CÉSAR MANRIQUE

César Manrique (24 April 1919 - 25 September 1992) was a Spanish artist, sculptor, architect and activist from Lanzarote.
Manrique was born in Arrecife. He fought in the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer in the artillery unit on Franco's side, the Republicans. He attended the University of La Laguna to study architecture, but after two years he quit his studies. He moved to Madrid in 1945 and received a scholarship for the Art School of San Fernando, where he graduated as a teacher of art and painting. Between 1964 and 1966 he lived in New York City, where a grant from Nelson Rockefeller allowed him to rent his own studio. He painted many works in New York, which were exhibited in the prestigious "Catherine Viviano" gallery. Manrique returned to Lanzarote in 1966. His legacy on the island is shown below.
He had a major influence on the planning regulations on Lanzarote following his recognition of its potential for tourism and lobbied successfully to encourage the sustainable development of the industry. One aspect of this is the lack of high rise hotels on the island. Those that are there are in generally keeping with the use of traditional colours in their exterior decoration.
Manrique died in a car accident at Tahíche, Teguise, very near the Fundación, his Lanzarote home, in 1992. He was aged 72.

Manriques grave at Haría Cemeterio

Casa / Museo César Manrique (Manrique's house and artist studio in Haria, with landscaped garden).

The César Manrique House Museum is located in picturesque Haria. In Haría, the artist found the quietude and harmony with nature that he had always pursued.
In early 1986, he began to build his new home, re-using and adapting a run-down farmhouse sited on farmland he had purchased in the 1970's.

He lived here until his death in 1992.

In 2013 the house was opened to the public as a home and museum.
Visitors are afforded a view of the rooms and the studio where the painter worked and lived during the last few years of his life.
Two courtyards introduce the visitor to a surprising world of personal belongings, utensils, objects found by chance and
handcrafted accessories that Manrique turned to an aesthetic purpose. The studio is in a separate
building where the artist painted daily, surrounded by oils, tables laden with drawings, easels and unfinished paintings.

It has been conserved just as he left it when he died.

Jardín de Cactus was the last intervention work César Manrique performed in Lanzarote. He could see beyond how run down the ancient roferas (quarries) were so he created a home for cactaceae flowers from all over he world.
Surrounded by the largest cactus plantation of the island, dedicated to crops of cochineal insect, a product of great financial relevance in Lanzarote in the 19th Century. Jardín de Cactus has around 4,500 specimens of 450 different species, of 13 different families of cactus from the five continents.
At the top, on a small hill, windmills can be seen on the horizon, still standing, where Canarian cornmeal was ground dating
back to the 19th Century.

Lagomar museum - Originally conceived by César Manrique and designed by the artist Jesús Soto for the British developer Sam Benady with an architectural vision which could evoke mental imagery from the arabian nights mythology. In the early 1970s actor Omar Sharif came to Lanzarote to film “The Mysterious Island”, he visited LagOmar, fell in love with it and bought it.
Benady knowing Sharif’s reputation as a card player challenged him to a game of Bridge. Sharif accepted the challenge, not realizing that Benady was also a champion Bridge player, and allegedly lost the house.
In 1989 architects Dominik von Boettinger from Germany and Beatriz van Hoff from Uruguay bought the house and initiated the last phase of development.

International Museum of Contemporary Arts in the Castillo de San José, Arrecife. César Manrique convinced the authorities of the island to transform the ancient fortress, which is on the sea-front at Arrecife, into an art gallery and it opened in 1976.

It was built between 1776 and 1779 under the mandate of King Charles III. Its advantageous location on top of a cliff, was an added asset to the powerful Castle of San Gabriel, and made it an essential spot to defend Arrecife from and its port against the threat of modern states in conflict with the Spanish Empire.

The César Manrique foundation was set up in 1982 by César Manrique and a group of friends but wasn't officially opened until 1992 after Manrique died. The foundation, based at Manrique's home, following his move to a townhouse in the North of the Island (see below), is a private, non-profit organisation set-up to allow tourists access to Manrique's home. The foundation is also an art-gallery featuring art created by Manrique himself as well as Art that he acquired during his life. The gallery includes original sketches by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. The money the foundation takes from ticket sales goes toward raising awareness about the art of Lanzarote, as well as being used to fund the foundation's "artistic, cultural and environmental activities".
One of the foundation's fundamental missions is to oppose the spread of high-rise concrete across the Spanish coastline and her island. The foundation recently brought attention to 24 illegally erected hotels in Lanzarote.

