82002.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 13.5 x 15.5 cm; 65 x 50 cm (paper).
The term Korapillo means “knot” in Basque, a word that precisely captures the essence of this work and, at the same time, one of the fundamental concerns of Eduardo Chillida’s artistic thought. Far from depicting a recognizable object, the artist constructs an image in which the line becomes the absolute protagonist, unfolding across the paper in a continuous path that intertwines, folds back on itself, and seems to knot itself in a balance as complex as it is harmonious.
This composition is part of a series of graphic works in which Chillida explores the expressive power of the line as an element that generates space. What at first glance might be interpreted as a simple formal exercise reveals, upon closer inspection, a profound reflection on concepts that accompanied the artist throughout his career: the relationship between interior and exterior, between boundary and openness, between the physical trajectory of form and the intangible dimension of emptiness.The linear structure of *Korapillo* evokes a continuous, almost organic movement that seems to unfold without a defined beginning or end.
Chillida began studying drawing at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, and his interest in sculpture gradually grew. It was during his years in Paris that he created his first plaster sculptures, inspired by the archaic Greek sculptures at the Louvre. He held his first sculpture exhibition in the French capital in 1950. In 1951, he returned permanently to San Sebastián and created his first work in iron, the material with which he would work for the rest of his life. Throughout his life, Chillida received numerous prizes and awards, including the Carnegie Prize, the Rembrandt Prize, the Wolf Foundation Prize for the Arts, and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. He was also a member of the San Fernando Academy, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and of the Imperial Order of Japan, and was awarded the Grand Cross for Humanitarian Merit by the Institution of the same name in Barcelona. In addition to his Chillida-Leku Museum in Hernani, his work is represented in museums and collections around the world, such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.