The Wave

Sculptor: Jorge Oteiza, signed
Materials: aluminum skid plate
Opening: July 3, 1998

Plaza del Angel was up to the Olympic Games, a small extension of the Angels in his street corner Elisabets. In constructed building of the Museum of Contemporary Art, was left between it and the Chapel of the Angels a large paved square that took the name of that, though she was not exactly an expansion, but a radical transformation. In this place were put at the end of the nineties a sculpture and a frieze of Basque writers, Gipuzkoa, one of Eduardo Chillida (San Sebastian, 1924-2002) and the Jorge Oteiza (Orio, 1908 - San Sebastian 2003). His colossal helped fill some emptiness of the new urban space.

The Wave is inspired by a sculpture made of bronze 5cm 1957 when Oteiza experimented with small pieces and concave and convex shapes. Part of the last stage, since shortly after doing the activity abandoned sculpture to devote himself to poetry. From that became an extension of wood, since the current dimensions and, based on this model, became the final piece of aluminum painted black color that contrasts with the white of the building museum neighbor. Carries a dedication to the director of the MACBA Foundation, Leopoldo Rodés, alluding to the condition that the sport of pelota. It weighs three tons and a half. Funding was provided by the company Media Planning.

The placement of the sculpture in the Plaza de los Angeles, July 3, 1998, was attended by the author, who was already 90 years old, accompanied by his aide Ion Inchaustegui. In the square, the architect Richard Meier initially proposed a sculpture by Frank Stella; then, for economic reasons, but also not so directly identify an artist with the museum, the idea was abandoned. Later considered a project of Richard Serra; but its weight was raised incompatible with the structure of the square, in fact, cover parking. Finally, the Foundation, along with various sponsors, proposed placing three pieces, two of Oteiza and Chillida already placed and another Susana Solano, in the backyard, which was dismissed in court considered that the free was necessary for the museum's activities.