Manrique's home itself is built within a 3,000 m2 lot, on the site of the Lanzarote eruptions in the 18th century, and was created upon Manrique's return from New York City in 1966. The rooms on the first floor, including the artist studios, were created with the intention of keeping with Lanzarote traditions, yet making them more modern. The "ground floor", more appropriately titled the "basement", contains five areas situated within volcanic bubbles, the rooms bored into volcanic basalt. There is a central cave which houses a recreational area, including a swimming pool, a barbecue and a small dance floor.
Once outside the main house, the visitor comes to the outside area, where there is a small square with a fountain in the middle before approaching a small café area and the visitor shop. This area was once César Manrique's garage.

Not Manrique related, but we found this story enchanting when we went there ! The Doll’s House, Casa Juanita or The Blue House's story is a sad one. This curious building is situated in Arrieta (can't be missed) and was built by Don Juan de Leon Perdomo in 1916, a local from Arrieta, before he emigrated to Argentina in the early 20th century. He made his fortune there selling wheat and met and married Juana Alemán. The couple had a daughter in 1904, and they named her after her mother, although she was always known as Juanita.
Juanita contracted tuberculosis when she was a few years old, and the couple’s doctor advised moving somewhere with “good air,” ideally by the ocean. They decided to move back to Arrieta in 1915, and Juan commissioned the build of a house, modelled on Juanita’s dolls house.
Once completed, they named the house Chalet de Arrieta and moved in. Juanita had five happy years there, before succumbing to her illness in 1921.
The house gradually fell into disrepair after Juan and Juana died, but it was eventually restored in the 2000’s.
It is owned by a family from Arrecife, who let it as a holiday home.

Jameos del Agua is a series of lava caves in northern Lanzarote and an art, culture and tourism center, created by Manrique, and managed by the government of Lanzarote. It consists of a subterranean salt lake, restaurant, gardens, emerald-green pool,museum and auditorium.
Both Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes are located inside the volcanic tube, created by the eruption of the Monte Corona volcano. The tube is 6 km long, of which at least 1.5 km is located below sea surface, and is therefore called “Tunnel of Atlantis”. Situated in the tunnel’s closest section to the coast, Jameos del Agua comprises at least three holes or caves, namely: Jameo Chico, Jameo Grande and Jameo Cazuela
Manrique's idea was to offer visitors a place to contemplate a natural attraction formed nearly without human intervention. It’s the first center of art, culture and tourism created by Manrique. Restoration and cleaning of the abandoned site was necessary in the early sixties. Despite delays over the course of time, the year 1966 marked the opening of the first public areas. The initial project underwent multiple changes due to the volcanic tube’s special morphology. After completion of Jameos del Agua’s general structure in 1977, the center was officially opened, including the auditorium. Afterwards however, new facilities were added for specific purposes, such as the museum, called “Casa de los Volcanes”. Since 1987, the center is devoted to science and volcanology.
Jameos del Agua is ecologically important as it is home to a unique and endemic species of squat lobster: The blind lobster Munidopsis polymorpha, a yellow-white and blind crustacean that is hardly one centimeter in length. These squat lobsters are very sensitive to changes in the lagoon (derived from sea water), including effects regarding noise and light. They are also very sensitive to oxide, which can even kill them, and therefore, it is forbidden to throw coins in the water.
Monte Corona is a natural monument, and it was identified as a site of scientific interest on 19 December 1994. It’s also considered as an ecologically fragile area.

The Mirador del Rio is 400 metres above sea level on the Risco de Famara. It is located near the remains of an ancient military base that dates back to the end of the 19th Century. It is camouflaged on the rock in a way in which only a genius of Manrique’s magnitude could conceive. The Mirador takes over El Río, the narrow stretch of the sea separating Lanzarote from La Graciosa. Although unassuming on the outside, the inside hides surprising details and impressive glass windows, the eyes of El Mirador. From the atalaya, visitors may watch the eighth Canary Island, La Graciosa, and the group of islets part of the Chinijo Islands National Park. At the bottom of the cliff, the reddish shades of the salinas del Rio stand out, also known as Guza, the oldest ones on the Canary Islands. Architect Eduardo Cáceres and artist Jesús Soto collaborated in the creation of El Mirador, which was quite outstanding taking into consideration that there were scarce means, and the terrain had to be dug and the building later had to be covered with volcanic rock.