Esku XXXIII

Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) was born in San Sebastían in the Basque region of Spain. Many of his titles are in the Basque language of Euskera. The meaning of the word ‘Esku’ translates as ‘Hand’.

Chillida began making etchings in the ‘Esku’ series in 1971. [1] These were published in the same year as a similar series titled, ‘Trois sur Trois’ (Three of Three), the compositions of which comprise angular, linear forms which nest together or interlock like the fingers of a hand. [2]

‘Esku XXXIII’ is both a realistic study of the human body and an investigation of the line’s capacity to demarcate areas, creating enclosed and open fields which are charged with energy. Chillida’s studies of hands are guided by the artist’s conception of ‘limit (and space)’, ‘emptiness (and silence)’ and ‘scale (rhythm, musicality and monumentality). [3]

‘Chillida is not interested in hands as expressive surfaces… but rather in the closing of the fist as a configuration that takes places as a delimination towards the inside (of the hand) and as a limit towards the outside (the border of the finger as a line that creates it in the spatial abyss of the paper).’ [4]

Chillida uses line to suggest internal and external spaces, blurring the boundary between the suggested physicality of the fingers of the hand and the surrounding ‘negative’ space. This approach invites the viewer to explore the contrasting tensions of containment and release within Chillida’s labyrinthine arrangement of lines and enclosures. Dramatically, the impression taken from the etching plate fills only the top half of the paper, the lower half of the sheet remaining vacant (with the exception of Eduardo Chillida’s signature and cypher 日). The bottom edge of the etching plate runs beneath the outline of the thumb, disconnecting and isolating the fingers from the palm and wrist, and imbuing the lines with a minimalistic essentialism that is powerfully abstract and sculptural.

Read More