Monument to Saulo Torón

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1982 · Authors: Juan Jaén

It was the Bank of Bilbao that decided to gift the city a sculpture of Saulo Torón [...] The reason for this bard being chosen to be put in bronze, apart of course for his poetic work, making it worthy of its memory, was the response to the search by the bank for a man who would symbolize the cultural world and who would also be intimately related to the city's port. None better then than Saulo Torón, who worked at the Casa Miller, the boat consignatory, and who gained endless inspiration from the sea. 

The author of this work was Juan Jaén, from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He was born in 1909 and at just 15 years of age enrolled in the Escuela Luján Pérez, belonging as he did to the first generation of pupils along with Plácido Fleitas, Felo Monzón, Miguel Márquez, etc., all under the instruction of Eduardo Gregorio, who, as our biographee once said, more than a teacher, he is a kind of guide to us.

The monument is displayed along the avenue of Las Canteras beach, where the road widens at the crossroads of Sagasta and Tenerife streets. The bust is cut off at the chest, and sits on a stone pedestal, with the bard's name, date of birth and date of death inscribed at the front, while on the back there is another inscription of the bank's name that donated it. Juan Jaén hasn't represented the latter day Saulo Torón we remember, but a younger one, at the time of his busiest poetic works. He is unclothed and follows traditional figurative lines; if there is any feature that the effigy portrays especially, that would be the expressiveness in his face. 

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