From the Collages and Glass Models of Oteiza to the Concrete of Sáenz de Oíza

Abstract

The Jorge Oteiza Foundation Museum in Alzuza (Navarra, Spain) was designed by the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, with the sculptor Jorge Oteiza intervening in the architectural decisions at particular moments. The building marked the conclusion of a series of collaborations between them, beginning in the early 1950s, marked by an intense convergence between art and architecture. The building contains and interacts with the artistic works in a powerful way, but at the same time with great care and awareness, demonstrating the extent to which Sáenz de Oíza understood the sculptural work of Oteiza. This article explores the connection between the museum (2003) and the artistic experiments of the sculptor in pieces called “Light Wall” (1956), made using glass models and collages whose main references are the Suprematist paintings of Malevich. Sáenz de Oíza made use of Oteiza’s artistic concept, which took shape in the fabric of the architecture. Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp serves as a bridge between their ideas, a reference found in Oteiza’s sculptural experiments and in his text Experimental Proposal (1957) and in the architecture proposed by Sáenz de Oíza for the museum.