Gift by the artist to the present owner

Hernani, Museo Chillida-Leku, Peine del Viento. Cronología de una serie, 2007, illustrated on the cover
Bayonne, Musée Basque et de l'histoire de Bayonne, Chillida Peigne du Vent, 2007-8, pp. 16 and 20, no. 9, illustrated
Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, Chillida, Peine del Viento, Escultura, Ingeniería y Arquitectura, 2009

María Elósegui Itxaso, Chillida's El Peine del Viento in San Sebastián. Installation Engineering José María Elósegui (1977), Bilbao 2008, p. 121, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition, close inspection reveals there is a very fine and stable crack to the lower central vertical element as visible in the catalogue illustration and inherent to the casting process.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A beautiful and intricate paradigm of the eponymous series, Estudio Peine del Viento VIII from 1968 is a work of major importance to the revered sculptor's canon. Executed almost ten years before Peine del Viento XV of 1977, the famed monumental sculpture that marks the threshold between land and sea at the Basque artist's native San Sebastian, the present work sits squarely within a remarkable journey of creative innovation that occupied Chillida until 1999. Indeed, Estudio Peine del Viento VIII belongs to the cycle of Peine del Viento works that are closest to Chillida's 1977 masterpiece that still today defies the wind and waves at the end of the Paseo de Ondarreta, at the foot of Mount Igueldo in San Sebastian.

The stunning, polished struts of the present work strike a complex interplay between solid and void that is singularly inimitable of and defining to Chillida's sculptural dialect. Kosme de Barañano has observed that Chillida's realm of sculpting "is the world of the forge, the active world of the blacksmith, not that of bronze and casting" (Exhibition Catalogue, Valencia, IVAM  Centre, Eduardo Chillida: Elogio del Hierro, 1998, p. 180) and the beautifully polished and reflective surfaces of the lyrical metallic form here retell the story of its creation. This work's poetic dance in space, continually adjusting as our perspective evolves around it, evokes the whistling air of the negative void, and implicitly references the northern coast of Spain and San Sebastian, where the wind is rarely quiet. The epic eponymous series that includes this work has been widely lauded by critics and public alike: while Peine del Viento I of 1952 resides in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Peine del Viento VI of 1968 was installed outside the UNESCO building in Paris in 1970; and Peine del Viento XIV of 1976 is housed in the Sprengel Museum, Hanover.

The public sculpture of 1977 that this work prefigured held profound importance for the artist. Asked in 1999 to reflect on fifty years working in sculpture, the artist declared: "I'm proud of the Peine del Viento in San Sebastian. It's one of my first pieces open to nature. Additionally, my first vision as a sculptor is that place, and what the place produced is the vision that I came from it, as a child and from my home" (the artist in conversation with Kosme de Barañano, cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Bilbao, Guggenheim, Homage to Chillida, 2006, p. 112). At the confluence of the Bay of Biscay and the foot of Mount Iglueldo, three corten steel sculptures, each occupying about two cubic metres, are anchored onto limestone rocks: two horizontally facing each other from opposing cliffs and the third standing vertically on a reef out to sea. The result is one of the most recognisable sculptural phenomena of the later Twentieth Century, the crescendo of a lifetime's inspiration where sculpture does not merely inhabit a space but rather creates a space of its own. Estudio Peine del Viento VIII was central to the conceptual and physical genesis of this spectacular achievement, and stands today as the vestige of Chillida's unprecedented⭕ artistic vision.