Martín Chirino. Memory of the Circle

The Goya Hall at the Fine Arts Circle will host an exhibition that pays tribute to the artist and marks the centenary of his birth from 10 October to 11 January.  This exhibition kicks off the new season at the Fine Arts Circle, which is also celebrating one hundred years of the building that houses the institution’s headquarters.

The Spanish sculptor, Martín Chirino (1925–2019), pointed out in La reja y el arado (The Ploughshare and the Plough), a text published in the monographic issue that Papeles de Son Armadans dedicated to El Paso in 1959, that inspiration is linked to humble yet necessary tools: “My sculpture comes closer to the origins of the tools. It is linked to the ploughshare or the plough. My work may have what those instruments have in human prolongation. They join man to the land in a harmonious and necessary task. Sculpture is also interwoven with the human spirit in its most radical dimension, that of the tools… They are in line with what is useful, uplifted to become a symbol.  I have sought them in the people”.

Chirino’s sculptural work is a “drawing in the air”, an expression of strength and sensuality, in which spatial continuity takes the gaze beyond strict objectivity.

 In Chirino’s aesthetic, the spiral shape is essential, evoking the wind but also alluding to breath and the creative impulse, an embodiment of the power of chaos and its resolution in moments of suspension filled with beauty.

The artist finds the trace of origin in the spiral, resonating with Bachelard’s observation in The Poetics of Space, which pointed out that when man looks inwards, moving towards the centre of the spiral, he often becomes errant and seems to enter into an anomalous “enclosure in the exterior”.

Chirino is considered to be one of the most important Spanish sculptors, with major international presence.  His exhibitions have been on display in prestigious museums and galleries, and his works are included in reference collections.  Alongside his artistic production, he stood out for his concern about the cultural situation, which led him to promote projects, such as the revitalisation of the Fine Arts Circle in Madrid (1983–1992) or the founding of the Atlantic Centre of Modern Art (CAAM) in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

To mark the centenary of his birth, this exhibition seeks to keep alive the memory of an artist who was passionate about culture and who described himself as a “stoic”, who forged the spiral and breathed new life into the Circle for many years.

Image Credit:

The Wind © Martín Chirino, VEGAP, Madrid, 2025