MANUEL MILLARES

Manuel Millares, a painter and engraver from the Canary Islands, is considered one of the most outstanding artists of the El Paso group. His use of sackcloth as the main material in his work makes him a leading exponent of European Informalism.

From an early age, Millares experimented with art in a self-taught manner and participated in creating craft magazines. A close friend of Martín Chirino, they shared an admiration for Dalí and the surrealist movement.

In 1945, Millares held his first solo exhibition at the Círculo Mercantil in Las Palmas.

In 1950, he was a main promoter of the group LADAC (Los Arqueros del Arte Contemporáneo), which generated significant controversy in the press with its first exhibition.

A year later, Millares participated in the I Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte in Madrid.

In 1953, he married Elvireta Escobio (a member of the LADAC Group) and moved to Madrid. That year, he exhibited at the II Havana Art Biennial and the XXVIII International Venice Biennial, marking the beginning of his international recognition.

In 1957, Millares signed the Manifesto of El Paso, a group pivotal in defining the post-war Spanish avant-garde, and exhibited his “harpilleras” (burlap sackcloth works) at the Ateneo de Madrid. One of his works presented at the São Paulo Biennial was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He contributed to numerous avant-garde publications and gained increasing international recognition with exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo, Minneapolis, Lisbon, Munich, and other cities.

Despite the dissolution of El Paso in 1960, Millares continued working with sackcloth, a fundamental element in his compositions. He sewed, tore, and mended the material, and using a palette of only three colours—white, black, and red—created works with great expressive power and drama.

That same year, his work was exhibited in New York at MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Matisse Gallery. The Tate Gallery, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires, and the Galleria Nazionale in Rome acquired his work.

From 1960 until his death, Millares produced drawings, scenographies, ceramics, carpet designs, engravings, and illustrated books. However, sackcloth, which he associated with shrouds and the death of man, remained central to his work.

In 1972, Manuel Millares died of a brain tumour in Madrid at the age of 46.

Exhibited Work:

Untitled, 1964
Ink on paper