On Saturday, January thirteenth, 1951, Gonzalo Chillida Juantegui (San Sebastian, 1926-2008) joined the College of Spain, at 9 Boulevard Jourdan in the Cité Universitaire in Paris. He remained there until the end of June of that year (2), with the air of an academic semester. He would return in the autumn of the following year, November 29, 1952, staying there until June 26, 1953, this time coinciding with a full academic year. Shall we continue with the certainties? No, simply no, since these data are perhaps the most precise we know of Gonzalo's stay in Paris, which allows us to begin by mentioning the justice of Gabriel Celaya's description of "this secret man" (3), perhaps the continuation of a very relevant brotherhood of painters and, in general, artists, who, like Faulkner in his western cottonwood, were capable of living without letting themselves be seen. Gonzalo seems to be a true practitioner of the art of disappearing, as if, in leaving no traces, he enjoys the magic of the hermit in his retreat (4), practicing what Maurice Blanchot said: "How can we make ourselves disappear? The rest to be narrated will remain caressed in the mist of time, just as in his painting certain notes appear in history like interview islands, rocks, projections, dragged sands, vanished beaches on which the water left its mark. But certain notes will allow us to trace clues: let us advance then, knowing the thicket.
In his request for his stay at the Colegio de España, Gonzalo stated his wish to continue his painting studies, without explaining the place (5), the meaning of "continue" perhaps referring to those begun in Madrid, a new suspension of the trial. It is known that the norm to remain in the College was to maintain some kind of justified academic studies in Paris (6). Prior to his departure for the French capital, Gonzalo Chillida had made several attempts to study in the Madrid of 1947, which looked out to the fertile fifties. As Rafael Canogar has evoked at the same time 7, it was a Madrid that in the pictorial aspect received the teachings of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, one of the figures revered by the young painters of that time, Gonzalo Chillida dividing his time between the attempt of learning for the entrance in the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando 8 and the drawings in the Circle of Fine Arts, to it joined the true magisterium of the Museum of the Prado, that - this is a certainty - he will visit during all his life. And the excursions to the outskirts of Madrid, Avila so drawn in the main place 9. In such a way that his creative process could be assimilated to the context of the so-called "Young Madrid school" 10, a still figuration, of flat lights and that, in certain works, especially the still lifes, some still lifes with a stony air, an almost sculptured painting, would lead those canvases towards a notorious metaphysical semblance. A Basque in via Fondazza? They were still-lifes with an air of accentuated disconnection between forms, objects and fruits, set aside breads or cheeses, plates and jars without relation, like dispossessed objects. As if they were pots with their longing shadows, obsessed by the consciousness of space (11).
Meanwhile, his brother Eduardo, who had arrived at the Spanish College in Paris three years earlier, in 1948, was far away all that 1951, residing in Villaines-sous-Bois, fifty kilometers north of Paris (12). And, since Eduardo returned to Hernani at the end of that last year, the meetings between them must have been scarce. It is a story we have already told (13): in an old cider mill, "Pompei", so called in Villaines because of its ruinous air (14), under that name that spoke of the past, was where Eduardo would conceive his workshop in France, a world of still sculptures, in plaster or stone, some inspired by his encounters with the rooms of ancient cultures of the Louvre, which are at the origin of his sculptural work.
