Eduardo Chillida

Eduardo Chillida Biography

EDUARDO CHILLIDA was born the 10th of January of 1924 in San Sebastian (Spain). His first exhibition was in Paris in 1950. In this year Eduardo Chillida marries Pilar Belzunce. Eduardo Chillida has received almost all the existing prices throughout his life: from the Biennial of Venice to the Kandinsky, from the Wilhem Lehmbruck to Prince de Asturias, from the German Kaiserring to the Imperial Price in Japan. His work is present in more than twenty museums worldwide, and retrospective exhibitions have been celebrated in Houston and Berlin, Madrid and Caracas, London and Palermo. His sculptures are in front of the sea like in San Sebastián, or in the mountain like in Japan, and in cities like Washington, Paris, Lund, Munster, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Guernica or Berlin. About his work have written architects, mathematicians, philosophers like Martín Heideggeer and Emile Cioran, or poets like Octavio Paz.

Life of Eduardo Chillida

1924 Eduardo Chillida was born the 10th of January in San Sebastián.
1947 Eduardo Chillida leaves the architecture studies
1948 Eduardo Chillida transfers to Paris to dedicate to sculpture
1950 Eduardo Chillida's first exhibition in Paris
1958 Eduardo Chillida receives the Great Price of Sculpture of the Biennial of Venice
1960 Eduardo Chillida receives the Kandinsky Price
1966 Eduardo Chillida's first retrospective in the Museum of Houston. Gran Price of Fine Arts of Renania-Westfalia
1971 Eduardo Chillida named professor of the University of Harvard
1975 Eduardo Chillida receives the Rembrandt price of the Foundation Goethe. Designs the logo of the University of the Basque Country
1981 Eduardo Chillida receives the Gold Medal of the Fine Arts, Madrid
1983 Europe Price of the Fine Arts, Strasbourg
1984 Eduardo Chillida receives the Great Price of the Arts of France
1985 Eduardo Chillida receives the Kaiserring of the city of Gosslar. Price Richard Wolf Parliament of Israel
1987 price Prince of Asturias of the Arts. Receives the Price Lorenzo il Magnifico of Florence
1989 Honorary Architect by the Superior Council of Architects
1991 Eduardo Chillida receives the Imperial Price of Japan
1992 Eduardo Chillida's retrospective in San Sebastián
1994 Eduardo Chillida named Academic of Fine Arts of Madrid
1995 Eduardo Chillida named member of the Academy of Boston and New York
1997 doctor honoris cause by the School of Engineers of Bilbao
1999 retrospective in the Museo Reina Sofía and the Guggenheim Bilbao
2000 monument in the Chancellery of Berlin. Inauguration of the Museo Chillida-Leku in Hernani. Doctor Honoris cause by the Complutense University.
2002 Eduardo Chillida pass away on August 19th in San Sebastian

Eduardo Chillida - Sculpture in public places

Eduardo Chillida's work commissioned for public spaces makes up an important part of his career. A total of 43 sculptures installed in cities around the world back this claim. Germany is one of the countries with the greatest amount of his work. His giant monument to German reunification, Berlin stands near the Chancellery in the German capital. The location of Eduardo Chillida's large-scale urban sculptures, the culmination of his artistic process, plays an essential role. In harmony with their surroundings, the sculptures take different meanings in each landscape. A clear example of this is his Peine del Viento (Wind Combs) in San Sebastián, a group of three structures that tell an exciting story related to rocks, sea and the horizon beyond. To Eduardo Chillida a work of art belongs to all of us the minute we stand before it. It makes us look at ourselves and our relationship with the environment. It passes on to us its doubts and questions in the face of the unknown. Chillida's public sculptures are also gathering grounds, spaces for dialogue and coexistence. This way of thinking would have seen its high point in his dream project, Mount Tindaya. In the core of a mountain on the island of Fuerteventura, Chillida wanted to create a huge space for people of all races and creeds, a place where we could all feel equal in the face of the immensity of space.

Work in museums around the world

Eduardo Chillida and his legacy

Eduardo Chillida's work was known internationally early on in his career. Ever since Eduardo Chillida worked in Paris with French gallery owner Aimé Maeght, the artist began to receive awards and requests for his work from some of the world's most prominent museums. His sculptures, drawings and "gravitations" have been commissioned around the globe and can now be contemplated in galleries and museums in several different countries. A large part of Chillida's work has been acquired by German museums. The artist himself said that his work spoke German because that is where it was understood and specially admired. Museums in Cologne, Hannover and Berlin feature his sculptures in their collections.

Highlighted among Chillida's work are his first Peine del Viento (Wind Comb), from the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and his wooden sculptures from the Abesti Gogora series, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Art Institute of Chicago.