Eduardo Chillida Research Articles

Gaston Bachelard: i sogni dell’immaginazione materiale e il cosmo di ferro

Gaston Bachelard’s incursions into the beaten tracks of image creation inaugurate a new conception of imagination. By departing from a criticism of what is called reproductive imagination, which is based on the contemplation of things, he shows instead that true imagination is creative because it instantiates a surreal world. The purpose of this work is to understand the process of image production, as well as the creative act inherent to imagination. In order to accomplish this, we revisit the notion of ‘material imagination’, which we consider an essential pressuposition in the more poetic side of Bachelard. Even though it is well known that Bachelard privileges poetry and literature over other art forms, we turn our attention to the philosophical texts in which he talks about the plastic arts, such as painting and sculpture, in order to demonstrate the salutary action of the dreams of the will on the subject, as well as the importance of the manual work of the artist which has been made dynamic by his creative work. Our study will take the analysis of the work of Eduardo Chillida made by Bachelard, in order to show in what sense a sculptor, who becomes a metalworker, succeeds at plunging into the dreams of iron and, by perceiving the metal propagating its force, creates artistic works which present themselves as materialized echoes of the beating of the hammer on iron. It will become obvious in the conclusion of this essay that true imagination cannot simply be a copy of reality. By distancing itself from sensible reality, the artist’s imagination succeeds in constructing images that are fundamentally material ones. On their turn, these make possible for the artist to surpass, by means of a struggle between his hands and the matter of the world, the level of everyday life, thus reaching out to what can be taken as a true aesthetic revolution.

Portable Raman study on the conservation state of four CorTen steel‐based sculptures by Eduardo Chillida impacted by urban atmospheres

Weathering steel, and particularly CorTen steel, is a very used material for modern artworks exhibited outdoors. One of the characteristic that makes this material so attractive to artists is the property to develop a protective rust layer composed by iron oxides which preserves its metallic core from atmospheric corrosion. This study was conducted to evaluate the conservation state of four CorTen sculptures by Eduardo Chillida, located in different places of Bilbao city (north of Spain) and affected by different factors (environmental among others) by using Raman spectroscopy. Measurements were performed in situ with a handheld Raman spectrometer mounted on a tripod with x–y–z axes motorization at the micron level. The most common oxyhydroxides detected were lepidocrocite (γ‐FeO(OH)), goethite (α‐FeO(OH)), hematite ( ‐Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4), being goethite the most stable phase. All the iron oxyhydroxides were identified in all of the studied sculptures but their relative amounts were different for each sculpture. The consequences of the marine aerosols exposure in the steel surface were also studied, detecting limonite (FeO(OH)·nH2O) and akaganeite (β‐FeO(OH)). The results confirmed that the evolution of the rust layer present on the analyzed weathering steels is different, depending both on the exposure and the particular type of the steel. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The investigation and design for a unique architectural space – The Chillida Cavern, Mount Tindaya, Fuerteventura

The late Spanish artist, Eduardo Chillida, proposed the creation of a large subterranean sculpture within Tindaya Mountain, on the island of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. The sculpture consists of a 15m span entrance tunnel to a cavern (65m long, 49m wide and 45m high) and two rectangular light shafts (20m×20m and 21m×30m). The two light shafts are orientated to capture the rotation of the sun and moon as they cross the mountain and provide the only light in the cavern. The entrance tunnel would provide a view to the sea and western sky from within the cavern.The sculpture would have a flat roof and slightly inclined walls. The excavated surfaces are to be formed with flat, high quality finishes, with no visible support. This results in a unique engineering challenge, whose construction would push the limits of cavern design and construction.In order to realise the artist’s concept, the design comprises the formation of a series of reinforced rock arches within the rock mass above the cavern roof and pre-support of the cavern roof with rock anchors fixed to the arches. The arches would be created with rock anchors radiating around the tunnels which would also provide access for long term maintenance, monitoring instrumentation and drainage. The reinforced rock arch tunnels would be formed from the light shafts prior to the main cavern excavation. The rock anchors supporting the cavern roof would be installed in predrilled holes as they are exposed during cavern excavation.The cavern would be constructed within the trachyte rock mass making up the majority of the mountain and would also encounter highly persistent master joints and basalt dykes. Specific local treatment and support is expected to be required to stabilise these features. There are also durability issues associated with the particular micro-structure and porosity characteristics of the predominant trachyte rock itself that have been addressed to meet the long-term design requirements.This paper describes the phased investigation and development of the design concept. The project is currently under consideration by the Canary Islands Government.

