Chillida 'Graphic Works' - Adam Gallery

Eduardo 

Chillida 

1

a d a m 

g a l l e r y 

24 CORK STREET London W1S 3NJ t: 0207 439 6633 

13 JOHN STREET Bath BA1 2JL t: 01225 480406 

e: info@adamgallery.com www.adamgallery.com 

Graphic Works

Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) is a major figure in twentieth century art. During his lifetime he exhibited widely in museums in 

european cities including the Hayward Gallery, London as well as throughout the USA including at the Guggenheim, New York 

and the National Gallery, Washington DC. His work is now held in the permanent collections of many major museums such as 

Tate Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. Numerous sculptures commissioned 

for public places can be seen internationally, such as his monument to German reunification near the Chancellery in Berlin. 

Chillida represented Spain in two Venice Biennales where he was awarded the International Grand Prize for Sculpture (1958) 

and the Kandinsky award (1960). He has received many major international awards for his work, including the the Gold Medal 

of Fine Arts, Madrid (1981), the Great Prize of the Arts of France (1984), and the Imperial Prize of Japan (1991), whilst in the 

UK he was elected an honorary Royal Academician, London (1983) and a member of the Academy of Boston and New York, 

USA (1995). In 1998, he had a major retrospective at the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid and a comprehensive retrospective at 

the opening of the Guggenheim, Bilbao in 1999. Kosme de Barañano, the Curator of this Guggenheim show, described Chillida 

as ‘one of the three pillars of sculpture in the twentieth century’ (alongside Constantine Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti). 

Chillida sold early pieces of work to Chagall and Braque then in 1956 had his first show with Maeght in Paris; one of France’s 

foremost dealers. He exhibited there alongside Miro, Chagall, Giacometti, Calder, Braque and Léger and many of these artists 

became friends with whom he exchanged works. His work has inspired writings and catalogue essays by leading philosophers 

including Martin Heidegger (‘The Art and the Space’1969), Emile Cioran and Gaston Bachelard (who wrote the essay, ‘The 

Cosmos of Fire’, for his first exhibition at Maeght Gallery) as well as poets Jorge Guillen and Octavio Paz. Chillida met 

Heidegger in 1968 at the Venice biennale and the following year illustrated his ‘Die Kunst Und Der Raum’. 

Born in San Sebastián, Northern Spain, in 1924, Eduardo Chillida studied in Madrid before moving to Paris in 1948 to 

concentrate on sculpture and fine art. There he became friends with the artist Pablo Palazuelo, and his work evolved from a 

figurative to a new abstract style. His association with Frank Lloyd Wright and Joan Miro strongly influenced him in his use of 

drawing in space, light and volume. 

Chillida returned to San Sebastián in 1950 with his new wife Pilar Belzunce, where they had eight children, and lived until his 

death in 2002. Chillida was proud of his Basque background and demonstrated his respect for the Basque culture by entitling 

many of his works in Euskera, the Basque language. He set up the Chillida Leku Museum in the countryside surrounding San 

Sebastián for the permanent display of his work. He has also left a permanent legacy with works such as the Combs of the 

Wind (Peines del Viento, 1977) on the shoreline of San Sebastián bay. 

Dutrou studio St. Paul 1976 © Photo Walter Dräyer

Chillida began working in lithography, etchings, silkscreen and woodcuts in 1950, and printmaking represented a significant 

part of his artistic output thereafter. His graphic works are not mere references to his sculptural work, but artistic expressions 

in their own right and like his sculpture, they display a preoccupation with form, space and framing. Martin van der Koelen has 

described Chillida’s main preoccupation as “the concept of space and its determinedness by formed matter, the relation between 

emptiness, volume and their mutual limits”. Absence is therefore as important as presence. The balance of dualities such as 

black/white, heaviness/lightness and emptiness/fullness give Chillida’s work a universal importance: a forum to contemplate 

our boundaries and freedoms. 

In Chillida’s early graphic works, the composition was often dominated by unconnected strokes (see Aldati, 1967, cat. no 3). 

