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With a practice that spanned sculpture, drawing and prints, Eduardo Chillida's artwork explored the potential of space, material and form. Born in 1924, Chillida grew up in San Sebastián in the Basque Country, with the materials associated with this region significantly influencing his art.

Chillida was originally signed as a goalkeeper by his local football club Real Sociedad after scouts watched him play on the beach. Though an injury cut this career short, he later said this initial path helped him as an artist as, ‘you must have a very good connection, in both professions, with time and with space.’

In 1943, Chillida started studying architecture at the University of Madrid before turning to drawing and sculpture. The principles within architecture guided his artistic practice, with his sculptures exploring how space can be shaped and the relationship between presence and absence.

After giving up his studies, Chillida moved to Paris in 1948, where he worked in plaster before he returned to Spain. Here, he began working with materials connected to the Basque region’s industrial heritage, such as iron, wood and steel. Alongside the use of these materials, Chillida’s works was characterised by intriguing hollows, hooks and curves, with a style that looked both modernist and ancient.

Chillida represented Spain at the Venice Biennale in 1958, where he received the international grand prize for sculpture. He went on to win the Kandinsky Prize (1960), the Carnegie Prize for Sculpture (1964), and the Praemium Imperiale Art Prize (1991).

Among his much-loved works is the Peine del Viento (The Comb of the Wind), a collaboration with Basque architect Luis Peña Ganchegui. Installed in 1977, this trio of Corten steel sculptures protrude from the rocks at the western end of La Concha bay in Chillida's home city, San Sebastián. Other sculptures by Chillida can be found in major public spaces worldwide, including outside UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, the Federal Chancellery building in Berlin, and the World Bank offices in Washington, D.C.

Though best known for these monumental sculptures, Chillida also produced a body of etchings, lithographs and woodcuts. His prints asked similar questions to his sculptures around the relationship between mass and void, while using paper to explore ideas of form, texture and line.