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Lot Essay
This work is registered in the archives of the Museo Chillida-Leku, under number no. 1974.010.
'I use alabaster because of a direct call from architecture. On working it, what I have tried since 1965 is a more architectural positing of my problems, as well as a new look at light. I had been deeply imbued in darkness, far from Greece. Alabaster provided a possibility of an encounter with light and architecture' (E. Chillida, quoted in K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida,' Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 72).
'The sculptures do not attempt to encompass the interior space they are blocks of transparency in which the form becomes space and the space dissolves in oscillations of light' (O. Paz, quoted in K. Baranano (ed.), Chillida 1948-1998, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 86).
Carved from solid alabaster, Elogio de la arquitectura IV (Praise to Architecture IV) is an exquisitely rendered example of Eduardo Chillida's sculptural practice. Created in 1974, Elogio de la arquitectura IV is a poetic articulation of the fundamental relationship between light, material and space. The minimalist purity of the elemental space embodies Chillida's concept of the 'architecture of the void': the unembellished materiality of the solid alabaster articulated by the 'material' of negative space. Indeed, the inner chambers of Elogio de la arquitectura IV reveal a luminous interior, while the milky translucent stone allows light to permeate into its very core, undermining its apparent, physical, impenetrability. Chillida carved the material precisely so that the beautifully excavated stone would allow warm diffusive light to emanate through its walls, capturing the stone's unique ability to emit a particular quality of rosy, radiant light. In this way, Elogio de la arquitectura IV exists not only in the marble from which it was crafted, but also the light which is its counterpoint, fulfilling Chillida's concept of the void. As Kosme de Barañano suggests, 'the space of Chillida's sculpture is not three dimensional, not the space of volume, but rather the consideration of emptiness, the void, as something dynamic, energizing and above all, a consideration of the materials' in (K. de Barañano, Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 112).
Carved into a cubic labyrinthine puzzle, the perpendicular elements smoothly intersect one another, offering a geometric minimalism that resonates with the pureness of the alabaster. Speaking of Chillida's alabaster sculptures, Octavio Paz remarked, 'the sculptures do not attempt to encompass the interior space they are blocks of transparency in which the form becomes space and the space dissolves in oscillations of light' (O. Paz, quoted in K. Baranano (ed.), Chillida 1948-1998, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 86). The interlocking alabaster pieces extend from the sculpture's core, carving the void between them in the viewer's mind as a physical entity, suggesting a lyrical interplay between the form and the negative space of the void. As the artist once elaborated, sculpture 'is a function of space. I don't mean the space outside the form, which surrounds the volume and in which the forms live, but the space generated by the forms, which lives within them and which is more effective the more unnoticeably it acts. You could compare it to the breath that swells and contracts forms that opens up their space - inaccessible to and hidden from the outside world - to view. I do not see it as something abstract, but a reality as solid as the volume that envelops it' (E. Chillida, quoted in I. Busch (ed.), 'Eduardo Chillida, Architect of the Void: On the Synthesis of Architecture and Sculpture', Chillida 1948-1998 , exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 66).
Chillida was inspired to work in alabaster following a trip to Greece in 1965, where the artist became captivated by the luminous quality of the marble and the brilliant quality of the Mediterranean light. As Kosme de Barañano elaborated, 'the Greek architects see architecture in the light. They view light as a material for constructing space, as another dimension of architecture. Thus we understand their almost open temples' (K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida', Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 76). It is this special interplay between light and material that is so skillfully illuminated in Chillida's Elogio de la arquitectura IV. Alabaster represented a privileged medium for the artist, foreign to his own Basque heritage, that allowed for the penetration of solid matter by light and space. Speaking of this experience, Chillida stated, 'I use alabaster because of a direct call from architecture. On working it, what I have tried since 1965 is a more architectural positing of my problems, as well as a new look at light. I had been deeply imbued in darkness, far from Greece. Alabaster provided a possibility of an encounter with light and architecture' (E. Chillida, quoted in K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida,' Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 72).
