Fundación-Museo Jorge Oteiza

Fundación-Museo Jorge Oteiza Review

Just 8 km (5 miles) east of Pamplona on the road toward France, this museum dedicated to the father of modern Basque art is a must-visit. Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003), in his seminal treatise, Quosque Tandem, called for Basque artists to find an aesthetic of their own instead of attempting to become part of the Spanish canon. Rejecting ornamentation in favor of essential form and a noninvasive use of space, Oteiza created a school of artists of which the sculptor Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) was the most famous. The building itself, Oteiza's home for more than two decades, is a large cube of earth-colored concrete designed by Oteiza's longtime friend, Pamplona architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza. The sculptor's living quarters, his studio and laboratory, and the workshop used for teaching divide the museum into three sections.