Room number 34, studio-workshop 135 in one of the towers on the fifth floor of the Colegio de España, next to Narciso Yepes' (15), so that, from then on, music, perhaps tentative compositions of his "Jeux interdits" (16), would accompany the painter Gonzalo Chillida in his daily work (17). Another friendship from that time at the Boulevard Jourdan: the Moroccan law student Maurice Cohen, resident at the Spanish school during the 1950-1951 academic year, portrayed by the artist on a couple of occasions (18). And which artists did he meet at the school? In my opinion, among all of them, one encounter had to be essential: the one with Pablo Palazuelo, with whom he coincided at the College during the whole second cycle of his stay in Paris (19), between 1952 and 1953, when the Madrid-born artist had just returned from Villaines and before his departure, in the spring of 1954, to the mythical thirteen rue Saint-Jacques, where, between confinement and admiration for that mixed-race neighborhood, the revived homeland of François Villon (20), he would remain until 1968. In a set of recently found photographs these encounters are revealed, summer of 1955, Gonzalo's visits to Pablo's studio, already in the rue Saint-Jacques or country excursions (21) of the triad of friends (Eduardo, Gonzalo and Pablo) met with Louis Clayeux (22), and the gallery owners Paule and Adrien Maeght, images that reminded me of that time. part of the countryside by Jean Renoir. (…)
(Excerpt from the catalog, ed. Galería José de la Mano, Madrid, 2021).
2 On June 26, 1951.
3 CELAYA, Gabriel. The painting of Gonzalo Chillida. Op. cit.
4 Or that adage of Bernardo Soares about "the nocturnal glory of being great being nothing (...) the somber magic of the unknown splendor (...) the sublime of the monk in the desert, of the hermit in his retreat". PESSOA, Fernando. Livro do desassossego by Bernardo Soares. São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 2003, p. 46. The edition consulted.
5 It is not recorded in the Archives Nationales, in France, in the so-called "fonds relatifs à l'instruction publique", kept in these Archives. Communication from Dominique Piron, 11/III/2021. His name has not been found in the archives of the École Nationale de Beaux Arts, although we know that the presence of free students was possible. The same for the so-called École du Louvre, another place frequented by the artists of that time. Communication from Isabelle Bador, Chef du service de la scolarité, École du Louvre: "Il a pu sui- vre éventuellement des cours comme auditeur libre, sans inscription particulière, mais de cela je n'ai pas la trace" (2/IV/2021).
6 This is what we know in the case of Palazuelo, enrolled since November 30, 1948, as a free student in the studio of René Jaudon, at the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in the Latin Quarter (Archives nationales AJ52 / 1353: Registre d'inscription des élèves dans les ateliers de peinture, sculpture, architecture et gravure, 1945-1957). Source: Joëlla de Couëssin, Chargée d'études documentaires, École National Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris (VII/2009). Something similar in the case of Eusebio Sempere, who declared to be a student at the same school and later declared his intention to study Art History at the Louvre (request of 1/XI/1955). It is explained in: DE LA TORRE, Alfonso. Eusebio Sempere: another gentleman of solitude [And back to Paris in the fifties].. Alicante: "Canelobre", nº 69, Instituto alicantino de cultura Juan Gil Albert, Summer 2018, pp. 106-122.
7 We have recalled it in the catalog: DE LA TORRE, Alfonso. Rafael Canogar. Yesterday Today. Fuenlabrada: CEART, 2019. Rafael Canogar made a gloss on Daniel Vázquez Díaz, an artist he has always considered capi- tal. CANOGAR, Rafael. Memory of Daniel Vázquez Díaz. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2004.
8 "He asked to take the practical drawing test to begin his studies, but there is no record in his file of whether he completed or passed it. The document (...) is an application 'requesting the practical entrance exam', signed on April 30, 1947. It states that he resides in Ciudad Universitaria, room 167". Correspondence with Mikel Lertxundi, 1/IV/2021.
9 There are drawings of the city since 1945.
10 Buchholz Gallery, The young Madrid schoolMadrid, November 21-December 15, 1945. The exhibition was attended by a group of painters and sculptors: Pedro Bueno, Álvaro Delgado, Juana Faure, Eustaquio Fernández Miranda, Carlos Ferreira, José (García) Guerrero, Luis García Ochoa, Antonio Lago, Juan Antonio Morales, Pablo Palazuelo, Miguel Pérez Espinosa and José Planes. The matter of the new "Madrid School" was dealt with in 1954 by Manuel Sanchez Camargo (Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, Madrid, 1954). Let us remember the accurate observation that José Luis Fernández del Amo underlined about them: they were a group that "lived in the risk of novelty" when this had not yet lost its unusual character. Quoted by CAMPOY, Antonio Manuel. Valdivieso, Ramiro Tapia, Balinska, Engravings, 'Art Nouveau'.. Madrid: "ABC", 26/XII/1967,
p. 20. This exhibition was remembered in 1974 at the Zodiaco Art Gallery, Homage Exhibition on the 29th anniversary of the one held at the Buchholz Gallery, Madrid, March 1-30, 1974.
