Chronology of Cesar Manrique
The life of the artist from year to year, highlighting each essential moment in his career.
1919: Born on April 24 in Arrecife, Lanzarote.
1942: First solo exhibition, Arrecife, Lanzarote.
1945: He moves to Madrid on a scholarship to study at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, which ends in 1950. He lives in this city until 1964.
1950: Performs murals of the Parador de Turismo in Arrecife, Lanzarote.
1952: Performs several murals at the Hilton Hotel Castellana, Madrid.
1953: Begins his first investigations of non-figurative painting. He makes a mural at the airport in Guacimeta, Lanzarote.
1954: He participates in the founding of the gallery Fe Fernando, Madrid. First exhibition of abstract painting in the Clan gallery, Madrid.
1955: He participates in the XXVIII Venice Biennale and at the Third Biennial of Havana Hispano.
1956: He performs several murals, paintings and mobiles for the Phoenix Hotel, Madrid.
1958: Solo exhibition at the Ateneo, Madrid.
1959: He takes part in group shows devoted to young Spanish painting, exhibited in Paris, Freiburg, Basel, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso and Bogota. He conducts two large murals (destroyed) at the airport of Barajas, Madrid.
1960: He participates in the 30th Venice Biennale. In the early years of this decade he is out in Spain and Europe. Solo exhibition at the gallery L’Entracte, Lausanne.
1961: Solo exhibition at the Craven Gallery, Paris.
1963: His partner Josefa Gomez dies in Madrid. Solo exhibition at the gallery L’Entracte, Lausanne. He participates in the VII Bienal de Sao Paulo.
1964: He travels to Mallorca where he spends the summer. In December, he travels to New York for the first time, where he will remain until June 25, 1965.
1965: He lives in New York. He participates in the exhibition Contemporary Art in the Spanish Original Art Gallery, New Canaan, Connecticut. He was awarded a scholarship from the International Institute for Education in the study of art in America, New York. Contract with Catherine Viviano Gallery for their presentations in New York.
1966: He works in organizing trade shows in the Spanish Trade Center, New York. He inaugurates his first exhibition in New York, in the Catherine Viviano gallery. In July, he finally resides in Lanzarote, from where he will prepare for future exhibitions for New York. The first phase of the Jameos Water (Jameo Chico, Lanzarote) is inaugurated.
1967: Collective exhibition at the Kent State University, Ohio. Solo exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York. He performs two murals in the Nautical School of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He travels to Mexico and New York.
1968: He participates in the collective exhibition Afro, Manabu Mabe, Cesar Manrique in the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York. He travels to New York. He Installs in the center of the island of Lanzarote the Fertility Monument sculpture, a tribute to the peasant from Lanzarote, and is beginning to build the Casa-Museo of El Campesino on the same site. He began building his house on Taro Tahiche, Lanzarote. He begins work on the restaurant El Diablo in Timanfaya, Lanzarote. He travels to the Riviera and Corsica.
1969: In April, he opens his third exhibition in the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York. He is named island delegate of Fine Arts in Lanzarote and is called on to steer the work of beautification and adequacy of the Martianez Lagoon in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.
1970: He participates in the collective exhibition Paintings, sculpture, American and European, in the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York. He performs stone walls of compact stone for the Reef Grand Hotel, Lanzarote, and Cristina Hotel, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Solo exhibition at the gallery Skira, Madrid, with works performed in New York and pictures of his house Tahiche, Jameos of Water and the restaurant El Diablo. He travels to Switzerland.
1971: Travels to England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Morocco.
1972: He makes a stone wall in Salamanca for the Postal Savings Fund of the Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid.
1973: Concludes works in the Mirador del Rio, Lanzarote.
1974: He publishes Lanzarote. Unpublished architecture. He founds the cultural centre of the Warehouse, Arrecife, Lanzarote. He begins work to restore the castle of San Jose, Lanzarote. He reconstructs the chapel of Máguez, Lanzarote.
