The work of Eduardo Chillida is usually viewed in terms of modernist art. This view is reinforced by Chillida’s own highly elaborate and eloquent accounts of his artistic practice. Chillida frequently positioned his work in a field of artistic and philosophical discourse that emphasises medium specificity and a metaphysics of form. He referred to the exemplary nature of the art of Brancusi, Braque and Giacometti for his own creative work; and, in his philosophical exchange with Martin Heidegger, developed the notion of sculptural space as an ontological space evoking the boundless nature of „being“ itself. The conference reconsiders the prevailing interpretations of Chillida’s work, based largely on his own statements, as a seamless continuation of a modernist aesthetic. It takes its cue from the observation that Chillida has rarely ever been viewed within the context of his contemporaries, specifically minimalist and conceptual artists such as Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt or Anthony Caro.
The idea of this conference was developed at the Institute of Art History, Goethe-University, Frankfurt a. M., in cooperation with Jon Wood (Henry Moore Institute, Leeds), Thomas Kirchner (Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris) and the Carl Justi-Vereinigung e.V., Dresden.
Conference languages are English and German.