11 See in this regard: LERTXUNDI GALIANA, Mikel. Spaces for reflection. In "Gonzalo Chillida. Donosti: Kubo-Kutxa, 2016, pp. 17-27. The same author specified that this "first period of tanteos is difficult to classify, largely because of the systematic destruction to which it was subjected by the artist himself years later, but it is reminiscent of much of the local work produced in the post-war period". LERTXUNDI GALIANA, Mikel. Gonzalo Chillida, a frontier painter. In "Gonzalo Chillida". Donosti: Koldo Mitxelena, 2013, p. 15.
12 Perhaps Gonzalo could have visited him, if we know that he was easily accessible by train from the Parisian Gare du Nord.
13 Eduardo Chillida's stay at the Colegio de España is officially between 1948 and 1950, in chronology adjusted to his stay in Villaines between October 1950 and October 1951. It is narrated, for example, in: DE LA TORRE, Alfonso. Calm, silence, work in peace. Madrid: Ediciones del Umbral, 2019. That month (October 1951) the Chillida-Belzunce couple settles in Villa Alegre, in La Florida, Hernani (Gipuzkoa). Source: Ixiar Iturzaeta. Archive & Library. Chillida Leku, 9/III/2021. The marriage of Eduardo Chillida and Pilar Belzunce took place on July 28, 1950.
14 UGALDE, Martín de. Talking to Chillida, Basque sculptor. San Sebastián: Editorial Txertoa, 1975, p. 75.
15 Portrayed, from behind with guitar, in two drawings by the artist, 1952. Conserved in the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao. Yepes stayed nine months at the Colegio de España.
16 At that time Yepes scored René Clément's film "Jeux interdits" (1952).
17 Conversation with Alicia Chillida, 17/II/2021. Also: "Narciso Yepes was residing at the College from 1951 to 1952 and occupied room n°81. And with short stays he stayed in 1950 and 1953 (...)". Source: Ana María Pedrerol, 15/III/2021.
18 Portrayed on a couple of occasions in 1951. Preserved in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.
19 It is obvious to point out that it is known that Palazuelo and Chillida coincided during their stay in Villaines-sous-bois and that, therefore, there was little meeting place in Paris during Gonzalo's first stay there.
20 "Little is known with certainty about these periods: neither where he studied, nor with whom, nor what environments he frequented, but it is known that he met Pablo Palazuelo, Georges Braque and the musician Narciso Yepes, with whom he formed a good friendship that would last a lifetime". LERTXUNDI GALIANA, Mikel. Gonzalo Chillida, a frontier painter. In "Gonzalo Chillida". Donosti: Koldo Mitxelena, 2013, p. 19.
21 At La Charité-sur-Loire.
22 Louis Clayeux (La Charité-sur-Loire, 1913-2007), was director of the Maeght gallery from 1948 to 1964. An important figure in our history, close to Palazuelo and Chillida, he also knew Fernando Zóbel. He visited the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español de Cuenca in December 1964 to negotiate the incorporation of Eduardo Chillida's "Abesti Gogorra IV", which presides over the Museum. It is told in: DE LA TORRE, Alfonso. Zóbel-Chillida, a meeting. In "Zóbel-Chillida. Caminos cruzados-Crisscrossing paths". Barcelona: Galería Mayoral, 2019. According to Alicia Chillida, next his departure pursued the integration of Gonzalo Chillida into the Galerie Maeght team. Conversation 8/IV/2021.
