"Munich", 1994

Chillida began studying architecture at the university of Madrid in 1943, but dropped out of university after three years and went to Paris. There he devoted himself mainly to drawing and created sculptures in plaster. The clarity, structure and spatiality of architecture remained a lasting influence. His return to his Basque home country brought about a change from figural representation to studies of form and spatiality. The material he used also changed, he first worked with iron, then wood, steel, and alabaster. During the 1960s he travelled to Greece, Italy, and France. Towards the end of the 1950s Chillida also created prints, for which he mostly used exceptional, handmade paper. In his prints, as in his sculptures, he succeeded in creating spatiality. The etching 'Munich' was Chillida's contribution to a portfolio, the proceeds of the sale benefited the building of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.