1961

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston acquired Abesti gogorra I [Rough Chant I], his first large-scale wooden sculpture of the same year.

He participated in The 1961 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh; also in the I Exposición de Arte Actual San Sebastián 1961 [I Exhibition of Contemporary Art], at the Museo de San Telmo in San Sebastian.

Solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, the catalogue of which was written by James Johnson Sweeney, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Georges Braque gifted him a painting and he reciprocated with the sculpture Yunque de sueños II [Anvil of Dreams II].

Franz Meyer, the owner of Ilarik [Stele] and Ikaraundi [Great Tremor], was named Director of the Kunsthalle Basel.

1 / 1 Abesti gogorra I [Rough Chant I]

1 / 1 Abesti gogorra I [Rough Chant I] being installed at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1 / 1 Chillida with Georges Braque, to whom he gifts Yunque de Sueños II [Anvil of Dreams II], behind them at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1962

He wass awarded the Providence Art Club Prize for his work in the Kane Memorial Exhibition Some Directions in Modern Sculpture, Providence.

Two simultaneous exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel: a solo show, and Rothko Chillida, set up by Arnold Rüdlinger. The exhibition catalogue was written by Franz Meyer.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, now with Sweeney as Director, organized the exhibition Three Spaniards: Picasso, Miró, Chillida.

He partook in the exhibition Grandi Premi della Biennale 1948-1960, hosted at the Ca’ Pesaro in Venice. He also participated in the exhibition Art since 1950 at Seattle’s World Fair 1962.

The philosopher and friend of the artist Gaston Bachelard died.

His son Luís was born.

1 / 1 Chillida admiring the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum, London

1963

He travelled to Greece with his wife Pilar, Louis G. Clayeux, and Christine and Jacques Dupin. A crucial and defining trip, he took an interest in the white light that soaks the country, so contrary to that of the Basque Country, and which would inspire him to work in other materials, exploring light and lightness as central concepts moving forwad.

He also travelled to Italy to see the work of Medardo Rosso in Rome, and that of Piero della Francesca around Umbria and Toscana.

1 / 1 With Louis Clayeux in Delphi

1 / 1 Pilar in Mycenae

1 / 1 Chillida in front of Michelangelo's Young Slave at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence

1 / 1 Eduardo Chillida by one of his drawings

1 / 1 Next to Modulación del espacio I [Modulation of Space I] in his workshop in Villa Paz, San Sebastian

1964

He participated in The 1964 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture and was awarded the Carnegie Prize by the institute; also present at III documenta Kassel.

His third solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght in Paris had its catalogue written by Carola Giedion-Welcker. The Maeghts opened the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul de Vence ―with Josep Lluis Sert as its architect― and Chillida partook in the inaugural exhibition.

Also featured in Painting and Sculpture of a decade 54-64, at the Tate Gallery in London.

He created Abesti gogorra IV [Rough Chant IV], today at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca.

His youngest child, Eduardo, was born.

1 / 1 Josep Lluís Sert, Josep Llorens i Artigas, Joan Miró and Chillida at the opening of the Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence

1 / 1 At the entrance of the Galerie Maeght, Paris, on the occasion of his solo exhibition

1 / 1 Installation view of his solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1 / 1 Chillida at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1 / 1 Alberto Giacometti, Aimé Maeght and Pierre Volbout in Chillida's solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1 / 1 Aimé Maeght in Chillida's solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1 / 1 With his daughters, María and Susana

1 / 1 With his wife, Pilar

1 / 1 The Chillida Belzunce family in his studio in Villa Paz, San Sebastian

1 / 1 Abesti Gogorra IV [Rough Chant IV]

1965

As he began to work with alabaster, he created, among others, Homenaje a Kandinsky [Homage to Kandinsky] and the first piece in the Elogio de la luz [In Praise of Light] series.

He produced the etchings for André Frénaud’s book, Le chemin des devins, suivi de Ménerbes [The Path of the Soothsayers, followed by Ménerbes].

Sir Roland Penrose wrote the catalogue for his solo exhibition at the Tunnard Gallery in London.

The Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, whose director was Carl Haenlein, began to exhibit his work.

1 / 1 Homenaje a Kandinsky [Homage to Kandinsky]

1 / 1 Elogio de la Luz I [In Praise of Light I]

1 / 1 With Sir Roland Penrose and Kenneth Armitage in his solo exhibition at the McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London

1 / 1 The Chillida Belzunce family in Villa Paz, San Sebastian

1966

He was awarded the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Preis by the city of Duisburg and the Groβer Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Eearlier that year, he began working in the Galician quarries of Porriño with the mason Nicanor Carballo.

In granite, he created Abesti gogorra V [Rough Chant V] for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, where James Johnson Sweeney organized the first retrospective of the artist, Chillida: Made of Iron, which then travelled to Utica and Saint Louis.

He participated in the XXIIe Salon de Mai in Paris.

Solo exhibition at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, with a catalogue written by Gerhard Händler. Other solo exhibitions took place in Munich, Duisburg, and Paris.

