The Martín Chirino Art and Thought Foundation

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1928

«When I looked inside I thought it was quite the most beautiful space for my work to be displayed in».

Martín Chirino (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1925) dedicates these words to the Castle of La Luz, a unique place located on the isthmus of La Isleta on this Atlanctic city where he was born, on the day that it has become the centre for the Martín Chirino Art and Thought Foundation.

This was the first fortress to be built by the Castilian forces on the island, in 1478. It is a multipurpose building, thanks to the designs by architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano, whose main function is to “contextualize, catalogue and dissemminating the works of the master”, as Foundation manager Jesús María Castaño explains. For this, the sculptor has chosen 25 works from his private collection, which covers his lengthy career and fits in naturally with its surroundings. Chirino has left these works on deposit at the Town Hall, with the intention of it acquiring them and increasing this great legacy.

The sculptor returns home as a thinker and an artist, as a craftsman and cultivated man, following what he called “a journey of discovery” which he undertook many years ago, following in the footsteps of Ulises. «It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate this Foundation, and help make the Canaries a leading cultural site, not just in Spain, but all over the world».

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