César Manrique Foundation

César Manrique was born in Lanzarote, at Puerto Naos, Arrecife, and he retained a close attachment to the island throughout his life. One of the pioneers of abstract art in Spain, he considered himself primarily a painter, but also worked with sculpture, architecture, and landscape and urban design. A trip to New York in 1964-66, though professionally successful for him, only confirmed his love for the island where he had been born, and his sense that mankind needed to 'go back to the soil'.

On returning to Lanzarote, César Manrique established a studio-home at Taro de Tahíche, where he lived between 1968-88. Built atop a volcanic trail, inside the design of the house responded to the organic formation of volcanic bubbles, while outside it followed the traditional architectural idiom of Lanzarote. It is a rare example of a house integrated into nature, reflecting Manrique's architectural and artistic vision for the island as a whole. The César Manrique Foundation, which was created in 1992, also manages the César Manrique House Museum in Haría, the artist's home in the last years of his life, which has been open to the public since 2013. Today, the Foundation runs a lively programme of conservation and research work across both sites, with a focus on fostering the natural environment that Manrique so loved.