El mirador cavante

In 2021 it was one hundred years since the birth of the visual artist Manuel Espínola Gómez (Uruguay 1921-2003), native of Solís de Mataojo (department of Lavalleja). The grand commemorative retrospective comprises all the stylistic periods of the autodidact artist (with works belonging to the art collection of the Museum and from private collections), as well as his works around graphic design in its multiple variants. The artist only attended primary school, but that was not an obstacle for him to become one of the most important Uruguayan artists of the second half of the 20th century. Linked in his younger years to music (in his beginnings with his mentor Eduardo Fabini; then with Héctor Tosar and later with León Biriotti), he could never give the term "art" the meaning that historically was assigned to it. He is also one of the few Uruguayan artists who bequeathed very particular reflections in the theoretical field of the arts. A skilled graphic designer, set designer, curator, consultant, jury in numerous competitions, eminent speaker; he won since 1940 several awards in salons of plastic arts, departmental and national, as well as the Premio Figari in 2000 for his career achievements, granted by the MEC (Ministerio de Educación y Cultura) and the BCU (Banco Central de Uruguay)