NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s announce the Estate of Eduardo Chillida is bringing a selection of the late artist’s monumental works to market for the first time since the Spanish sculptor’s death in 2002. Twelve large-scale pieces conceived for the outdoors will be offered for sale from January through April through a single-artist exhibition of monumental sculptures at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Florida. The natural splendor of Isleworth makes the community an ideal venue to showcase the works of Chillida who used natural surroundings as integral and inextricable elements of his sculptures.

Alma Luxembourg, European Director of Private Sales, Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s says, “It is a real honor to present to the market this fantastic group of works by Eduardo Chillida. It is the second single-artist selling exhibition Sotheby’s holds at Isleworth, following the resounding success of the Bernar Venet retrospective in 2008. There has long been great interest in Chillida’s work from around the world and his major works have rarely appeared on the market. To have 12 monumental sculptures directly from the artist’s estate is a truly unique opportunity that we believe will attract attention as monumental as the works themselves.”

Luis Chillida, Eduardo Chillida’s son and spokesperson for the family, explains: “We are delighted to have this opportunity of presenting our father’s work at Sotheby’s Isleworth exhibition. Our father was very concerned about the setting in which his sculptures were to be displayed. The verdant and expansive grounds of Isleworth are in many ways similar to those of his museum Chillida-Leku, and we are certain that he would have found this a perfect place to showcase his work and we believe a sale in an international venue is the most appropriate way to further our father’s legacy.”

Considered one of the leading sculptors of the 20th century, Eduardo Chillida achieved international recognition from the start of his career in the late 1940s and early 1950s thanks to his critically acclaimed exhibition at the May Salon in Paris and the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1958. His first retrospective exhibition in the United States took place in 1966 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. He rapidly gained a strong following throughout the United States and Europe.

Chillida’s works are on public display in many cities around the world including Berlin, Dallas (De Música, Dallas XV), Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Grenoble, Helsinki (Helsinki), Houston, Madrid, Munich, San Sebastian, and Washington, D.C. Chillida’s oeuvre has long been recognized as groundbreaking in the field of sculpture and his works are part of permanent collections in more than 40 museums in Europe, America, Asia and South America.

Following his formative years in Paris and the creation of his own sculptural language in plaster and stone, Chillida returned to his homeland in Spain’s Basque Country where he forged his first work in iron in 1951 at a local foundry. From the onset, Chillida’s work has been abstract yet generally follows various themes relating to space and its limitations. There is a clear visible continuum to his output through the years, evidenced by his use of steel and iron, stone, alabaster, wood, terracotta and paper, sometimes in small format and other times in medium or large scale. Each of the 12 works in this exhibition was executed in his mature period and some, as in the case of Estela XVIII, are his final explorations on a theme.

In the latter years of his life, he devoted much of his time to the creation of eponymous museum in Hernani, in the verdant rolling hillside bordering his native San Sebatian( Piene del Viento). Luis Chillida, explains: “We are excited to reach a wider international audience through this exhibition which coincides with the 10th anniversary of Chillida-Leku’s inauguration. With this opportunity, we fulfill one of our father’s wishes: to hold an outdoor exhibition of his monumental creations in the United States."

Alexandra Schader, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s Spain: " we feel fortunate to be able to bring these works to the market. Chillida’s work is highly sought after the world over and we are thrilled that his heirs have found the spectacular backdrop of Isleworth an ideal setting for his monumental pieces. It’s a privilege for Sotheby’s Spain to bring forward one of the country’s most internationally renowned artists. For several months, we have worked closely with the family curating this truly unique exhibition and are grateful to them for the trust they have deposited in us to put forward such masterpieces.”