Martín Chirino (1925-2019) pointed out, in «The plowshare and the plow», a text published in the monographic issue that Papeles de Son Armadans He dedicated 1959 to El Paso, that inspiration is related to the necessary and humble tools:

"My sculpture is closer to the tools in their origins. It is akin to the plow or the share. My work could have what those instruments have of being an extension of humanity. They unite man to the land in a harmonious and necessary task. It too—sculpture—is intertwined with the human spirit in its most radical dimension, that of the implements… They are in harmony with the useful elevated to the status of symbol. I have sought them out among the people."

Chirino's sculptural gesture, following in the footsteps of Julio González, is a "drawing in the air," an expression of strength and sensuality, where spatial continuity leads the gaze beyond the strict object. In Martín Chirino's aesthetic, the spiral form, which evokes the wind but also refers to the breath and creative impulse, is undoubtedly fundamental—an embodiment of the power of chaos and its resolution in moments of suspension brimming with beauty. Chirino finds in the spiral the trace of origin, resonating with Bachelard's observation in The poetics of space, that when man goes into himself, going towards the center of the spiral, he often becomes wandering and seems to access an anomalous "confinement on the outside".

In terms of material imagination, these sculptures break down dichotomies, for while they are figures of the air, they also allude to the vertiginous experience of immersion in water or the serenity that arises from contemplating a landscape. Earth, face, mask, dreams, and the closure of the radical experience of modernity—an entire spatial projection, as Eduardo Westerdahl said—maintains Chirino's work in tension. These memorable works, folded in a baroque style, invite the viewer to delve into a poetics of intensity, where the lines and rigidity of the metal have given way to the most beautiful spatial modulation.

Martín Chirino was, without a doubt, one of the most important Spanish sculptors with an extraordinary international reach. He held exhibitions in prestigious museums and galleries, and his works are part of renowned collections. Alongside his artistic output, he was known for his deep concern for the cultural landscape, which led him to promote projects such as the rearticulation of...el Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (1983-1992) or the impetus given to the Atlantic Center of Modern Art in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In the centenary year of this great artist's birth, this exhibition serves to keep alive the memory of a man, radically passionate about culture and who described himself as a "stoic," who knew how to forge the spiral and, for many years, revitalized el Círculo.

Wind © Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 1973