Executed in 1962, Yunque de Sueños XII is a poetic expression of Eduardo Chillida’s exploration of space and the void. The present work belongs to the Yunque de Sueños series, which consists of seventeen works created over the course of twelve years (1954-1966). Translating to Anvil of Dreams, the weightless, boundless quality of the dream and the solid gravity of the anvil from which his creations materialize, become metaphors for the duality of space. Sprouting from the chiselled surface of the granite stone, the iron hands of the present work open up to sky, its twisting beams gently combings through the encircling air. The stone base to which the iron element is anchored imparts an organicity, the stark materiality of stone and iron forming a counterpoint to the continual flow of its surrounding formless matter.

The present series can be seen as a continuation from his earlier body of works such as Peine del viento or Rumor de limites, but carries a heightened sense of power and force, emitted through the twisting and curling beams of iron. Despite the small scale, the present work mirrors the natural and architectural monumentality of the extraordinary Peine del Viento (Wind Comb) that Chilllida completed in San Sebastian over a decade later. Possessing an elegant upwards energy that is nonetheless anchored to the earth, Yunque de Sueños XII is a wonderful encapsulation of Chillida’s working practices and aesthetic theories. Works from the series are housed in museum collects ions around the world including Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid and Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

Iron forms a central part of Chillida’s practice; it is present throughout all of his major works, and over more than a quarter of a century of art-making it persisted as a fundamental part of his practice. Chillida began working with fire and iron upon his return from Paris to the Basque country in late 1951. Looking back to his own roots and the famous iron workers and blacksmiths of the Basque country whose forges had been famous since the Roman t.mes s, Chillida began to work with wrought.mes tal, only employing traditional methods which use the hammer, forge and iron. In this process, the iron beam is heated in the forge until it becomes glowing orange, radiating warmth and light. It is then placed on an anvil, the surface on which the beam is hammered until it takes on its desired shape. Realised through the rhythmical movements of his body, the physicality of the process activates a mediation of space that is central to the artist’s practice.

Measuring just over 60 cent.mes tres in height, Yunque de Sueños XII invites a close and intimate experience, through which we notice each chisel mark on the rough stone and the hammered texture of the cold iron surface. Bearing the marks of Chillida’s hands, the abstract form becomes an object of poetic contemplation of the air, light, movement, and all that occupy the void. Evoking a perpetual dialogue between the space it inhabits and surrounds, this work brings forth the presence of the void, one of the most important elements of Chillida’s art. In the artist’s own words, “the object and the space it inhabits are intertwined, inseparable from the other. Form springs spontaneously from the needs of the space that builds its dwelling like an animal in its shell. Just like this animal, I am also an architect of the void.” (Eduardo Chillida quoted in: Exh. Cat., Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Chillida 1948 – 1998, 1998, p. 66)