Martín Chirino

Martín Chirino was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1925. He died in Madrid in 2019. The Museo Reina Sofía situates his sculptural career from the 1950s and highlights his role in the renewal of postwar visual languages, especially through his participation as a founding member of the El Paso group in 1957.

His work developed mainly in forged iron. The spiral appears as a recurring formal solution, linked in his production to the tension between matter, space and movement. In series such as Raíces, Vientos, Afrocán and Penetrecan, Chirino articulated references to nature, the real world and Canarian aboriginal culture while maintaining a dialogue with modern Spanish and international sculpture.

Rather than presenting his work as a closed symbol of identity, this profile treats it as a sculptural investigation between tradition and modernity. His presence in the Museo Reina Sofía collection and the retrospective dedicated to him by the institution allow him to be placed as a relevant figure in contemporary sculpture linked to the Canary Islands.