This elegant, understated painting by Gonzalo Chillida represents a view of the sea and the sky.

The younger brother of the celebrated sculptor Eduardo Chillida, in his earlier paintings Gonzalo adopted a realistic and naturalistic approach, clearly influenced by and close to the work of Pablo Palazuelo (1916-2007) and Benjamín Palencia (1894-1980). It was in the late 1960s when he began to lean towards more abstract tendencies, little by little leaving figuration behind in favour of diluted forms executed in soft chromatic nuances, skilfully straddling definition and non-definition.

It was then when he began to take an interest in seascapes, which would go on to become the core focus of his painting, with a special predilection for greyish and misty Basque landscapes. Drawing inspiration from Romanticism, he came close to the dense and hazy horizons painted by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840).

This Seascape from 1981 stands out for its admirable simplicity and austerity. In it, sky and sea make up an inseparable whole, divided only by the vague, barely glimpsed horizon. Gonzalo Chillida creates what could be called an “expanded landscape” which seems to have no end, forcing the gaze to go beyond the limits of the canvas.