Cervantes Institute of Rome: Gonzalo Chillida

Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.

Cervantes Institute of Rome: Gonzalo Chillida
  • 19
    Mar 2022
    09
    Jul 2022
    Rome

An exhibition of the work of Gonzalo Chillida will be on display at the Cervantes Institute in Rome from 19 March to 9 July. The Cervantes Institute and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), together with the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, have organised the monographic exhibition, which will move to Italy after being shown at the Cervantes Institute in Paris.

Gonzalo Chillida (San Sebastián, 1926-2008) is one of the most prominent figures of lyrical abstraction in Spain. Curated by Alicia Chillida, art historian, independent curator and the artist’s daughter, the exhibition brings together 34 paintings, 10 lithographs and some 180 photographs and photocollages representative of Chillida´s work.

The exhibition also features ´La idea del Norte´, a 40-minute film directed in 2016 by Alicia Chillida and Benito Macías that examines the painter´s creative process. It also focuses on his ability to observe the various motifs - sea, sand, forest, sky... - that occupied him throughout his career. A reflective voice turns the artist´s archive material - Super 8 mm film and original photographs - into the essence of the visual vocabulary of his work. The documentary also includes contributions by people associated with the artist’s life, while looking back on the places where he lived and worked. 

A publication in Basque, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese has been released along with the exhibition and includes an introduction by Alicia Chillida and an epilogue by Miguel Zugaza, director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. The publication features writings by authors who accompanied Gonzalo Chillida´s work over time: poets José Ángel Irigaray (Pamplona, 1942) and Gabriel Celaya (Hernani, Gipuzkoa, 1911-Madrid, 1991), painter Antonio Saura (Huesca, 1930-Cuenca, 1998) and historian and art critic Francisco Calvo Serraller. (Madrid, 1948-2018). 

The exhibition was on display at the Paris Cervantes Institute from November 2021 until February 2022. After its time in Rome, it will be shown in Tokyo (July/October), ending its tour in 2023 at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

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