Background
Martín Chirino López was born on March 1, 1925 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Las Canteras beach.
Martín Chirino López was born on March 1, 1925 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Las Canteras beach.
In 1948 Chirino travels to Madrid, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1952 he finished his Fine Arts studies obtaining the degree of professor. The next year he traveled to London where he attended classes at the Royal Academy of Arts where he finished his education as a sculptor.
He 1952 he begins his travels to Paris, Italy and London. On his return to the Canary Islands he experiments in the field of Abstraction. Soon after, he settles again in Madrid and in 1958 he joins the El Paso group. He introduces the spiral as a motif in his pieces from 1959 onwards.
In 1967 he travels to the United States where he sets up a workshop in 1972. During this time he alternates residence between the United States and Spain. From 1983 to 1990 he holds the position of President at the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid and between 1989 and 2002 he heads the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Chirino combines in his work the memory of the past, as re-discoverer of the Guanche culture native to the Canary Islands and the principles of the Spanish avant-garde of the Fifties. In this avant-garde those groups that are present include Dau al Set, la Escuela de Altamira and El Paso. They all represent the first generation of post-war Spain that relates to international artistic creation.
On October 11, 2014 he was appointed as honorary member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.