Millares, Manolo.
Works of the artist.
Manolo Millares was born on the 17th of February, 1926 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His artistic vocation led him to teach himself how to craft magazines, while his friendship with Felo Monzón and Martín Chirino started because of their shared admiration for Dalí and the world of surrealism. [+]
Millares, Manolo
Manolo Millares was born on the 17th of February, 1926 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His artistic vocation led him to teach himself how to craft magazines, while his friendship with Felo Monzón and Martín Chirino started because of their shared admiration for Dalí and the world of surrealism.
He exhibited his watercolors at the Círculo Mercantil in Las Palmas and published in various newspapers and literary magazines. In 1950 he made his first constructivist and aboriginal paintings. Millares was the main driving force behind the group LADAC (Los Arqueros del Arte Contemporáneo), which held its first group exhibition at the Museo Canario in Las Palmas, raising controversial perspectives in the press.
His first individual exhibition outside of the Canary Islands took place in 1951, at the Galerías Jardín in Barcelona. That same year he exhibited at the I Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte in Madrid.
In 1953 he moved to Madrid, exhibiting at the Instituto de Estudios Hispánicos de Tenerife, II Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte de La Habana and XXVIII Bienal Internacional of Venecia. While, in 1956, he collaborated in the organization of the I Salón Nacional de Arte No Figurativo at the Ateneo in Valencia.
His exhibition of burlaps at the Ateneo in Madrid coincided with the founding of the El Paso group in 1957. One of the works he exhibited at the Sao Paulo Biennial was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Pierre Matisse and Daniel Cordier represented his work in the United States and Europe. He contributed to numerous avant-garde publications as well as exhibited in Lisbon, Paris, Tokyo, Minneapolis and Munich, gaining international recognition.
In 1960 he exhibited at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, the MOMA, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Galerie Daniel Cordier, while his work was acquired by the Tate Gallery, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires and the Galleria Nazionale in Rome. In 1964 he joined the new staff of the Galería Juana Mordó and travelled to the United States to prepare for the Pittsburgh exhibition.
He passed away in Madrid on the 14th of August 1972.
