"For me, sculpting is the same as painting, what gives the spark to one thing, gives the spark to the other"

This is how the artist thinks and how he expresses himself. But behind that sentence there is a lot to think about.

For Eduardo Chillida Belzunce, art is a means of communication with the world.   And through this path he finds different paths that converge in his purpose, to bear witness to his own universe to others.

 

Thus, when he encompasses painting, he portrays space, a space that is not usually an accurate reproduction of the reality before him, but rather an environment managed at will. Transformed sometimes, real or imaginary on other occasions. But a space that is invariably open leaks to the outside or to an interior beyond the place where we find ourselves.

 

That particular vision that CHB has of painting is full of  spatial, sculptural or architectural perceptions, where we continuously appreciate the three dimensions of space on the two-dimensional canvas.

 

The rooms invite us to enter, explore that world that shows us with its innumerable objects, walk the corridors, go through the doors and look out those windows with wonderful views of the sea.

 

Except on a few occasions, this universe full of color and masterfully treated in its lights and shadows, is presented to us as an invitation to inhabit it personally. The absence of figures increases this invitation to get hold of the place, to enjoy it "at our leisure". The perspectives that CHB alters to his liking are, if possible, more evocative in that call to the viewer.

 

These rooms represented with different planes and marked perspectives are ruled by light, a light that is present thanks to the courageous use of white and that acts together with the contrast with the dark tones and black as  a catalyst of reality from the place pictured. Specifically, CHB's paintings, especially those with the greatest amount of white, are places through which the hours of the day pass naturally.

 

If the light falls on them in great quantity, they appear to us as day rooms, on the other hand, if the light is dim, or even minimally perceptible, those same places will reflect, allegorically, the entry of moonlight through their doors and windows. They live the night and they live the day.

 

In the sculpture, the man bursts in with force. Color is no longer a dominant. Now the shapes, gestures, postures and textures that make them up are the protagonists of the thoughts and feelings that the artist reveals to us.

 

If before the places were the protagonists and the men the observers, now the men are the interpreters of the sculptural reality of Chillida Belzunce, and the places pass to a different state.

 

The male figures are strong, men with powerful bodies in suggestive attitudes. A man waking up, a pensive man, a group of friends looking at the same place, invite us to  to dream of the horizon and the cosmos, as it seems that they themselves are doing. They are calm bodies, sure of themselves and with a calm presence.

The hands, a faithful reflection of the sculptor's, are also powerful hands, very masculine. The fingers vary in position in each one of them, and never seem tense but quite the opposite, relaxed. In both cases, the roughness that the chamotte gives to the “skin” contributes to emphasize the sensation of solidity, of strength, of the bodies.

 

The women, of which we see one in this exhibition, are finer, as befits their feminine condition. On this occasion, the position adopted by the woman, who is lying down, manifests a sensation of relaxation, just like the men, she uses her arms, not to cover or protect herself, but to find a comfortable position, to support her head and thus show her body in all its splendor.

 

Eduardo does not use models to sculpt, thus, it is the images stored in the memory and the knowledge of the human body, which move him at will, to recreate the figures that he shapes in terracotta or bronze and that make up his sculptural world.

 

Places interest CHB as a painter, men and women as a sculptor, in short, what attracts, captivates and excites the artist is the world we live in, passed through the sieve of his most intimate being, that of an artist who lives art and life with passion.