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© Author: Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea
• Editor: General Office of Turist Promotion• Design and photographs: Sonia Rueda• Printing: Flash Composition S.L.• Legal deposit: BI-2701-07
1. Jesús Lizaso (1961)“Amatxo” (Mother) (2002)
2. Manuel Basterra (1882-1947)Monument to José Mª de Acha (1931)
3. Ricardo Iñurria (1908-1995)Bust of Alberto del Palacio Elissague (1956)
4. Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959)Monument to Evaristo Churruca (1919-1939)
5. Higinio Basterra (1876-1957)Tribute to Darío Regoyos (1926)
6. Vicente Larrea (1934)“Algorta Two” (1999)
7. Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959)Pantheon of the Valle family
8. Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959)Pantheon of the Diliz family (1914)
9. Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959)Pantheon of the Salvadora Cortina family (1912)
10. Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959)Pantheon of the family of Emilio Basagoiti (1918)
11. Jose Ramón Carrera (1935)“Vindication of the pelota court” (1975)
12. Néstor Basterretxea (1924)“Biscay, a Wave of Iron” (1989)
13. Vicente Larrea (1934)“Reredos of Freedom” (1989-90)
14. AnonymousTribute to Eugenio Gutiérrez Salazar (2002)
15. Rob Krier (1938)Untitled (1990-1991)
16. Néstor Basterretxea (1924)“Leioako indarra” (The Force of Leioa) (2001)
17. Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003)“Proposamen dinamikoa / Dynamic Proposition” (2002)
18. José Ramón Anda (1949)“Besarkada” (Embrace) (2005)
3. ESKUINALDEA
A great many works of public art can be observed on the right bank of the river estuary. The municipalities of Erandio, Leioa and Getxo are well furnished with sculptures, from the past and present, not only from the first half of the 20th century but also more recent. The work by Rob Krier (1938) is an international ex-ception. Basque sculptors from the first half of the twentieth century are well represented by Higinio Basterra (1876-1957), Manuel Basterra (1882-1947), Ricardo Iñurria (1908-1995) and Miguel García de Sala-zar (1877-1959) from Algorta, who has an important number of works in this area. The Basque post-war school movement is excellently represented by Jorge
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Oteiza (1908-2003), Néstor Basterretxea (1924), Vice-nte Larrea (1934) and Jose Ramón Carrera (1935). In-debted to them are the authors of the following gen-eration, such as José Ramón Anda (1949) and Jesús Lizaso (1961). The motifs of the works are very varied. There are inter-esting funerary pantheons. Some public monuments, like those that acknowledge the work of the engineer Churruca, the painter Darío Regoyos, the sports per-sonality José Mª Atxa or the architect Alberto del Pala-cio. There are also good example of the sense of inno-vation and avant-garde research, situated between the autonomy of plastic art and a connotative nature.
1Jesús LIZASO (1961)
This is a constructivist work in Corten steel, based on very simple geometrical shapes. But it also has some iconic references that endow it with the condition of a figurative statue. This impression is confirmed by its title. “Amatxo” (Mother) is situated opposite the church in La Campa Erandio. A location that gives it the sense of a religious image representing the Virgin
and Child. The author is Jesús Liz-aso (1961). The sculpture was made in 2002 and has a variant that can be seen in the centre of Mungía.
ESKUINALDEA
Erandio
“Amatxo” (Mother) (2002)
2Manuel BASTERRA (1882-1947)
This is a work that originally stood in the no-longer-existing Ibaiondo sports stadium, where the pedestal supported a bronze bust which is currently in Go-belas, in the football ground of Arenas C.F. The base now stands in a small garden in Leioa, between the blocks of dwellings that form the corner with the av-enue of Santa Ana and Erribitarte. The inscription: TO JOSÉ Mª D ACHA can be read on the front. Below, the rhomboidal high relief of a football, with the coat of arms of Bizkaia in the middle, hitting the goal net. Rep-resenting a goal being scored, it alludes to the good management of Atxa when leading the Biscayan Foot-ball Federation. On the rear is a sculpture of a football and, in the centre, two hands being shaken in greeting and the legend “D UNIÓN CLUBS LIGA” below. This re-fers to the organisation created at the request of José María Atxa, who promoted the First Division League championship. On each of the sides is an octagonal medallion. The one on the right bears an illustration of two men pulling on a rope in order to pull down a tree and a date: 8 - XII - 1924. The one of the left has the in-scription KICK-OFF and the date 13 - IX – 1925 framing a bas relief that represents a ceremonial kick-off. The
monument was created by Manuel Basterra (1882-1947) and inaugurated with great pomp in 1931.
