Zóbel and Chillida: A Crossed Path at Galerie Mayoral

The exhibition 'Chemins croisés' at Galerie Mayoral in Paris, originally scheduled until January 9, 2021, closed early due to the pandemic. It paired works by Spanish artists Fernando Zóbel (1924–1984) and Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002), highlighting their artistic friendship. Zóbel, a painter, poet, traveler, and collector, grew up in Manila, studied at Harvard, and shifted from expressionism to lyrical abstraction after discovering Rothko in 1955. He participated in major exhibitions including 'Before Picasso; After Miró' at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1960, the Venice Biennale in 1962, and 'Modern Spanish Painting' at the Tate Gallery in 1962. Chillida, known for his sculptures, met Zóbel in the 1950s, but their key encounter was in 1964 at Galería Juana Mordó in Madrid. Two months later, Zóbel invited Chillida to Cuenca to help establish the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, which opened in 1966 as Spain's first abstract art museum, with Chillida's sculpture 'Abesti Gogora IV' as its founding piece. The Mayoral exhibition featured works such as Zóbel's 'Pendulo veneciano' (1965) and Chillida's 'Casa del poeta IV' and 'Oxydo 12' (1978). Galerist Siân Folley noted the dialogue between gesture, line, and light in both artists' works. The show evoked the memory of the 1964 Mordó exhibition and the enduring friendship between the two artists.