Castro Borrego: “The ‘built landscape’ is the work of Manrique that will be valued more”
The renowned professor in History of Art and César Manrique’s biographer, Fernando Castro Borrego, toured during the morning of this Friday the exhibition 100 years: Lanzarote and César curated by Alejandro Krawietz and Juan Gopar.
The above draws a life path of Caesar through the people who were accompanying him on the way. “In this exhibition he has tried to give a vision of his spirit through references that were important for him”, reflected Castro Borrego. César Manrique is directly related to the spirit of the vanguards. “For avant-garde artists, freedom is the central category, and he was an artist in every way,” he explained.
For the member of the Canary Academy of History, the masterpiece of César Manrique were the Tourist Centers to which the professor calls “the built landscape”. The celebration of the centenary of the birth of Manrique helps to fit all the pieces of the puzzle and better understand everything already known to the conejero artist, but Castro Borrego said that, in addition, you can discover something “that had not yet been studied”.
The professor wanted to contribute to the tribute to Manrique by writing a book whose title will be The Landscape Theory, forthcoming. “From the international point of view there was recognition of the value of his work, but there was no study.” For the author, this aspect of Manrique “is fascinating because Manrique was a very intuitive person and did not formalize his ideas in writing”. There are no documents, nor plans that are proof of Manrique’s idea of landscape although “his works speak for themselves”. Castro Borrego believes that this will be “part of the creative work of Manrique that in the future will be valued more” and for this reason “demanded an investigation”.
Member of the Institute of Canarian Studies and Patron of the Reina Sofía Museum, Castro Borrego is the author of a dozen books and a hundred articles. Among the events planned for the centenary will be the César Manrique conference under the volcano. The appointment will be this next day April 16 at 20:00 in the CIC El Almacén.