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Leioa
Monument to José Mª de Acha (1931)
3Ricardo IÑURRIA (1908-1995)
The Puente de Vizcaya is a transporter bridge that conveys people and vehicle from one side of the riv-er estuary to the other, between Portugalete and Las Arenas, the district of Getxo where the machinery is located. It was inaugurated on 28 July 1893, is the old-est transporter bridge in the world, and is still fully op-erational. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2006, the structure is 45 metres high and 160 metres long. The bridge allows the river to be navigable, thanks to the gondola that moves suspended from a travelling car-riage on the upper deck. According to UNESCO, it is “a perfect combination of functionality and aesthetic beauty, in an exceptional expression of technical crea-tivity”. It was the brainchild of Alberto del Palacio Elis-sague (1856-1939) who relied on Ferdinand Arnodin (1845-1924) to build it. The bust in tribute to the great Basque architect stands in a small garden beside this great triumphal arch of industrialisation. The piece
was carried out by Ricardo Iñurria Arzubide (1908-1995). The pedes-tal is made of stone and the head is bronze. It measures 270 x 67 x 67 and was inaugurated in 1956.
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Getxo
Bust of Alberto del Palacio Elissague (1956)
4Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
The monument to Evaristo Churruca (1841-1917) in Las Arenas was designed by Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959) in 1919, although its inauguration was de-layed until 1939. It consists of a high lighthouse-tower, around which a forceful bronze sculptural group is scattered, symbolising man’s struggle against the sea. The subject is expressed through the tense effort of a figure pushing a huge stone slab held up with dif-ficulty by one leg of Neptune, the mythological god of the sea. The seated statue of the person receiving the tribute presides over it from above and faces the sea. As the bronze plaque placed at the foot of the monu-ment in Las Arenas states, «in the centenary struggle of the City of Bilbao with the sea, he was the one who achieved the final victory, a century-old yearning of the Consulate (a precursor of the Chamber of Commerce). With his brilliant work he gave the estuary a new chan-nel, seafarers safety and universal category to this port, an original model of classicism». In addition to the coats of arms of Bilbao, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, there are allegories on the sides representing industry and shipping. The ensemble is emphatic and solemn and is made up of a set of highly dynamic statues.
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Getxo
Monument to Evaristo Churruca (1919-1939)
4Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
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Getxo
Monument to Evaristo Churruca (1919-1939)
4Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
ESKUINALDEA
Getxo
Monument to Evaristo Churruca (1919-1939)
5Higinio BASTERRA (1876-1957)
Darío Regoyos (1857-1913) was an important Asturian painter who decided to live and work in various towns in the Basque Country, including Getxo. He found the ideal light here that allowed him to search for chromat-ic nuances in nature. The monument to his memory was inaugurated in September 1926 in the district of Neguri, very close to the Town Hall. The simple lines of the bench are like an embrace and were carried out by the architect Manuel Mª Smith (1879-1956). The medal-lion is due to Higinio Basterra (1876-1957), who know
ESKUINALDEA
Getxo
Tribute to Darío Regoyos (1926)
Regoyos early in the 20th century. The relief captures the face of the artist from Ribadesella with vibratile modelling consistent with his features. It uses resunk-en planes, has a minimum thickness and manages to give the work expressiveness and apparent volume. The model of the commemorative bench was also fol-lowed in the tribute to another modern artist, the paint-er Adolfo Guiard (1860-1916), which was inaugurated the same year in Bilbao.
6Vicente LARREA (1934)
The matter is thin but twists and has the energetic force of a giant plant. It is called “Algorta dos” (Algorta Two) and was inaugurated in 1999. A structure which, from its skilful geometric abstraction, acts as a trunk, around which the organic world seems to climb up by entan-
gling itself. The sculpture was created by Vicente Larrea (1934) and is locat-ed beside the Algorta metro station.
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Getxo
“Algorta Two” (1999)
7Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
The Valle family pantheon is a work by Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959). It consists of a statue settled on some organic rocks. Angels protect men, are mes-sengers from God and guides who intercede on behalf of the deceased. They are asexual beings with long hair and large asymmetrical wings that show strength and temperance. One is coming down to the ground and the other is very dynamic and outlines an enveloping curve that reaches in front of the body. The large tunic that covers its body illustrates the nervous tension of
the moment. The figure appears to be waiting, but seems ready to leave. Its gaze rises towards the heavens and it is prepared to receive the soul of the deceased.
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Getxo
Pantheon of the Valle family
8Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
Mary Magdalene is the imploring figure that Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959) emphasises in the fam-ily pantheon (1914). The figure is in the posture of moving forward, like the Winged Victory of Samoth-race. She carries a small cross in her hands, joined to-gether in front of her body in a praying attitude. While directing her gaze into the beyond, she maintains an unstable balance. One of her knees is in genuflection and rests on a boat. This Caronte’s boat is arranged di-agonally, as though shaken by a sea formed with rocks
perforated by the climatic conditions of the place. The result is interesting and provides a scenographic feeling that leads to prayer and spiritual re-membrance.
