VERSIÓN INGLESA ENGLISH VERSION - Fundación César Manrique

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whose ingredients are the same as in his abstractions -, he engaged in the construction of collages
which either followed the same compositional guidelines as his paintings or reverted, essentially as
respect the vividness of colour, to the mural activity referred above.
Manrique’s position concurred in many important ways with that of his European or American
counterparts, although these traits arose spontaneously and unquestionably with a total lack of
chronological co-ordination, lagging, like all his Spanish contemporaries, behind international
developments. Two such traits are: the importance attached to chance, an indispensable ingredient in
avant-garde artistic creation since its advent with Dadá and its systematic formulation by surrealism.
Evidence of this widespread importance was its adoption by North American abstract expressionism.
Also, and in this regard Manrique was more significant than any other painter, the conviction that the
artist creates the way nature itself does, attempting to reflect its flows, its rhythms, its bewitching
cruelty. It is likewise undeniable that while Manrique may not have been a pioneer, he was one of the
most active participants in the movements that revived the sorry state of Spanish painting from the
late fifties through the sixties, and it is precisely in the context of this group of artists and this school
of thought, only partially developed at the time, that his endeavour can best be appraised. With the
exception of Antoni Tàpies - exceptional in the validity of his oeuvre, including his very late works -
and Antonio Saura between the mid fifties and early sixties - when he formalised the very powerful
figurational model on which he would draw monothematically and exclusively - the truth is that both
the main members of the El Paso community and other painters not collectively grouped opted in
those years for solutions and approaches very similar when not identical to Manrique’s. His
predilection for material is closely related to Manolo Rivera’s for metallic screens, Lucio Muñoz’ for
wood, Gustavo Torner’s for sheet metal. I feel he merits the company of these artists more than that
of other lesser names with whom he has often been associated.
Ultimately, he was an artist and a painter absolutely sure of his intentions and objectives: “The
artist’s mission in our times is to convey good taste and talent to all that surrounds us and my
impression is that lately we’ve forgotten something very important, and that is to make life’s panorama
more comfortable and beautiful so human beings can develop more harmoniously” 51 .
51. Fernando Torrijos, “Entrevista a César Manrique”, cat.
César Manrique, Sala d’exposicions de l’obra Cultural de la
Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona, 1983.