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FCG International Visual Arts 2008: MARTÍN CHIRINO
“Because of his lifetime trajectory, always in the vanguard, and his permanent research and innovation of shapes. Also, because of his creativity and his fidelity in the use and transformation of materials, which have made him a reference of contemporary sculpture”.
According to the Jury that met in Valladolid (July 14th, 2008), chaired by:Mrs. Pilar Citoler Carilla, President of the Patronage of the Queen Sofia National Art Center Museum, and made up by the following members: Mr. Jesús Andreu Ardura, member of the Board of Directors of the RTVE Spanish National Radio and Television Corporation; Mr. Miguel Ángel Cortés Martín, Popular Party Congressman for Valladolid and former Secretary of State for Culture (1996-2000) and former Secretary of State for International and Iber-American Cooperation (2000-2004); Mrs. Raquel Gutiérrez Pérez, Director of the Artistic Tecnique Area of IVAM (Institut Valencià d´Art Modern); Mrs. Catalina Luca de Tena y García Conde, Editor-in-Chief of ABC Newspaper; Mr. Francisco Somoza Rodríguez-Escudero, Architect.
MARTÍN CHIRINO - Biography
Martín Chirino, eleventh of twelve brothers, was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), near the Las Canteras Beach, on 1 March 1925. His father, head of the Blandy Brothers Shipyard in Puerto de la Luz, combined this work with a private business as a ship-owner (The Las Canteras Beach was his first landscape, a common area for artists from the Canaries in the second half of the century, and the Blandy Shipyards became the first contact Chirino was to have with metal).
His father wanted him to work in the shipping world, so he did so for a few years. He traveled along the African coast to obtain supplies for his father’s ships –Africa was present in at least two of his sculptural series, that of Reinas negras [Black Queens] in the mid-Fifties and Afrocán in the mid-Seventies. Morocco, the Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea became reference points for him.
He then moved to Madrid. At the beginning he registered at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts with the intention of studying English Philology. He soon abandoned those studies and registered in the San Fernando School of Fine Arts, where he completed his training in 1948. Over a two or three year period he completed his School training by working as an apprentice at Manuel Ramos’ workshop, who had moved to Madrid and lived there until 1964. There he collaborated in the first projects for El Valle de los Caídos [The Valley of the Fallen] and other official projects. Chirino showed special interest in Berruguete’s sculptures and traveled to Valladolid to visit the National Sculpture Museum.
He later traveled to Paris, where he discovered the work of Julio González, and in 1953 to Rome, where he felt seduced by the works of Piero della Francesca and by Michelangelo’s David. He completed his training at the London School of Fine Arts.
He later continued his practice at private ironmonger’s workshops in Madrid and Valladolid. He then returned to Las Palmas where he set up his own workshop on a plot of land which he had used to build a shed made of asbestos. He collaborated closely with Manolo Millares, who had convinced him, during his first trip to the peninsula, to return to Gran Canaria to work together in favor of modern art. His friendship with Manolo Millares along with the fascination both of them had for the inscriptions of the indigenous inhabitants of the Canaries were the basis upon which he participated in the vanguard artistic currents of the Fifties. It was during that year and in this context in which Chirino’s own work started. All of his previous work could be considered part of his learning. The inaugural series was Reinas negras [Black Queens]. Some pieces were made of forged iron and others of a combination of materials: Red stone from Barranco de Balos and wood. He sculpted totem poles. He created a reflection on primitive arts and, more precisely on, as the title itself reveals, África Negra [Black Africa].
In 1955 he returned to Madrid with Manuel Millares, with whom he created an Interest Group for indigenous Canaries art. In 1958 Chirino organized his first individual exhibition and he participated in the "El Paso" group, along with Saura, Canogar, Feito, Millares, Ayllón, Juana Francés, Serrano, Suárez and Rivera.
In 1960 the MOMA collection, selected and introduced by the poet Frank O'Hara, was the event of the year for Spanish artists, Chirino among them. He had four pieces included in this display.
