Exhibition: Gonzalo Chillida

The Cervantes Institute and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), in collaboration with the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, will host the exhibition Gonzalo Chillida at the Cervantes Institute in Paris from November 9 to February 28, 2022.

Gonzalo Chillida (San Sebastian, 1926-2008) is one of the most representative figures of lyrical abstraction in Spain.

Curated by Alicia Chillida, art historian, independent curator and the artist’s daughter, the exhibition comprises 34 paintings, 10 lithographs and 180 photographs and photocollages, representing the body of Chillida´s creative work.

The exhibition also features a 40-minute screening of the film La idea del Norte, directed by Alicia Chillida and Benito Macías in 2016. The film explores the painter´s creative process and the powers of observation which allowed him to views the motifs that occupied him throughout his career, the sea, sand, forest, and sky. A reflective voice turns the artist´s Super 8mm film and archival photographs into the essence of his visual vocabulary. The documentary contains footage of where he lived and worked and includes interviews with those who were close to him.

A book in Basque, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese has been published to coincide with the exhibition. Featuring a preface by Alicia Chillida and an epilogue by the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum director Miguel Zugaza, the book contains writings by writers who witnessed the evolution of Gonzalo Chillida´s work: the poets José Ángel Irigaray (Pamplona, 1942) and Gabriel Celaya (Hernani, Gipuzkoa, 1911-Madrid, 1991), the painter Antonio Saura (Huesca, 1930-Cuenca, 1998) and art critic and historian Francisco Calvo Serraller (Madrid, 1948-2018).

The exhibition will travel to Rome (March/June, 2022) and Tokyo (July/October, 2023) before returning to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum in 2023.