The urban works of Eduardo Chillida, found in cities across the globe, figure among the most intense and telling creations of contemporary, monumental scale sculpture. Bringing together architectural, urban and landscape concerns, the Basque sculptor deals in the organization of forms in space and as they relate to either the exterior environment in which they are placed or a hermetic, closed interior. This study analyzes not only the artistic, stylistic and environmental aspects of Chillida's work but also its ethical components. The sculptor's deep social commitment endows his work with the freedom to formulate all manner of questions relating to urban and political contexts. Thus his Stelae are a kind of civil message that recurrently honors thinkers, progressive politicians and men and women of ingenuity. Chillida plays identical homage to poets in his House of Goethe in Frankfurt, and to artists in his Homage to Hokusai in Japan.
