The artistic output of César Manrique, an artist renowned not only for the quality of his works, but also for his contributions to the embellishment of his native Lanzarote, revolves around a defence of nature and the generation and preservation of the environment of an island which, in his own words, he hoped “to turn into one of the globe’s most beautiful spots.”

To a large extent, his facet as a painter defined his overall evolution as an artist. Around 1953 Manrique was actively involved in the foundation of the first non-figurative art gallery in Madrid, Galería Fe, a reason to consider him one of the true precursors of abstract art in Spain.

Like so many of his works, this canvas shows his fondness for Lanzarote’s volcanic landscape, always latent in his work, hence his systematic use of blackish, reddish and earthy tones. He also used sand as yet another material, incorporating it into his painting with the aim of imbuing it with greater power and involving the beholder in his own commitment with nature.

Clearly visible is the way in which the artist manages to achieve the highest expressiveness with great compositional austerity. To this end, he applied random brushstrokes executed in various ranges of reds with a greater or lesser impasto which, together with the glued sand, invites the spectator to touch the relief material emulating the glowing lava just expelled from a volcano as it lies scattered over the earth.

Manrique’s sudden demise truncated the possibility of further developing his qualities as an artist and his astounding ability to turn what seemed difficult and unreachable into something apparently simple.