Eduardo CHILLIDA Lot n° 914

Oxido 62. Copper oxide on fireclay. 1981. ca. 33 x 34 x 11 cm. Monogrammed lower left. "Space is the most alive of all that surrounds us. It is like a spirit.""I am not talking about the space that is outside the form, that surrounds the volume and in which the forms live, but I am talking about the space that the forms create, that lives in them, and that is all the more effective the more it works in secret." Eduardo Chillida added a fine mesh of black, angled lines to a solid block that was at rest in itself and had already been fired once, before firing the stone again. The filigree, black drawing stands in striking contrast to the heavy, ochre-coloured block. In places it also runs across the sides of the block, thus suddenly appearing three-dimensional. Moreover, its graphic design demarcates the block from the room. The importance of the phenomenon of space is central to Eduardo Chillida's work - from open space to enclosed, invisible and even imaginary space: "All my work is about space." In the present work, the black line seems to penetrate the block in places, advancing into a space that remains hidden from the viewer's gaze. Chillida confirms this impression, saying that he thereby wanted to "suggest ... the space within matter ..., it is inside and therefore cannot be absolutely grasped, ... Think of the globe, one can imagine what is inside it and yet not see it." At the same time, in some places it seems as if the black paint is grasping the stone, as if it is trying to hold it and clutch it. If the stone, the baked earth were to recede, sculptures could be discerned in the black markings that, according to Chillida, "breathe in space." Chillida manages to integrate tension and tranquillity in equal measure in the stone; a dichotomy that creates an almost meditative aura. Eduardo Chillida produced his first clay sculptures as early as the end of the 1940s, before initially focusing his sculptural work on iron and bronze, and later on wood and marble as his preferred materials. From the mid-1970s, however, he again produced works in fireclay stoneware. In total, the artist's oeuvre comprises more than 500 works in clay, all of which are individual works, not editions. Only a few of these works have special titles, most of them are either called "Lurra" (the Basque word for "earth") or "Oxido" - the present work also belongs to the latter. While in the case of the "Lurrak" the basic cubic form is worked on by incisions and notches, black copper oxide is applied to the works from the "Oxido" series and burned in. Chillida/Cobo 1981020. Provenance: Private collection, Bavaria. Taxation: Differentially taxed (VAT: Margin Scheme).