Anyone visiting Lanzarote will soon come across the name Cesar Manrique. As the island born artist and architect oversaw the evolution of controlled tourism on the island and the development of most of Lanzarote´s unique tourist attractions. As well as much else besides. But above all else Manrique was a gifted painter – and here we take a closer look at his work on canvas.
Cesar Manrique was born in Arrecife – Lanzarote´s capital – in 1919 and developed a love of both art and the natural beauty of Lanzarote from a young age.
For Manrique, the need to express himself through painting was almost overwhelming. He once said ‘I need to paint like I need to love. My work is my life. Little by little I have pushed the artistic boundaries to embrace a broader sense of creativity that seeks to establish symbiosis between art and nature… True beauty is found in nature, and there is no art form that can surpass nature.’
This desire to recreate or express ‘nature’ is visible in the many canvases he created which mirror the natural scenery of the island. And he attributed his inspiration to the beauty of Lanzarote, often citing the summers he spent at Famara as a child as a major influence. ‘The natural surroundings there made a strong impression on me especially the magnificent Famara Cliffs and I spent many an hour totally captivated by their reflection in the puddles left behind by the tide.’
Thus his techniques soon enshrined the use of materials that reproduced these rich textures, mimicking the lava and basalt formations of the volcanic landscape.
As a graduate of the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid he spent a few years in the early fifties in both Paris and Madrid, encountering the works of Picasso and Matisse. Such was his commitment to the abstract movement, he co-founded the Fernando Fé Gallery in Madrid in 1953 which was Spain’s first non-figurative art gallery.
Like many artists, his early forays into painting were more literal and figurative representations involving recognisable landscapes, figures and objects – such as the mural ‘Viento en La Geria’ produced in 1950, which contains three people being blown by the wind against a backdrop of wine fields and a volcano. There are similarities in style to that of Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter who drew figures with thick rounded limbs.
This mural, along with two others, ‘La Pesca’ and ‘Vendimia’ were originally on display at the former Parador on the seafront in Arrecife. Unfortunately they were damaged in a fire but have since been restored thanks to the efforts of the Government in conjunction with the Fundación César Manrique in Tahiche. The Parador is now used as a Municipal Library and as such is not open to members of the public, but copies of the murals have been reproduced in postcards and posters, which are available in the various outlets selling Manrique souvenirs.
Another of his murals adorned the walls of the original airport terminal – a highly colourful pictorial representation of the island to greet visitors as they arrived. This artwork in acrylic paints is now on display at the newly inaugurated AENA Airport Museum and measures 110cm by 946 cm.
Several of the drawings and sketches he created in the 40’s and 50’s which are on display at the Fundación illustrate the accuracy with which he could depict living forms, including a pencil drawing of his wife and another of a camel’s head and shoulders. His tentative outlines for designs later used to create the wind toys which adorn many of the roundabouts on the island are also on show here in the Sala de Bocetos (Sketches).
However, there are many more examples of his abstract work, both at the Fundación and at other art galleries. He began experimenting in non-figurative painting in 1953 and this soon became his main style of pictorial expression. For example, by 1954 he had created canvases such as The Origin of Man – an abstract representation in acrylic paints of the ovaries.
By 1964, when he exhibited works at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York, the abstract style was very pronounced, with paintings in oils, grit and sand providing texture, colour and movement similar to the patterns visible on volcanoes across the island.
Thus, he named one canvas ‘Bajo el Volcán’, (1977) in reference to Malcolm Lowry’s book ‘Under the volcano’ – this particular work illustrates a partial return to figurative representation with its skeleton depicted entombed underground, although Manrique never abandoned his fascination primarily with texture.
‘Bajo el Volcán’ is included in the permanent exhibition at the Fundación César Manrique in what was his former studio. It is one of a series of works created between 1974-1977, that all take a slight departure from the abstract with visible figurative elements, such as a mosquito or bones, amidst the patterns formed by the paint and other materials.
During his lifetime, he achieved a high level of recognition as an artist, winning awards and plaudits worldwide. Several of his paintings now hang in prestigious foreign galleries, such as the Buffalo Art Museum and the galleries attached to Princeton and Harvard Universities in the United States. And private collectors, such as Nelson Rockefeller, also acquired a number of his canvases.
Where To See His Work
The Fundacion Cesar Manrique houses the largest amount of his work on the island. But there are Manrique canvases on permanent exhibition at the Museum of International and Contemporary Art at the Castillo de San Jose in Arrecife.
Some of his large scale earlier murals can also be viewed at the Gran Melia Salinas hotel in Costa Teguise and at the Airport Museum.
