The newest guest in Tendencia Avenue: Eduardo Chillida Belzunce

Los Cabos for several years now has been working to support the arts through permanent exhibitions. Examples include the Art District in San Jose del Cabo and Tendencia Avenue in Cabo San Lucas. 

On the 8th exhibition the work of Eduardo Chillida Belzunce, originaly from San Sebastian, Spain will be exhibited and open to the public inside Luxury Avenue Los Cabos from July 8th to September 7th. This provides an opportunity to celebrate the beautiful city´s recent nomination as the 2016 European Capital of Culture. Tendencia Avenue, though Ramon Ojeda Mestre and Yandi Monardo, made the exhibit possible.

For Eduardo Chillida Belzunce light has been his teacher and has guided his painting and sculpting. He confesses that his “gut” tells him what to paint. The real or imaginated walls, windows and doors he has painted in his studio and San Sebastian are the result of this.

These elements can be seen in several of the 26 works that are part of the exhibition “Dialogues between Light and Matter” being held in the lobby of the Presidente InterContinental hotel in Mexico City through June 14, 2016.

This is the second show exhibited in Mexico by the youngest son of the late sculptor Eduardo Chillida Juantegui. The first was six years ago in the Sebastian Foundation as part of the Independence of Mexico Bicentennial.

The current exhibition includes different angles of the bay of La Concha, located opposite the city of San Sebastian. It is a landscape Eduardo loves to paint.

"I try to show what I want in my paintings. In some cases, I paint what I see, but in others, if I see a house that I do not like, I take it out and continue with my picture of the landscape as if the house didn’t exist,” said Eduardo Chillida Belzunce.

The exhibition, curated by his wife Susana Alvarez San Martin, includes a previously unpublished painting of a cabinet in his house. The canvas was held by his mother, Chillida Belzunce, until her death.

"I created most of the paintings four years ago. One was in my mother's house. When she wanted to buy it, I told her I would not sell it because someday it would come back to me. When she died last summer, it happened. Another painting that had never been exhibited is that of a closet we had in our room,” says the artist who suffered a motorcycle accident 30 years ago. He nearly died from the accident that paralyzed half body.

Eduardo’s right hand was paralyzed by the accident. As a result, he has had to paint with his left hand. Nevertheless, he has never stopped creating his paintings and sculptures and continues to work hard.

“Dialogues between Light and Matter” includes seven small bronze sculptures. Figures of hands dominate, like Companions II and Effort.

In Spain, a sample by the painter decorates the Kultural Tabakalera Centre under the designation of San Sebastian as 2016 European Capital of Culture. The painting is 19 feet wide by 8½ feet tall and shows a panoramic view of the metropolis.

Eduardo Chillida Belzunce created his first sculpture at the age of four. His father kept it in a special place in his study.

"White does not tell me anything. That is why when I paint a picture, the first thing I do is fill the canvas with red, blue, ocher, yellow, all kinds of colors. Then, I begin drawing over the colors. When I finish drawing, the painting is usually beautiful. Later, I began to paint doors, mirrors, anything. However, I do not cover the entire object. I leave some of the colors underneath. This type of painting is very helpful and the pictures are much richer,” said Eduardo.

He has never followed the work of his father whom he considers "a one of a kind man." However, even though his father has passed away, Eduardo always remember this advice when he is desperate to finish a painting:

"All you have to do is work. Continue to paint. I do not believe I created anything. I just shared the yellow, blue and the wind.” That statement and a very wide smile told me everything. 

Tendencia Avenue and Los Cabos are excited to see the beautiful work of someone like Eduardo.