The Gipuzkoan space has put together a sculpture development that begins on the academicism of the nineteenth century, but starts being important at the beginning of the twentieth century. Undeniably, the Basque contemporary sculpture grows in paths that are very close, the ones of Oteiza and Chillida, from which the new generations have inspired themselves. Alongside this names, there’s Iñigo Arregi’s, who runs from the influence of this masters to get to his own sculptural concept. A breaking point is, without any doubt, the attendance at the Escuela of Aránzazu, with the works of the artists in the Basilica.
A path that can be observed with clarity along the last decades, a development that can be seen in his models, as a main element of the last result which acquires form before our eyes. It’s as if a wide geometric variation, in which he recreates his creative element and with which he draws a line that identifies it. It Is an essential asset on his working process.
Summing up his career in a few lines would be impossible. His results are evident in this exhibition, which with nuances, shows a breaking point which marks the before and after of a long-term path. A tridimensional puzzle, where the blueprint joins in a natural way without investigating the volume. His work is meticulous, analyzing from the development of the experimental mock-up, which we could name the real blueprint of the final work. It’s a constant research and a conscientious one, in which he highlights the never-changing search for shadows, the ones we can find between hollows and spaces that each one of the sculptures project upon themselves.
We can perceive something similar in his ruled way of working, full of nuances, where the Collage gathers the necessary elements to make the relief, very pronounced and deep, overlap the plane, making a strong difference, something we’ve already seen in his sculpture. These are scenography designs so restless that have marked his whole artistic career, creating lines that have allowed him to develop, without losing his essence, what his creative dimension wants. The different techniques, in which the serigraphy turns out to be also an option, strongly nourishes the result of his latest works, defining a time and a space. A whole natural development undeniably united to his vision and sculptural form nowadays.
All of this, undeniably, leads us to highlight the elements of an elaborated cooking with time, which makes us look without anger, the opposite, to another creative period. This is one of the moments in which painting made Iñigo Arregi feel restless, at the same time it marked, without any doubt, other spaces that we can now appreciate and compare, all of it, from the distance that the path in time on his long work allows us. Observe and appreciate the sculptures touching them with your fingers, these are the result of his thoughts. It’s the best way you can evaluate the dynamic of feelings and understand the background of this work, worthy of any contemporary art collection.