César Manrique (1919-1992) was born in Arrecife, Lanzarote, an island on which his artistic career has left an indelible mark.

After completing his studies at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid (where he lived between 1945 and 1964), he frequently exhibited his paintings, both in Spain and abroad. He participated in the XXVIIIth and XXXth Venice Biennial (1955 and 1960), as well as the IIIrd Spanish American Biennial of Havana (1955). In the early Fifties, he went deeper into non-figurative art and investigated the qualities of material - so much so that it became the main "protagonist" in his compositions. In this way, he became associated - as did other Spanish painters such as Antoni Tàpies, Lucio Muñoz, Manuel Millares - in the informalist movement seen at that time.

He travelled through various parts of the world before settling, in 1964, to live in New York. Direct knowledge of American abstract expressionism, pop art, new sculpture and kinetic art gave Manrique a visual culture that was fundamental to his later creative career. In New York, he exhibited his solo work on three occasions - in 1966, 1967 and 1969 - at the Catherine Viviano Gallery.

In 1966, he returned definitively to Lanzarote. On the island, which was then just beginning to develop its tourism industry, he promoted a model of sustainability keys for acting on the territory which attempted to protect the island's natural and cultural heritage; this model was a determining factor in Lanzarote being declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1993.

In parallel with his commitment to the island, Manrique opened his creative work up to other forms of artistic expression. In this way, he developed a new aesthetic ideology, dominated by art-nature/nature-art, which crystallised a unique example of Spanish public art in his spatial interventions: Jameos del Agua, his house in Tahíche - now the headquarters of the Fundación César Manrique - Mirador del Río, Jardín de Cactus, etc.

In addition to his interventions in Lanzarote, he developed various proposals for other islands - Costa Martiánez, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife; Mirador de El Palmarejo, La Gomera; Mirador de La Peña, El Hierro. Outside the Canary Islands, he was involved in: Ceuta - Parque Marítimo del Mediterráneo; Madrid - Madrid-2 shopping centre, La Vaguada-, etc. These were interventions/activities - mainly public works (miradors, gardens, renovation of derelict areas, coastal regeneration) - in which there remained a dialogue of respect for the natural surroundings and in which the architectonic values of local traditions sat side by side with modern designs.

Well versed in the various creative "languages" - painting, sculpture, town planning, public art, etc - a very real desire for integration with the surrounding natural landscape underlies his body of artistic work as a whole. It was an intention to syncretize and "totalize" that was made explicit in his designs for public spaces - "total art", in his own words. There was also a definite attempt at harmonisation, which not only drew on his passion for beauty, for also for life as a whole.