'I use alabaster because of a direct call from architecture. On working it, what I have tried since 1965 is a more architectural positing of my problems, as well as a new look at light. I had been deeply imbued in darkness, far from Greece. Alabaster provided a possibility of an encounter with light and architecture' (E. Chillida, quoted in K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida,' Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 72).
'The sculptures do not attempt to encompass the interior space they are blocks of transparency in which the form becomes space and the space dissolves in oscillations of light' (O. Paz, quoted in K. Baranano (ed.), Chillida 1948-1998, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 86).
Carved from solid alabaster, Elogio de la arquitectura IV (Praise to Architecture IV) is an exquisitely rendered example of Eduardo Chillida's sculptural practice. Created in 1974, Elogio de la arquitectura IV is a poetic articulation of the fundamental relationship between light, material and space. The minimalist purity of the elemental space embodies Chillida's concept of the 'architecture of the void': the unembellished materiality of the solid alabaster articulated by the 'material' of negative space. Indeed, the inner chambers of Elogio de la arquitectura IV reveal a luminous interior, while the milky translucent stone allows light to permeate into its very core, undermining its apparent, physical, impenetrability. Chillida carved the material precisely so that the beautifully excavated stone would allow warm diffusive light to emanate through its walls, capturing the stone's unique ability to emit a particular quality of rosy, radiant light. In this way, Elogio de la arquitectura IV exists not only in the marble from which it was crafted, but also the light which is its counterpoint, fulfilling Chillida's concept of the void. As Kosme de Barañano suggests, 'the space of Chillida's sculpture is not three dimensional, not the space of volume, but rather the consideration of emptiness, the void, as something dynamic, energizing and above all, a consideration of the materials' in (K. de Barañano, Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 112).
Carved into a cubic labyrinthine puzzle, the perpendicular elements smoothly intersect one another, offering a geometric minimalism that resonates with the pureness of the alabaster. Speaking of Chillida's alabaster sculptures, Octavio Paz remarked, 'the sculptures do not attempt to encompass the interior space they are blocks of transparency in which the form becomes space and the space dissolves in oscillations of light' (O. Paz, quoted in K. Baranano (ed.), Chillida 1948-1998, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 86). The interlocking alabaster pieces extend from the sculpture's core, carving the void between them in the viewer's mind as a physical entity, suggesting a lyrical interplay between the form and the negative space of the void. As the artist once elaborated, sculpture 'is a function of space. I don't mean the space outside the form, which surrounds the volume and in which the forms live, but the space generated by the forms, which lives within them and which is more effective the more unnoticeably it acts. You could compare it to the breath that swells and contracts forms that opens up their space - inaccessible to and hidden from the outside world - to view. I do not see it as something abstract, but a reality as solid as the volume that envelops it' (E. Chillida, quoted in I. Busch (ed.), 'Eduardo Chillida, Architect of the Void: On the Synthesis of Architecture and Sculpture', Chillida 1948-1998 , exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1998, p. 66).
Chillida was inspired to work in alabaster following a trip to Greece in 1965, where the artist became captivated by the luminous quality of the marble and the brilliant quality of the Mediterranean light. As Kosme de Barañano elaborated, 'the Greek architects see architecture in the light. They view light as a material for constructing space, as another dimension of architecture. Thus we understand their almost open temples' (K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida', Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 76). It is this special interplay between light and material that is so skillfully illuminated in Chillida's Elogio de la arquitectura IV. Alabaster represented a privileged medium for the artist, foreign to his own Basque heritage, that allowed for the penetration of solid matter by light and space. Speaking of this experience, Chillida stated, 'I use alabaster because of a direct call from architecture. On working it, what I have tried since 1965 is a more architectural positing of my problems, as well as a new look at light. I had been deeply imbued in darkness, far from Greece. Alabaster provided a possibility of an encounter with light and architecture' (E. Chillida, quoted in K. de Barañano, 'Homage to Eduardo Chillida,' Homage to Chillida, exh. cat., Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, 2006, p. 72).