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Getxo
Pantheon of the Diliz family (1914)
9Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
This work by Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959) from Algorta has dramatisation that exalts the feel-ing of narration. It uses metallic plates with different devout messages. It has a certain sentimentality and excessive anecdotism, as well as a romantic and pic-turesque nature that has suitable impact. The models compose a dynamic emergence of shapes and vol-umes arranged diagonally. The figures perhaps lack expressiveness and do not have the vibrant natural-ism of other authors. Without being very modern, it does not shy away from the conflict of difficulty and tries out its own personal compositions. It even uses natural rocks, beaten by the sea, that contribute very polished organic openings and cavities. This rough material supports the pieces and acts as a background framework for placing a lapidary message or to insert a part of the sculpture. It breaks with the frontal mo-notony and increases the movement of the spectator around open arrangements that afford a great variety of viewing points, both at a distance and close up. This is the case with the pantheon of the Salvadora Cortina family (1912). A grotto with a dual entrance framing
the genuflection of a woman in front of an angel with long wings on its back. Behind is the dramatisation of other imploring female figures.
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Getxo
Pantheon of the Salvadora Cortina family (1912)
10Miguel G. DE SALAZAR (1877-1959)
In the tomb of the family of Emilio Basagoiti (1918), Miguel García de Salazar (1877-1959) is influenced by the naturalist theatricality of Mariano Benlliure. The coffin and the beating of the angel’s wings recall the mausoleum that the Valencian sculptor raised in the Roncal valley in tribute to Gayarre (1895-1901). The sculptor from Algorta combines spiritual, allegoric, human and organic references in a scenographic en-semble that rises above the ground dynamically and with unstable tension. Just like a photographer cap-tures the moment of movement. Everything is in mo-tion. The whole has a strong diagonal arrangement that reinforces the solemnity of the scene. The infantile figures, a sign of purity and innocence, are at the foot of the coffin and point their fingers at it. At the high-
est point, the angel beats its wings, about to take charge of the soul so as to carry it into the divine presence.
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Getxo
Pantheon of the family of Emilio Basagoiti (1918)
11Jose Ramón CARRERA (1935)
This work stands outside the facilities of the Fadura sports centre in Getxo. The singular high relief is alu-minium and is composed of four different elements. Its soft colour, with its slight metallic shine, contrasts with the severe texture and opaque tone of the wall. The lines are curved and offset the regular geometric bands. The protruding surfaces are very forceful, rep-
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Getxo
“Vindication of the pelota court” (1975)
resenting mobility, and have great visual dynamism. The artist has created a falsification of perspective, thereby providing greater perceptive vertigo. In an ab-stract manner, it illustrates the tension and the speed of a game of pelota. The work is entitles “Vindication of the Pelota Court (Apología del frontón) (1975) and the author is Jose Ramón Carrera (1935).
12Nestor BASTERRETXEA (1924)
On the Romo roundabout, between Getxo and Leioa, stands “Biscay, a Wave of Iron” (Bizkaia, una ola de hierro) (1989). It is 10 metres tall and made of Corten steel and concrete. Its author is Néstor Basterretxea (1924) from Bermeo. It is an allegory on the regional territory which is situated between abstraction and figuration, between the presentation of plastic art and the representation of the effort of the population to triumph over the conditions of the territory. The work demonstrates the tension between the sea and miner-al ore, and alludes to the development of shipbuilding and metallurgy, the foundations for the commercial and economic success of the region. The piece origi-nally incorporated the movement of water between the planes and volumes of the sculpture. The bridge-shaped support structure is in dialogue with the geo-
metric shapes of the metal plates and its reflection in a circular pond that surrounds it.
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Getxo
“Biscay, a Wave of Iron” (1989)
13Vicente LARREA (1934)
This high relief is located at the extreme north end of the Boulevard de Leioa, a pedestrian precinct de-signed by the architects Iñaki Aurrekoetxea, Iñigo Viar and Josu Aurrekoetxea. The bronze by Vicente Larrea (1934) expresses a baroque universe of very varied, hazardous and changing artistic solutions. The Bilbao artist called it “Reredos of Freedom” (Retablo de la lib-ertad) (1989-90) and it measures 190 x 280 x 150 cm. It expresses the full development of unlimited creativ-ity and also promotes the idea of the effort that must be made in order to achieve such high human and artistic levels. Protruding from the wall, solid sheets seem to splash us, as if it were liquid matter. A set of layers that develop around a central cavity gradually expand like a maze and give the sensation of different volcanic eruptions. A complete unsteady feast for the eyes. The artist makes the matter and the surrounding space speak. The struggle to be free proves a desire full of difficulties.
