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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Modern Spanish sculpture
If painting in Spain has been interesting, if perhaps
unspectacular, over the last 50 years, by contrast the
plastic arts have set pulses racing. It began with the
Basque, Eduardo Chillida. He was famous for creating
monumental abstract sculpture in iron, granite and
concrete, a recurring hammer-cum-claw shape and
dramatic love of space informing much of his work. His
sculpture often referenced the heritage of the Basque
lands; the primalPeine del Viento(1977), anchored to
the wild sea-swept cliffs near San Sebastian, spoke of
his love for the region’s untamed nature. Another
Basque boy, Jorge Oteiza, explored the placement of
space within smaller but equally abstract work. Most of
his work dates from the 1950s; he gave up sculpture in
the following decade and devoted himself to theorising
on the Basques and their culture.The rest of the world
didn’t really discover his sculptural CV until the 1980s.
The subsequent Oteiza revival coincided with a post-
Franco sculptural flourish. Susana Solano emerged as
the main talent. Preoccupied with nature and childhood
memories, Solano offers up minimalist square or
circular shapes, often constructed of wire mesh. Fellow
Barcelonan Jaume Plensa creates more playful work
in a variety of media.Crown Fountain, a 50ft-tall glass
structure from which projected faces spout water from
a cleverly placed hole, andTattoo(2003), a kneeling
human figure made of polyester, lit to glow from within,
have both come from Plensa, Spain’s best-known
contemporary sculptor. Both works of art reside in
the US.
Chillida the caveman
Shortly before his death
in 2002, Eduardo Chillida
hatched a plan to carve
an 11-storey- high cuboid
space into a mountain
on Fuerteventura in
the Canary Islands,
envisaging a remarkable
work of art that would
filter shafts of light down
onto the viewer below.
The islands’ provincial
government gave the go
ahead to the outrage of
environmentalists and
archaeologists who point
to the nearby location of
prehistoric rock carvings.
The project is apparently
due for completion in
2010.