1976: Inauguration of the International Museum of Contemporary Art, San Jose Castillo, Lanzarote. He starts work at the Cactus Garden, Guatiza, Lanzarote. He begins the construction of the auditorium in the Jameos Water, Lanzarote.
1977: He designs the gardens and swimming pools Hotel Las Salinas, Teguise, Lanzarote. The King of Spain, D. Juan Carlos I, gave him the Gold Medal of Tourism Merit. Inauguration of the artificial lake Martianez, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.
1978: The Association of German Journalists Awards him the «World Prize for Ecology and Tourism», Berlin. It is granted by the King of Spain, D. Juan Carlos I, the «Grand Cross of Civil Merit», for his ecological work.
1980: The government of Spain grants him the «Gold Medal for Fine Arts.» The town of Goslar Awards him the prize «Goslarer Monchehaus-Preis fuer Kunst und Umwelt» 1981, Germany.
1982: Appointed Honorary Member of the Foundation Van D’Abeod that gave him the «Nederlans Laureate Van D’Abeod,» Holland.
1983: Opening of the Madrid-2 mall, La Vaguada, Madrid. Manrique does an individual exhibition. Ecological work in the Gallery Theo, Arco’83, Madrid.
1984: He begins work on the recovery and conditioning of the Charco de San Ginés, Arrecife, Lanzarote. He travels to New York.
1985: He creates the flags of the Cosmos and the whole environmental Opening of the Center for Astrophysics, Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma. Solo exhibition at the Münchner Volkshochschule, Gasteig Kulturzentrum, Munich. The organization Europa Nostra, linked to the Council of Europe, gives him the prize «Europa Nostra» for his environmental and artistic works in Lanzarote.
1987: Inauguration of the auditorium of the Jameos Water, Lanzarote.
1988: Moves his residence to his new home of Haria, Lanzarote, built and decorated by himself. He publishes «Written in the fire».
1989: The government of the Canary Islands gives him the «Premio Canarias de Bellas Artes.» He receives the «Fritz Schumacher Prize» of the Foundation FSV Hamburg. He is appointed to a committee of the Spanish program «Man and the Biosphere» of UNESCO. Conducts the preliminary project of the Maritime Park in the Mediterranean Sea, Ceuta. Project of the Viewpoint of Palmarejo, Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera. Inauguration of the Mirador de La Pena, Valverde, El Hierro.
1990: Inauguration of the Cactus Garden, Guatiza, Lanzarote.
1991: The government of the Canary Islands organizes a travelling retrospective exhibition «Made in the fire», Centro de Arte La Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Exhibition Hall Farm, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1992: In March, the Cesar Manrique Foundation is inaugurated in his former residence of Taro Tahiche, Lanzarote. Participating in the Expo-92 with the retrospective Manrique exhibition. Art and nature, Chambers of El Arenal, Sevilla. On Sept. 25 he dies in road accident in Tahiche, Lanzarote. In November he was named , posthumously, academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos, Valencia.
1994: Appointed Foster Child of the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Completion of the works of Beach Gardens, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.
1995: The municipality of Tias, Lanzarote, gives him the title of foster child. The Cabildo of Lanzarote names him appointed Son of Lanzarote. On Feb. 17 the Maritime Park of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is inaugurated. On June 18 is the inauguration of the Mediterranean Sea Park, Ceuta, a draft of which was conceived the artist. The inauguration of El Mirador Palmarejo, Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera.
1996: In the halls of the Cesar Manrique Foundation, is inaugurated the exhibition of Cesar Manrique. New York, one of the first fruits of cataloging the work of Manrique in the United States, promoted by the FCM.
1997: The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria appoints him Doctor Honoris Causa in memoriam.
2005: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) devotes an anthology.
2006: The Cesar Manrique Foundation organizes the exhibition Cesar Manrique 1950-1957 in the halls of the FCM and it travels to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Room CICC) and La Laguna in Tenerife (former Convent of Santo Domingo).