During the 1960s he also developed black panes with white internal lines to form compositions. This idea continued well into 

the 1970s (see Sakondu, 1968 (cat. no 5) or Charles Racine, plate IV, 1977 (cat. no 11). These black block-like surfaces, with 

straight lines and perfect angles, gave the appearance of recognizable shapes and helped to infuse the works with a sense of 

order. He worked mainly with etching, embracing the full materiality of the technique. Instead of the basic rectangular plate, 

he often cut the etched plate into a shape leaving the shaped plate mark when pressed: the embossment becomes part of the 

composition. From the 1980s, Chillida used embossing or relief, to give a more pronounced third dimension to his graphic works 

(see Irudin, 1984, cat. no 19). This use of embossing became increasingly important until it became one of the most significant 

features of his etching technique (see Parménide: Le Poème, 1999, cat no 25 & 26). 

We would like to express our gratitude to the Chillida family and Museo Chillida-Leku for their assistance. 

Studio, Villa Paz 1960 © Photo Waintrob Budd

1 

Petite Modulation 

Eching on Rives BFK paper 1963 

Signed in pencil and numbered 18/50 

Plate: 9 x 9.5 cm - Sheet: 32.5 x 24.5 cm 

Van der Koelen 63003. 

Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris. 

Printed by Atelier Maeght, Levallois.

Burni Bizi 

Etching on Arches with China paper 1967 


Plate: 15.5 x 9.7 cm - Sheet: 38 x 28.5 cm 


Published by Gerd Hatje Verlag, Stuttgart. 

Printed by Arte, Paris. 

2

3 

Aldati 

Etching on Arches paper 1967 


Plate: 23.8 x 17.8 cm - Sheet: 36.5 x 29 cm 


Published by Gerd Hatje Verlag, Stuttgart. 

Printed by Arte, Paris.

Gaur I 

Etching on Rives BFK with China paper 1968 






4

5 

Sakondu 

Woodcut on China paper 1968 


Plate: 20 x 13.6 cm - Sheet: 37.5 x 28 cm 


Published by Cruz Roja España / Maeght Editeur, Paris. 

Printed by Fequet et Baudier, Paris.

Egimen 

Lithograph on Japanese paper 1969 


Plate: 23 x 28 cm - Sheet: 41 x 31 cm 


Published by Erker-Verlag, St. Gallen. 

Printed by Erker-Presse, St. Gallen. 

6

7 

Barcelona I 

Lithograph on Guarro paper 1971 


71.5 x 50 cm 


Published by Sala Gaspar, Barcelona. 

Printed by Damían Cuas, Puresa, Barcelona.

Aldizkatu I 

Etching on Arches with Japanese paper 1972 






8

9 

Zeihartu II 

Etching on Rives BFK paper 1973 


Plate: 39.7 x 47.9 cm - Sheet: 91.5 x 79.5 cm 



Printed by Atelier Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Atzapar 



Plate: 40 x 30 cm - Sheet: 79.5 x 60 cm 



Printed by Atelier Morsang, Paris. 

10

11 

Charles Racine: La Clairière de son corps. (Plate IV) 

Etching on Auvergne paper 1975 





Printed by Atelier Morsang, Paris.

Dardaratu 

Etching on Duchêne paper 1981 

Signed in pencil and inscribed HC (aside from edition of 50) 



Published by Galeria Maeght, Barcelona. 

Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián. 

12

13 

Ozendu 

Drypoint on Rives BFK paper with China paper 1981 


Plate: 12.3 x 13.2 cm - Sheet 65 x 50 cm 



Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián

Korapillo II 

Dry point on Rives BFK with Japanese paper 1982 


Plate: 18 x 19.3 cm - Sheet: 65 x 50 cm 




14

15 

Goiti 

Woodcut on Lafranca paper 1983 




Published by Galerie Galart, Genève. 

Printed by Taller Hatz, San Sebastián.

Emile M. Cioran: Ce maudit moi. (Plate VI) 

Etching on Rives paper 1983 


32 x 24 cm 


Published by Erker Presse, St Gallen. 


