Destination Information

Cesar Manrique

César Manrique (1919 - 1992) was born in Arrecife, Lanzarote, an island on which his artistic career has left indelible traces. A multifaceted and cosmopolitan artist, between 1945 and 1966 he lived in Madrid and New York, and traveled around the world. In 1966 he returned permanently to Lanzarote. It was a time when the island was beginning its tourist development, and he promoted a model of intervention in the territory based on sustainability, which sought to safeguard the island's natural and cultural heritage; a model that was decisive in the declaration of Lanzarote as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1993. Manrique elaborated a new aesthetic ideology, which he called art-nature/nature-art, which he was able to concretise in his special interventions, a singular example of public art in Spain: Jameos del Agua, his house in Tahiche (today the headquarters of the César Manrique Foundation). He also devised different proposals on other islands. Cultivator of various creative languages (painting, sculpture, urban planning, public art), underlying his artistic production as a whole is a clear desire to integrate with the natural environment. An effort of harmonization, in short, which not only refers to his passion for beauty, but also for life.