In love with Puppy: flowers, architecture, art, and the art of irony

Jeff Koons's installation, Puppy, symbolizes the move from modernism to postmodernism in contemporary Basque culture. It constitutes a break from the modernist aesthetics of artists such as Jorge Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida. The article argues that Puppy can only be understood from an ironic perspective. The subversive potential of irony in Basque culture is contextualized in this article.

Lorca, Buñuel, Dalí: Art and Theory ed. by Manuel Delgado Morales, Alice J. Poust (review)

23 o Reviews on controversial topics such as the Civil War, Opus Dei, or the Tejerazo. Ryan Prout's treatment of topics like corruption and surrealism are, by contrast, refreshingly free from this kind of blandness. In a publication ofthis kind, a high premium has to be set on accuracy, and although the volume achieves a commendably high standard in this regard, with a reliable system ofcross-referencing, there are a few lapses. There are two references to Banesto (pp. 55 and 57), but no entry on this bank, so the name remains unexplained. The Girona newspaper El Punt appears as El Puut (p. 19). The entry on Els Comediants (p. 52) could usefully have been cross-referenced to Elsjoglars and La Fura dels Baus. It is unfortunately the fate of any reference work to be out of date almost as soon as it is published, and it is not the fault of the editor or contributors that they were unable to take account of events such as the death of Eduardo Chillida in August 2002. But in future editions more attention could profitably be paid to chronological precision, rather than using phrases like 'recently', 'currently', or 'up to the present'. Overall, this is a worthwhile addition to the already extensive bibliography on contemporary Spanish culture. University of Strathclyde Eamonn Rodgers Lorca, Bunuel, Dali: Art and Theory. Ed. by Manuel Delgado Morales and Alice J. Poust. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses. 2001. 206 pp. ?16.79. ISBN 0-8383-5508-9. Lorca, Bunuel, Dali indulges in a bit of false advertising when it lists three figures in its title, for of the twelve articles, a full eight are dedicated to Lorca, two to Bunuel, and one to Dali, with one essay divided among the three. This imbalance might have been addressed by a title change and a content-driven grouping ofthe articles, rather than one based on alphabetical order ofthe author's last name. With this in mind, the following reads the contributions out of order, approachingthem instead thematically. C. Christopher Soufas, Miriam Balboa Echevarria, and Robert Lima treat Lorca's theatre. Soufas rehabilitates Lorca as an innovator of modernist drama, suggesting that his commercial theatre represented the practice to Artaud's theory ofthe theatre of cruelty. By manipulating audience involvement in ways that were more subtle, but just as effectiveas Artaud's aggressive?but ultimately unstageable?techniques, Lorca's plays demolished the comfortable distance typically assumed by spectators. Balboa Echevarria, whose essay might have benefited from a firmereditorial hand, discusses the figure of the maid through three centuries of theatre and painting; her analysis of La casa de Bernarda Alba, though, could fruitfullyhave been expanded. Lima traces the gradual elimination ofmale characters in Lorca's drama, culminating in Bernarda Alba. Manuel Delgado Morales's essay on embroiderers provides a transition from Lorca's theatre to his poetry, while maintaining the issue of gender. He surveys the 'revolutionary implications' (p. 37) of needlework, generally regarded as emblematic of tediumand female repression, in texts likeMarianaPineda, 'Lamonja gitana', and Yerma. Alice J.Poust, Luis Fernandez Cifuentes, Michael Iarocci, and Candelas Gala deal with Lorca's poetry. Poust uses Lorca's verse but mainly his lectures to illustrate how the presentation of Andalusia corresponds to theories by Oswald Spengler and Waldo Frank positing orientalist values?as evident in magic, mystery,and symbols such as the arabesque?against and superior to those of northern Europe. Fernandez Cifuentes points to 1918 and Impresiones y paisajes as the site of rupture between the Generation of '98 writers, interested in the collective importance of history, and MLR, 99.1, 2004 231 Lorca's cohort which placed greater emphasis on personal response. Iarocci's tightly argued essay reads 'Los encuentros de un caracol aventurero' from Libro de poemas thematically and structurally as an allegory of maturation and secularization, while drawing together the personal, poetic, and political dimensions of Spanish modernity. Gala returns to gender when she shows how the 'Eros con baston' section of Can? ciones presents female stereotypes?the prude, the femme fatale, the spinster, etc.?as parodies of the muse. The segue to essays on Dali and Bunuel, Antonio Monegal's...

