César Manrique

Manrique was born in Arrecife, Lanzerote. Growing up in Lanzerote he fought in the Spanish civil war. He attended the La Laguna university to study architecture, but shortly after quit his studies and moved to Madrid in 1945 and came away with a scholarship for the Art School of San Fernando as a teacher of art and painting. As he advanced in his career he travelled internationally sharing his work in many famous galleries including his own. After time in Madrid and New York he came back to his roots in Lanzerote and had major influences in planning regulations in the country, one of those was the colour of the houses being white to portray mirroring of the gorgeous sunshine that casts over the small island. 

Now to talk of his work, he was an artist who's work resembled that of the rise of surrealism in the 1950's. His work was very literate of that of Lanzerote with pigments of imagination. The colour use is bright and cheerful with abstract lines that create known shapes, people and animal portrait prints. His sculptures were very neatly designed and look super intricate, many of the sculptures are designed to move in the wind and can be found on roundabouts on the island, which was his idea to introduce to reduce congestion. Ironically his death occurred on one of his roundabouts where he was part of a car crash that sadly killed the famous artist. He is still a big part of Lanzerote's culture and tourist  attraction as his sculptures have been adopted by Lanzerote as there culture and his house is currently open for the public to pay and see his extrosionate design that includes the flow of lava that the house was built with.