César Manrique: a contemporary of the future

César Manrique centenary: Art and legacy in Lanzarote

A visionary of the 20th century

On April 24, the centenary of the birth of César Manrique was celebrated. An integral artist (painter, sculptor, architect), a great communicator who dedicated his whole life to the love of his land: Lanzarote first, and then the Canary Islands. The island that gave birth to this multifaceted artist, loved and appreciated worldwide, inaugurated on April 24 an extensive program of events and activities dedicated to him, which also includes a traveling exhibition that will tour the entire archipelago for a year, in memory of someone who was a great communicator, educator, and mentor of his beloved island, Lanzarote.

César Manrique's futuristic vision

A visionary who explored a future that no one had yet imagined. His critical thinking, vision of the territory, the evolution of responsible tourism, and sustainable development were pioneering concepts that he developed and followed to the end of his days. The exhibition project "100 years: Lanzarote and César," promoted by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, will tour all the Canary Islands. The traveling nature of the exhibition will bring César Manrique's figure and the evolution of Lanzarote in the last century closer to all the islands, as well as stimulate internal tourism among them.

The century of César: Transformation and art in Lanzarote. The change in the 60s and 70s

An exhibition that highlights the reinvention movement that "shook" the island of Lanzarote in the 60s and 70s of the last century, just when the first desalination plant was installed and the first passenger air connection was inaugurated. The island opened up to the economic sector of tourism, which would significantly influence the life and development of this insular territory as well as the entire archipelago. Manrique's figure is fundamental to understanding what happened during what can be defined, for all intents and purposes, as "the century of César," in a fragile, difficult, and remote territory like Lanzarote.

A cultural and landscape legacy

Manrique's vision of his land, his archipelago, fits perfectly as the deepest sign of what occurred throughout Spain during the 20th century: the interpretation of a landscape, the construction of a vision, the creation of a story capable of placing the volcano and lava at the center of people's imagination.

Art made nature. A unique and respectful aesthetic

His art was made to please people, an art that was born from love and an extraordinary sensitivity that moved ceaselessly toward beauty. And Lanzarote's beauty is dry, rugged, volcanic, wild, where light and color awaken an inexplicable attraction. Traditional architecture, Byzantine reminiscences, immaculate white walls, green and blue windows. This small paradise, like the entire archipelago, hides treasures that captivate you.

Integration of art and nature

In just a few years, Manrique managed to embed his work in the Canary Islands, not to alter it, but to enhance its characteristics. He developed new aesthetic categories, based on an idea he called “art-nature/nature-art,” with which he integrated various artistic expressions into his landscape works (viewpoints, gardens, revaluation of degraded spaces, coastlines, etc.), always in the name of a respectful dialogue with nature.

Emblematic works of César Manrique

Among his works created in the archipelago, we like to remember in Lanzarote: the Jameos del Agua, El Taro de Tahíche (his home); in Tenerife: Lago Martiánez, in Puerto de La Cruz; the Maritime Park, in Santa Cruz; in La Gomera: the Mirador de El Palmarejo; in El Hierro: the Mirador de La Peña.

He shaped the landscapes, but his art, his movement was also expressed with wonderful words: “Man was not created for this artificiality, there is an urgent need to return to the earth, to touch it, to smell it. This is what I feel.”