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Leioa
“Reredos of Freedom” (1989-90)
14Anónimo
The tribute to Eugenio Gutiérrez Salazar, “Tigre” (Ti-ger) (14-1-1955 - 25- 2-1984) is anonymous. Sited in 2002, it stands in the square with the same name, beside the Avanzada highway. Although it is a small work, it shows great sensitivity. Little more than a set of cuts on limestone, it is still full of life and artistic knowledge. In spite of its size, it has the plastic quality of a dynamic succession of different points of view. It
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Leioa
Tribute to Eugenio Gutiérrez Salazar (2002)
takes on some spatial concerns which are linked to the research by Oteiza but shows some territorial and landscape references that allude to a mountainous scene. It is an emotive memorial arranged on a block of rough stone. It has a plate that bears an ikurriña (Basque flag) and the detail of the subject of the trib-ute, a person murdered in Zuberoa by the GAL.
15Rob KRIER (1938)
Rob Krier was born in Grevenmacher in 1938 and his preferred fields are urban design and architecture. He studied in Munich and has his studio in Berlin. Togeth-er with the Frenchman Marc Breitman, this Luxem-bourgian wants to recover the style of the Ensanche dwellings in the building to be erected in the Plaza Euskadi in Bilbao, the city’s new focal point. A project that tends to develop a traditional aesthetic frame-work, just as the nude male torso standing over the Avanzada highway at the level of Leioa, on one side
of the Boulevard, is traditional. It is made of bronze and rises over a high pedestal in two sections. It was created between 1990 and 1991 and the author transforms human anatomy and demonstrates a certain meta-morphic organicity. The figure has partly lost its arms and part of its legs, and dia-logues with the past, as if it had been re-trieved from an archaeological dig.
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Leioa
Untitled (1990-1991)
16Nestor BASTERRETXEA (1924)
Discoidal steles have an ancestral funerary meaning and an artistic shape with very specific modelling. They represent the human body and bear references to the life of the deceased on the circular area that corresponds to the head. Néstor Basterretxea (1924) has based his projects on this typology on many oc-casions. “Leioako indarra” (The Force of Leioa) (2001) is situated in the Elexalde park and was erected to commemorate the 475th anniversary of the parish. As its very title indicates, it comes to express that the force or power of the town lies in the people who have inhabited its territory. This is remembered and com-memorated with an ancestral symbol. The artist from Bermeo demonstrates popular merits by means of an ascending diagonally-arranged structuring, from left to right. This method of composition indicates joy and states that the challenge continues. A civil stele.
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Leioa
“Leioako indarra” (The Force of Leioa) (2001)
17Jorge OTEIZA (1908-2003)
The process of recovering the figure of Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003) not only covers the review of his original concepts and works but also the transfer of small piec-es into the large format of the public sphere. The final decade of his life was prodigious in the installation of large-scale sculptures throughout different towns in the Basque Country. One of the works that most dif-fers in this process of Oteizian enclaves is the one in Leioa. It is situated in the Plaza Rekalde, in front of the Kultur, an excellent glass building where the spatial solution of the Corten steel is reflected. “Proposamen dinamikoa / Dynamic Proposition” reveals a very aerial solution. It rises over a metal plate of the same mate-rial and provides a complete conjunction between the support and the figure. It measures twelve metres tall and was installed here in 2002. It comes from a minute model made in his Chalk Laboratory (Laboratorio de Tizas). It is placed where the author stipulated and in-augurated in May, a few days before his demise.
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Leioa
“Proposamen dinamikoa / Dynamic Proposition” (2002)
17Jorge OTEIZA (1908-2003)
ESKUINALDEA
Leioa
“Proposamen dinamikoa / Dynamic Proposition” (2002)
18José Ramón ANDA (1949)
The ethic of work well done and spatial research are some of the virtues that surround the work of José Ramón Anda Goikoetxea (1949). It is made of bronze cast at Alfa Arte in Eibar and is located in the Ikea Men-di area, on a hillside close to the Kultur Leioa building. The piece is vertical and rises with totemic sobriety. It is the consequence of the union of two elements. The exterior is an elongated entrance bridge whose styli-zation has to do with the typology of the commemora-tive stele. The artist starts from the distortion of the plane and creates the dynamic succession of a sheet that ascends until its upper part forms a round arch and returns to earth. At the same time, another thin, slightly concave surface with a small round window is inserted and joins the former at an integrator limit. It bears the title “Besarkada” (Embrace) and the au-thor intends it to be an embrace between everybody, wherever they come from. It weighs one tonne, stands
4 metres high and was inau-gurated in 2005. The sculptor from Bakaiku proposes an in-terlacing of straight lines and curved surfaces whose gentle patina makes light slide over it and encourages one to touch the sculpture.
ESKUINALDEA
Leioa
“Besarkada” (Embrace) (2005)
3- eskuinaldea
