The Prophet

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1933 · Authors: Pablo Gargallo

One of the most significant pieces that formed part of the First Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, held in 1973, was this work by Pablo Gargallo (Maella, Zaragoza, 5 January 1881–Reus, Tarragona, 28 December 1934), a sculptor and painter considered one of the most important and innovative Spanish artists of the 20th century. 

The Prophet is a cubist-style sculpture made in bronze in 1933. It depicts an orator shouting with his arm raised while holding a staff in a threatening manner. It is a piece of large hollow volumes defined by curved elements of great expressive force. 

This undisputed jewel of contemporary sculpture participated in the Tenerife Exhibition thanks to the mediation of the artist Pablo Serrano, who convinced his friend the sculptor Mark Macken, linked to the Middelheim Museum of Antwerp and the owning institution of the piece, to lend it temporarily.  

The work The Prophet was installed until its return in a secluded corner of García Sanabria Park.

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