Street Sculpture Route I: 25. Lady Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Route · Subcategory: Street sculpture I · Year: 1972 · Authors: Martín Chirino

This important work was made in 1972 by the Gran Canarian artist Martín Chirino for the I International Exhibition of Street Sculpture. It was located, with great aesthetic judgement, in the square of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

It is a sculpture made of painted iron, which remains, over the years, one of the most grandiose, vigorous and expressive works of its author.

Through an energetic abstract torsion, Chirino extracted from iron an unmatched vigour and at the same time submission; elements that are complemented by a very particular rhythm. The intense red colour with pop reminiscences shines incandescently and stands out against a mountainous background that marks one of the city limits. Between the gaps of the sculpture we can see the typical vegetation of the island, some small caves and the terraces that were once used for agriculture. Nature-artifice and art-landscape, two binomials harmoniously combined.

Chirino is one of the few Spanish sculptors who has been able to find an expressive formula that synthesises the most current spatial concerns with a Spanish tradition, unfortunately forgotten: forging. Well, from his workshop came this Lady over seven metres long that receives the visitor imperturbably outside the Colegio de Arquitectos.

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