1 / 1 During the ceremony of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Award in Duisburg

1 / 1 During the ceremony of Der Große Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

1 / 1 His son Ignacio and wife Pilar in the Porriño quarry of Pontevedra

1 / 1 Pilar during the installation of Abesti Gogorra V [Rough Chant V] at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

1 / 1 Abesti Gogorra V [Rough Chant V] at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

1 / 1 James Johnson Sweeney and Pilar at the retrospective held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

1 / 1 View of Abesti Gogorra I [Rough Chant I] at the retrospective held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

1 / 1 Installation view of the retrospective held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

1 / 1 In the Chillida exhibition at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg

1967

The book Chillida by Pierre Volboudt was published and translated into Spanish by Juan Eduardo Cirlot.

The sculptor started writing aphorisms which he would later call “aromas” [scents].

He was featured in the exhibition Spanische Kunst heute, at the Kunstsammlung Bochum, the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, and Akademie der Künste de Berlín; also in Dix ans d’art vivant 1955-1965 at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul de Vence, set up by François Wehrlin.

In the US, he also exhibited in Sculpture. A Generation of Innovation at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sculpture from Twenty Nations at Guggenheim New York, and The 1967 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture at the Carnegie Institute.

First Nueva Forma exhibition in Madrid, organized by the architect Juan Daniel Fullaondo and Santiago Amón, with work by Millares, Palazuelo, Oteiza, Ruiz Balerdi, Chillida and the architects Fullaondo, Molezún, Collares, Fernández Alba and Sáenz de Oiza.

Solo exhibitions in Dusseldorf and Stockholm.

1 / 1 Chillida by Pierre Volboudt. Paris: Maeght Éditeur, 1967

1 / 1 Installation view of the II collective show Nuevas Formas at HISA, Madrid

1968

He made the lithographs that illustrate Max Hölzer’s book Meditation in Kastilien [Meditation in Castile].

Arranged by Franz Larese and Heinrich W. Petzet, the editors of the Erker-Presse in Saint Gallen, he met Martin Heidegger for the first time at the Schloß Hagenwil restaurant in Switzerland.

Alrededor del vacío IV [Around the Void IV] was installed, along with two works by Calder and Rodin, in the hall of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

San Sebastian, his hometown, creates a commission to pay tribute to the artist, with the preliminary intention of setting up a temporary exhibition. Instead, Chillida brought forward the idea of an intervention in a significant location throughout his youth: the Paseo del Tenis, now Paseo de Eduardo Chillida. If in 1952 he had had this place in mind during the creation of Estudio Peine del viento I [Study for Comb of the Wind I], the first of the series, it will not be until 1977 that the final Peine del viento XV [Comb of the Wind XV], will be installed in its emblematic location.

Solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, with its catalogue written by Daniel Fullaondo. IV documenta Kassel.

1 / 1 Lithographs and justification page in Medidation in Kastilien [Meditation in Castile] by Max Hölzer. Saint Gallen: Erker-Verlag

1 / 1 Alrededor del vacío IV [Around the Void IV] at the Kunstmuseum Basel

1 / 1 Estudio Peine del viento VII [Study for Comb of the Wind VII]

1 / 1 Alrededor del vacío IV [Around the Void IV] being installed at the Galerie Maeght, Paris

1969

He collaborated with Martin Heidegger in the creation of seven litho-collages for his book Die Kunst und der Raum [Art and Space], published by the Erker-Presse in Saint Gallen.

The steel sculpture Peine del viento VI [Comb of the Wind VI] was permanently installed outside UNESCO in Paris. Retrospective at the Kunsthaus Zurich.

Graphic work and drawings exhibition in Basel, with texts written by Dieter Koepplin and Carola Giedion-Welcker. Other exhibitions are held in Zurich, Amsterdam, and Munich.

1 / 1 Martin Heidegger and Chillida at the Erker-Presse, Saint Gallen

1 / 1 Martin Heidegger's Die Kunst und der Raum [Art and Space], illustrated by Chillida. Saint Gallen: Erker-Presse, 1969

1 / 1 Cover of Die Kunst und der Raum [Art and Space]

1 / 1 Litho-collage in Die Kunst und der Raum [Art and Space]

1 / 1 Peine del viento VI [Comb of the Wind VI] at UNESCO, Paris

1 / 1 The Chillida Belzunce family in Villa Paz, San Sebastian

1 / 1 Installation view of the retrospective held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

1970

He was awarded the Premio Wellington de Escultura in Madrid.

The stainless-steel sculpture Alrededor del vacío V [Around the Void V] was installed at the World Bank in Washington D.C.

The Hoffmann-La Roche Foundation had Oyarak II [Echos II] installed in Basel. The steel piece Estela a Rafael Elosegui [Stele for Rafael Elosegui] was installed at the San Sebastian Golf Club.

He created the first series of large format etchings: Leku [Place].

Solo exhibitions in Warsaw, Pittsburgh, Mexico City, and at the Kunstkabinett in Frankfurt. He also held a solo show at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, with the catalogue, Notes sur les dessins d ́Eduardo Chillida, written by Franz Meyer, and participated in the gallery’s opening exhibition in Zurich.