Martín Chirino born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. (1925-2019)
Photo Credit: Alfredo Delgado
Martín Chirino López, "art blacksmith", is a Spanish sculptor, who participated in the artists' collective El Paso, founded in Madrid in 1957. In 2014 he was named honorary academician at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in the sculpture section. His conceptual, expressive, formal and material contributions to 20th century contemporary sculpture enjoy recognition at the Spanish and international level. Since his first solo exhibition in 1958, the spiral forged in iron became the basic and constant element of his works in metal. The wind intervenes in geometric and organic rhythms that evoke a re-encounter with the origins and the primitive, which are created with low bands of iron and helical rhythms. Inspired by artists such as Eduardo Chillida, Henry Moore, and Julio Gonzalez, Chirino uses iron to impose austere lines and facial expressions that border on the essential, manifesting his personal language, based on his capacity for synthesis and poetic evocation.