About the Artist
Eduardo Chillida
Eduardo Chillida (1924 – 2002) was a Spanish Basque sculptor notable for his monumental abstract works. He studied architecture at the University of Madrid from 1943 to 1946. In 1947 he abandoned architecture for art, and the next year he moved to Paris, where he set up his first studio and began working in plaster and clay. He never finished his degree and instead began to take private art lessons. Chillida's earliest sculptures concentrated on the human form; his later works were more massive and more abstract, and included many monumental public works. Chillida himself tended to reject the label of "abstract", preferring instead to call himself a "realist sculptor". At their best his works, although massive and monumental, suggest movement and tension. Much of Chillida's work is inspired by his Basque upbringing, and many of his sculptures' titles are in the Basque language Euskera.
