Homenaje a A. Fleming 1955

This sculpture, “Homenaje a A. Fleming,” is by Eduardo Chillida, but I can’t tell you exactly when it was made. What strikes me is the material — some kind of beautiful, rough-hewn stone. The whole thing feels so solid, monumental, permanent. Look at the way Chillida stacks these weighty geometric forms on top of each other. The color is so subtle, a muted, earthy tone that seems both ancient and modern at the same time. I like how the upper elements reach out like arms, or maybe branches, searching for balance, and it reminds me of the way Agnes Martin would place simple shapes and lines with such care, but here it’s in three dimensions, like geometry in real life. The surface is so tactile, so inviting to touch. It’s like Chillida wanted us to feel the weight, the density, of the stone. This makes me think of Brancusi, and how he took forms down to their essence. In this sculpture, Chillida gets something so basic and elemental. It’s a tribute to Fleming, but it’s also about matter and space.