Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The Azcona Foundation is preparing a limited edition that will be published this summer of the first and second volumes of the catalog raisonné of the entire production of the Gran Canarian sculptor Martín Chirino, which will include a facsimile work of the author, according to announced this Saturday its director, Sacha Azcona.
200 copies will be distributed after the publication in the coming weeks of the second catalog raisonne, which was presented this Saturday at the Martín Chirino Foundation located in the Castillo de la Luz in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on the fourth anniversary of his death. of the sculptor, which is fulfilled today.
The publication of the catalog was released on March 1 at the Museo Reina Sofía, on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the birth of Martín Chirino.
The president of the Azcona Foundation, Ladislao Azcona, and the daughter and president of the Chirino Foundation, Marta Chirino, together with the author of the catalogues, the historian María Luisa Martín de Argila, wanted to take advantage of this event to present it in their hometown of one of the referents of Spanish art of the 20th century when, moreover, just 16 years ago, the first volume was presented in the presence of the artist.
The study dedicated to the work of Chirino is “unique”, since it is not usual to publish a catalog with the artist still active and it has been a “privilege”, since it allowed them to count on his “help, his prodigious memory and his accuracy”. , to identify and analyze the 400 works that comprise the first volume, has pointed out Martín de Argila, who has dedicated more than 20 years to the study of the universal work of Chirino, who “turned petroglyphs and spirals into a symbol of contemporary art worldwide”, remarked Ladislao Azcona.
Chirino chose “the paper, the inks and even how he wanted the photos to be published”, commented Ladislao Azcona, who had a close relationship with the artist and has repeatedly invited to see his sculptures, due to their different perspectives that ” They excite and because of their huge Canarian trail”.
The second volume of the catalogue, of which 1,000 copies will be published and will be available in bookstores in the coming weeks, contains 150 works from the last 15 years of his life, as well as photographs of the artist in his studio, and includes an index Complete with both books, with images of all his works, arranged by typology, in such a way that it “corrects, expands and completes” the previous one.
The objective of this second work, in which 16 years have been invested, was to catalog the work, but, according to the historian and friend of the artist, the “exciting” thing has been to reconstruct his vital and creative career, because he is “an exceptional artist, who has known how to live life with a passion and an intensity out of the ordinary”.
When he was faced with this second volume that covers the last 15 years of the sculptor’s life, he never thought that he would find such a wide production, pointed out Martín de Argila, who assures that both books represent “everything that is known by Chirino.
Both volumes bring together the total work of the sculptor: from his beginnings on the islands to the creation of the Atlantic Center for Modern Art, through his success in New York in the sixties or his participation in the artistic group “El Paso” in Madrid in the fifties, as well as his time as director of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in the 80s.
Some of the most iconic sculptural series of the canary, such as wind spirals, crosses, iberias or alfaguaras, appear for the first time complete and ordered by typology in the edition.
The Azcona Foundation, which aims to catalog contemporary Spanish art of the 20th century and has already reviewed artists such as Maruja Mallo and Fernando Zóbel, is working on another eight volumes, including those by Lucio Muñoz, Julio González and Carmen Calvo, as well as the of the graphic work and illustrated books of Óscar Domínguez from Tenerife.
The daughter of Martín Chirino has made an emotional review of the life of her father, one of this “overwhelming” personality and unusual energy, who since he was a child on the beach “dreamed that the horizon could move.” EFE