The legacy of the Millares Sall family in southern Gran Canaria constitutes a fundamental chapter in the cultural, artistic, and heritage structure of the archipelago, beyond the usual focus of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Although the work of figures such as Manolo Millares and Agustín Millares Sall is better documented in urban and peninsular contexts, their influence and presence in the south—especially in Maspalomas and San Bartolomé de Tirajana—has a symbolic and territorial dimension worth highlighting. The president of the Gran Canaria Island Council, Antonio Morales, and its Minister of Culture, Guacimara Medina, are presenting an exhibition on the artistic legacy of the Millares Sall family, organized by the Atlantic Center for Modern Art.
The Millares Sall family, originally from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has historically maintained ties to the south of the island and a vocation for integration with the landscape. Since the mid-20th century, some of its members have chosen southern enclaves to seek a more intimate connection with the most ancient and unspoiled Canary Islands. In these places, the influence of an almost primeval landscape can be perceived in the visual poetics of artists such as Juan Millares, Jane Millares Sall, and José María Millares Sall.
In southern Gran Canaria—before the tourism and urban development boom—the landscape offered a sober and metaphysical backdrop, which dialogued with the Millares family's concerns: historical memory, displacement, Atlantic identity, and material abstraction. A particularly active figure was Jane Millares Sall, not only as a painter but also as a defender of traditional Canarian heritage. Her sensitivity toward rural dwellings, ancient trades, and the peasant world was clearly echoed in her writings and exhibitions, some of which visited southern municipalities. At a time when tourism development threatened to erase the material and symbolic legacy of southern Gran Canaria, Jane and other family members acted as a critical conscience, proposing a more respectful development model.
Today, as southern Gran Canaria struggles to recover some of its cultural authenticity, the Millares family's legacy serves as an ethical and aesthetic guide. Their approach was neither extractivist nor exoticizing, but deeply committed to the social reality and memory of the territory. In this context, the study of the Millares Sall family's journey through the south is not only an exercise in historical reconstruction, but an opportunity to rethink the role of art and culture in shaping more sustainable and grounded tourism models.
In an archipelago where light and landscape have been raw materials for artists and poets, Jane Millares Sall also chose shadows. Unlike other artists focused on the aesthetic exaltation of the Canary Islands, her painting forged a path of denunciation, memory, and resistance. From the south of Gran Canaria, between Maspalomas and Las Palmas, her work became a cry against fascism, the death penalty, and the imperialist machine. An uncomfortable art that still challenges us.
Born into one of the most influential families in 20th-century Canarian culture—sister of Agustín Millares Sall and Manolo Millares, daughter of the persecuted professor Juan Millares Carló—Jane was able to transform her biography, marked by injustice, into a deeply ethical and universal work.
“The Face of Fascism”: Art Without Metaphors
One of his most powerful works is "The Face of Fascism" (1961), a direct and brutal portrait, devoid of metaphor. The monstrous visage it presents needs no explanation. It is a frontal image, with a hand in a fascist salute that occupies a disproportionate, almost violent space, like someone imposing their will on the viewer from the canvas. This painting, set in the midst of the dictatorship, is a testament to expressive courage, a firm gaze against the tormentors of his time.
“Bay of Pigs”: the canvas as a manifesto
That same year, Jane painted another seminal work: "Bay of Pigs." Here, her language becomes even more symbolic and complex. Red and black merge in a composition dominated by anguish. Planes, bombs, twisted bodies, agonized faces... and a fist raised as a final gesture of rebellion. The artist transforms the horror of the Cuban invasion into a universal denunciation of military interference. A work that seems to shout from the Canary Islands to the world.
On one of the planes, the most attentive viewer can discover lines reminiscent of the Nazi swastika. Jane leaves no room for ambiguity: barbarism has a face, uniforms, countries, and accomplices. Her painting is a political statement, a stance taken at a time when art often took refuge in the decorative or the abstract to avoid repression.
“The vile garrote”: the cross of Juan García, the Corredera
In 1974, at the end of the Franco regime, Jane painted "El garrote vil," a monumental work dedicated to Juan García Suárez, known as "El Corredera," the last victim of garroting in the Canary Islands. His death in 1959 marked an entire generation. Jane, married to journalist Luis Jorge—who followed the case and reported the execution to the world—transformed her indignation into an image. The stark black background not only refers to the death penalty, but also to censorship, to the moral darkness of a regime that murdered in the name of the law. In the center, the silhouette of a crucified body resembles Christ, a metaphor for the martyrdom of so many innocent people condemned by Franco.