El arte y la tierra en Martin Heidegger y Eduardo Chillida

There is a deep relationship between the way Martin Heidegger concieves the idea of earth in his lectures on art, and the vision of matter Eduardo Chillida develops and gives shape in his work. According to Heidegger, the artist makes use of wood, stone, colour, etc. paying tribute to the peculiarity of the chosen matter and bringing to light the true nature of earth. All work of art presents for him two perspectives: One is provided by the world, the other by the earth. If the first supplies the ties between the artistic manifestations and humans’ life, the latter shapes the enigmatic ground where the work retracts. The same idea of the earth resounds in Chillida’s work, an artist who deals with matter by ear, trying to «listen» to what is hiding in it. Through this procedure, he aspires to «catch» the fleeing space and make it resound in the limits of the shaped volumes. He establishes for himself a double challenge: stop space, i. e. the «fast matter», and face the gravity of the matter, i. e. the «slow space».

Beyond the mainstream: essays on modern and contemporary art

Part I. Europe: 1. Ferdinand Hodler (1972) 2. Art in a turbulent era: German and Austrian Expressionism (1978) 3. Emergence of the Avant-Garde: first German autumn Salon of 1913 (1991) 4. Schoenberg and the visual arts (1974) 5. The persistence of Expressionism: the second generation (1989) 6. German realism of the twenties: the artist as social critic (1980) 7. Max Beckmann: the self-portraits (1992) 8. Degenerate Art reconstructed (1991) 9. Revival and survival of Expressionist trends in the art of the GDR (1989) 10. Eduardo Chillida: art in the public domain (1986, 1988) Part II. Atlantic Crossing: 11. Americans abroad (1993) 12. The impact from abroad: foreign guests and visitors in California (1996) 13. Modernism comes to Chicago: the Institute of Design (1996) 14. New images of man (1959) 15. Directions in Kinetic sculpture (1966) Part III. United States: 16. Max Beckmann in America (1984) 17. Sam Francis: Blue Balls (1991) 18. Agnes Denes: the artist as universalist (1992) 19. The flaccid art (1963) 20. Notes on Funk (1967) 21. Llyn Foulkes' work of the 1960s: images of disruption and illusion (1987) 22. Harold Persico Paris (1992) 23. Rupert Garcia: the artist as advocate (1991) 24. Oh Say Can You See? Flags: Johns to Burkhardt (1992) 25. Bedri Baykam: American xenophobia and Expressionist dreams (1986).

The Artistic Collaboration of Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez

In 1928, Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez began working together on a series of assembled iron constructions which we now consider crucial to the development of modern sculpture. Picasso had not done any sculpture of importance for some 15 years, and Gonzalez had created no significant art at all. The consequences of this collaboration go far beyond the modest number of sculptures—some ten constructions and assemblages—which they completed over a period of four years. It had an enduring effect on both Picasso and Gonzalez, and the work they produced was decisive for David Smith, Eduardo Chillida, Anthony Caro, and numerous other sculptors working since the Second World War.