Until November 13, 2011, the Maeght Foundation is showcasing Eduardo Chillida, this “sculptor turned blacksmith” (Gaston Bachelet), whose works, ranging from the most intimate to the most monumental, impress both by their power and by their fragility or poetry.
Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) is renowned for his monumental sculptures as well as for his graphic and poetic collages.
This exhibition, which originates from the close relationship that the Spanish artist had with Aimé Maeght, presents nearly 140 works: 80 sculptures and 60 works on paper.
Since his death in 2002, no retrospective had been organized in France.
“Aimé Maeght and my father met at the Cité Universitaire in Paris. Chillida had transformed his room in the Spanish pavilion into a workshop,” recounts Ignacio, the artist’s son and curator of the exhibition.
“Beauty is not important,” Chillida used to say. “My goal is not to make things beautiful. But it’s good if they are.”
“What he loved was the music of the forge, the sound of the bellows, the noise of the hammer on the anvil,” adds Isabelle Maeght.
A destination of art and friendship to extend summer.
Famous for its architecture and gardens but also for its collection of modern and contemporary works, among the richest in Europe, the Maeght Foundation is a green haven for the discovery of the great artists of our time.
A few kilometers from Nice and a stone’s throw from the village of Saint-Paul de Vence, sheltered by pine trees, perched atop a hill, the Maeght Foundation benefits from the mild Riviera climate.
Eduardo Chillida is its guest until the end of the All Saints’ Day holiday to allow as many people as possible to discover this great artist.
Alongside Miró, Giacometti, or Calder, it was with Eduardo Chillida that Aimé and Marguerite Maeght inaugurated their Foundation in 1964.
He was then the youngest of the artists exhibited, among these great masters, whom the Maeghts were gallery owners and friends of.
The meeting between Aimé Maeght and Eduardo Chillida dates back to 1948. As early as 1950, the Maeght Gallery invited this prodigious sculptor to participate in the exhibition “Les Mains éblouies” among 23 young artists, including Ellsworth Kelly.
Subsequently, the intense friendship between the Maeghts and the Chillidas extended within the Foundation, where they spent several summers. It was there that Eduardo Chillida discovered the technique of chamotte clay; he also produced numerous engravings in the workshops of Mas Bernard, the Maeght family home.
Curator of the exhibition, his son Ignacio recounts: “Chillida lived in Saint-Paul de Vence during the most enriching and moving times of his artistic and human life.”
Iron, clay, stone, alabaster, wood, paper, air: a sculptor who gives prominence to material and space
The retrospective dedicated to Eduardo Chillida by the Maeght Foundation is thus a true initiation into contemporary sculpture in all its strength and sensitivity.
From monumental works presented in the gardens and Giacometti courtyard, to delicate paper works, the proposed journey invites everyone to reverie and contemplation, in harmony with the space.
To this artist who wrote, “I have never sought beauty. But when you do things the way they should be done, beauty might come to them,” the Maeght Foundation pays an admiring tribute, rich with the long friendship that united the Chillida and Maeght families. Between the interior and exterior spaces of the Maeght Foundation, this exceptional retrospective allows the public to discover the various stages of the evolution of this major 20th-century artist’s work.
Exhibition Curator: Ignacio Chillida.