In the year 1961 he caught a serious illness and had to rest at the SEAR Health Center in Valdelatas (Madrid). For several days he battled between life and death.
Having recovered, in February and March 1963, he undertook an important exhibition at the Ateneo in Madrid, including a piece dated between the 1958 and 1963, with special emphasis on Raíces [Roots] and Vientos [Winds]. Other works exhibited included pieces such as Inquisidores, the arabesque Cabeza reclinada and El Grito, which marked his figurative watershed.
Since 1967 he has visited the US periodically, where he has carried out work on several monumental projects. In 1969 he held an individual exhibition in the Grace Borgenicht Gallery in New York, where his collection Mediterráneas was exhibited for the first time. One of the sculptures on display was entitled Yellow Taxi Cab –it belongs to the aforementioned series Mediterránea- and it owed its name to the yellow color of the New York Taxis on which it was painted. The Mediterráneas are sculptures made of sheet iron, soldered and painted in lively colors. The sculptor then started on a stage in his work in which he created hollow volumes using sheet metal without rejecting the torsion that iron bars offered him. Chirino believes that the “most cultured or learned” period of his work started here. To explain this change, he mentions his trips to Italy and Greece and how much he valued the work of Maillol: “There is a tendency in my latest works –he was to say that same year in his response to a questionnaire from the Middelheim Bienniel- towards the expression of Mediterranean light and clarity: a search for classicism.”
In the X Concorso Intemazionale del Bronzetto de Padova in 1973, he was awarded the First International Prize for his strangely weightless and flying sculptures “Aeróvoros”, which can be considered a new approach by Chirino to his island memories. Martín Chirino said about "Aeróvoros": “I tend towards a new understanding of space and I must say that not all of it is a continuity of my sculptural work. I must also say that it is not absolutely new. The theory of white on white, for example, belongs to Malevich. And some comes from my own sculptures; those are the starting points.”
In 1978 he received the First International Biennial Budapest Sculpture Award, in 1980 the National Visual Arts Award and in 1985 the Golden Medal for Fine Arts.
In 1989 the Atlantic Center for Modern Art (CAAM) was inaugurated in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Martín Chirino, the main inspiration behind the CAAM -along with the politician Francisco Ramos Camejo, head of Culture in the regional government- became the Director and Chief Executive, positions which he currently holds. The sculptor highlights that “the CAAM’s intention to be present in the great debates of the end of the century has been affirmed from its first exhibition as a reflection space, a meeting-point of continents and cultures.”
Between 1982 and 1992 he was President of the Madrid Fine Arts Circle.
Among his most recent exhibitions, we can highlight:
- "Martín Chirino".IVAM. Institut Valenciá D´Art Modern, 2006.
He has been awarded several international prizes and awards, among which are:
- Budapest International Sculpture Biennial Award - National Fine Arts Award - Canaries Visual Arts Award - Golden Medal of Fine Arts - CEOE National Sculpture Award - Medal of Honor of the Madrid Fine Arts Circle
His work can be seen in any of the most important museums and collections of the world, such as:
- The Alfred North Ringling Museum, Saratoga, USA - Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, USA - David Bright Foundation, Los Angeles, USA - Juan March Foundation, Madrid, Spain - Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA - Kresge Art Center Gallery, Michigan State University, Michigan, USA - Middleheim Museum. Amberes. - Abstract Art Museum, Cuenca, Spain - Contemporary Art Museum, Barcelona, Spain - Fine Arts Museum, Caracas. - Álava Fine Arts Museum, Vitoria, Spain - Columbus House Museum, Las Palmas, Spain - Eduardo Westerdahl Museum Collection, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain - Castellana Open Air Sculpture Museum, Madrid, Spain - Municipal Museum, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain - Patrick Lannan Foundation, Miami, USA - Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island, USA - Woodward Court, University of Chicago, USA - National Heritage. Royal Palace, Madrid, Spain - Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA, USA - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, New York. USA
For more information: http://www.martinchirino.com/