16

17 

Lizardiren Leihoak IV 

Etching with resin on BFK Rives with China paper 1984 

Signed and numbered 2/50 



Published by Galeria Antonio Machón, Madrid. 


Batz 



Plate: 21 x 17.2 cm - Sheet: 53 x 75.5 cm 


Published by Galerie Maeght-Lelong, Zürich. 


18

19 

Irudin 

Etching and drypoint on Segundo Santos 1984 


Plate: 9.4 x 12 cm - Sheet: 21 x 12 cm 


Published by Galerie Maeght-Lelong, Zurich. 


Bikaina XII 

Etching on Rives BFK with China paper 1987 




Published by Galerie Lelong, Zurich. 


20

21 

Olimpíada Seul 

Silkscreen with relief on Rives BFK 1988 

Signed in pencil 

89 x 69 cm 


Published by Lloyd Shin Fine Art Inc, Korea. 

Printed by Diosdado, San Sebastián.

Lorea 

Silkscreen with relief on Meirat paper 1988 


Sheet: 46 x 38 cm 


Published by SEAT. 

Printed by Erik Kirksaether, Madrid. 

22

23 

Argian VI 

Etching on Lafranca paper 1990 




Published by Exten-Arte, Madrid. 


Sin Título 

Etching with aquatint on Eskulan gris paper 1996 




Published by Deutsche Bank Bauspar AG, Frankfurt. 


24

25 

Le Poème de Parménide (Plate II) 

Etching on Eskulan gris handmade paper 1999 


Sheet: 40 x 30.5 cm 


Published by Arts of this Century, New York. 


Le Poème de Parménide (Plate VI) 

Etching on Eskulan gris handmade paper 1999 


Sheet: 40 x 30.5 cm 


Published by Arts of this Century, New York. 


26

27 

Dentro 

Woodcut on Eskulan paper 2000 


Sheet: 30 x 22.5 cm - Plate: 8.5 x 8 cm 


Published by Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona. 


Abigune II 

Woodcut on Japanese paper 2001 


Sheet: 26 x 17.5 cm - Plate: 11.5 x 17.5 cm 


Published by Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona. 


28

Selected major exhibitions: 

1956 First large exhibition held at the Galerie Maeght, Paris 

1961 Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 

1962 Kunsthalle, Basel 

‘Picasso, Miró, Chillida’, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 

1966 Museum Wilhelm-Lehmbruck, Duisburg; wins Wilhelm Lehmbruck prize 

1968 Exhibited a number of sculptures for the inauguration of the Documenta IV, Kassel 

1969 Kunstmuseum, Basel 

Kunsthaus Zürich; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 

1972 First retrospective of graphic works, Ulm Museum, Germany 

1974 The Hastings Gallery, Spanish Institute, New York 

Galerie d’Art Moderne, Basel 

1977 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Boston 

Creation of ‘El Peine del Viento’ , San Sebastián 

1979 Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh 

National Gallery, Washington D.C. 

1980 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 

Ministry of Culture, Palacio de Cristal, Madrid 

1981 Museum of Fine Art, Bilbao 

Galerie Beyeler, Basel 

1984 Creation of the Chillida Foundation at Caserio Zabalaga, Hernani (Guipuzcoa) 

1988 43rd Biennale de Venise 

1989 Kunstmuseum, Bonn; Westfalische Landesmuseum, Münster 

1990 Hayward Gallery, London 

44th Biennale de Venise 

1992 Palais Miramar, San Sebastian 

1993 Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 

1998 Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 

Museum Würth, Künzelsau-Gaisbach 

1999 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao 

2000 Opening of the Chillida Museum in Leku, Hernani (Guipuzcoa) 

2001 Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris 

2003 Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield 

State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg 

Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Studio Villa Paz 1963. 

© Photo Waintrob Budd 

1

Eduardo Chillida, Pacadar Madrid 1978 © Museo Chillida-Leku

a d a m 

g a l l e r y 

www.adamgallery.com 

24 CORK STREET London W1S 3NJ t: 0207 439 6633 

13 JOHN STREET Bath BA1 2JL t: 01225 480406

Chillida 'Graphic Works' - Adam Gallery

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