Spanish painter, born at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. He was self-taught as an artist. After beginning as a landscape painter he turned to *Surrealism (influenced by *Klee and *Miró) and by 1949 he was experimenting with abstraction. He first visited Spain in 1953 for the International Congress of Abstract Art at Santander, and in 1955 he settled in Madrid. In 1957 he was a founder-member of the avant-garde group *El Paso. His paintings are highly emotional and often incorporate unusual materials, such as torn sackcloth (Painting 150, 1961, Tate).