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Lot Essay
A recent retrospective by the Guggenheim Museum of Art of Orteiza's work brought to light new critical research and a comprehensive review of this Basque born artist. Orteiza's formative years showed a strong influence of both Jacob Epstein and Constantin Brancusi, but his move from Madrid to Chile in the 1930s saw a shift in his aesthetic - largely brought about by an interest in pre-Columbian culture. Orteiza returned to Spain in 1947 and from this date began to work towards a greater abstraction by means of his 'Experimental Proposition' which contested that emptiness is the source of all form and that a viewer's engagement was heightened by 'negative space'. At this time he also took an interest in the work of Henry Moore.
Orteiza's sculptures are characterized by their small proportion - their accessible scale provokes reflection on the human and personal rather than a notion of artistic sublimation. The present sculpture embodies what is best of Orteiza's figurative work and expounds his proposition in its earliest form; we are invited to reflect on the raw block and what has been removed from it in order to see the entwined familial group as it emerges.
Orteiza's sculptures are characterized by their small proportion - their accessible scale provokes reflection on the human and personal rather than a notion of artistic sublimation. The present sculpture embodies what is best of Orteiza's figurative work and expounds his proposition in its earliest form; we are invited to reflect on the raw block and what has been removed from it in order to see the entwined familial group as it emerges.