Miguel Ortiz Berrocal


Miguel Ortiz Berrocal was an award-winning Spanish figurative and abstract sculptor. He is best known for his puzzle sculptures, which can be disassembled into many abstract pieces. These works are also known for the miniature artworks and jewelry incorporated into or concealed within them, and the fact that some of the sculptures can be reassembled or reconfigured into different arrangements. Berrocal's sculptures span a wide range of physical sizes from monumental outdoor public works, to intricate puzzle sculptures small enough to be worn as pendants, bracelets, or other body ornamentation.
From 1967 to 2004, Berrocal worked in Verona, Italy, and in nearby Negrar, where he worked closely with sculptural foundries to produce his art. His work was exhibited widely throughout Europe and also in North and South America and Japan. In 2004 he returned to his birthplace in Spain, remaining artistically active until his sudden death in 2006. The Fundación Escultor Berrocal continues to preserve and promote his artwork and legacy, from its headquarters in his hometown of Villanueva de Algaigas in Spain.

Biography

Education

From a very early age, Berrocal demonstrated a talent for art and research. He produced his own toys with recycled material, drawing and painting with colors of his own design. He completed his education in Madrid. An important experience was his first visit to the Prado art meseum, which he revisited often. He attended the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the Escuela de Artes Graficas, and evening classes at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios, where he befriended his tutor the sculptor :es:Ángel Ferrant|Ángel Ferrant. He enrolled at the Faculty of Exact Sciences to prepare for the entrance examination for Architecture studies. He was fascinated by analytic geometry, and this later manifested itself in the style of his works.

Artistic beginnings

In 1952, Berrocal's first exhibition took place in Madrid at the Galería Xagra. He showed drawings of people and landscapes of Algaidas and Madrid. These were signed with his paternal surname, "Ortiz". He was awarded a grant to study in Italy. Berrocal was only familiar with Rome through his classical studies. After visiting the sites of Roman civilization, he lived in Rome for several months. There, for the first time, he came upon an exhibit of the work of Picasso in a major exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. Exhibits of Picasso's work were prohibited in Spain at the time.
In 1954 he returned to Spain to undergo military service. He returned to the Faculty of Exact Sciences and to his drawing and sculpture classes. He found his friend Ferrant, who encouraged him in his work. He was invited to take part in the XXVII Biennale di Venezia, where he exhibited his drawings in the Spanish Pavilion, still signed "Ortiz".
The award of a grant, by the Institut Français in Madrid, enabled Berrocal to travel to Paris in 1955. Plunging into the stimulating atmosphere that the city offered him, he continued his work as a painter. He frequently saw the sculptors Cárdenas and Giacometti and many others. He returned to Rome, where he met Afro, Burri, Guerrini and other artists. He worked for various established architects, and with a group of young companions, he prepared an entry for a project for the construction of the Chamber of Commerce in Carrara. For the ornamentation of the facade, the 22-year-old Berrocal invented a solution for the balustrades. His work was based on eight modules with which he obtained a number of permutations and combinations that far exceeded the requirement to make each of the building's balustrades different from the others.
In 1957, he exhibited his first sculptures, in wrought iron, at the Galleria La Medusa, in Rome. The works that he produced during the summer, in the studio he rented in Mougins on the Côte d’Azur, concluded his cycle of activity as a painter. At this time he succeeded in being received by Picasso at La Californie. He returned to Rome and from then on concentrated on sculpture. Works made in this period included La Boîte découpée, Sarcophage and Grand Torse. These works mark the transition from the analysis of the problem of filled and empty space, and the multiplicity of positions of a single sculpture, to the problem of the combinatorial possibility of different volumes.
After making the decision to devote himself exclusively to sculpture, Berrocal had a house/studio, designed by Le Corbusier built in Crespières, near Paris. He had an important first sculptural exhibition at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, for which he signed his work definitively as "Berrocal". Bruno Lorenzelli, a well-known director of an art gallery in Bergamo, became his first dealer. Works produced in this period included Torso Benamejí and Torso Her, first made in plaster and wood, and then cast in bronze and aluminum respectively.
1962 was a year full of events and important decisions. His exhibitions included shows with Ipoustéguy and Müller in New York at the Albert Loeb Gallery. Loeb henceforth acted as his dealer in the United States. His important first solo exhibition in Paris was at the Galerie Kriegel. Kriegel became a very close friend and acted as his dealer in France for many years. Throughout his life, Berrocal was known for his deliberate attempts to portray variety in his sculptures, often submitting individual pieces to different exhibitions.

Search for a foundry

On his way to the Biennale di Venezia, he stopped at Verona because of his search for foundries. Here he found a small foundry willing to cast his sculptures. Together, they made Verona and its foundries one of the most important centres for contemporary art in Europe. In addition to his own work, Berrocal brought the best-known sculptors of the time to Verona, including: Miró, Dalí, Magritte, De Chirico, Lalanne, Lam, Matta, Duchamp-Villon, Ipoustéguy, César, Étienne Martin, Peñalba and many others.
His sculptural exploration led him to experiment with new techniques and materials. Thanks to his scientific training, he applied technologies used only in the most advanced sectors of industry to his art. He began experimenting this year, making 200 copies of the sculpture María de la O.
In 1964 Berrocal exhibited as a sculptor in the Spanish Pavilion at the XXXII Biennale di Venezia, where the Belgian collector Baron Lambert acquired Mercedes for his collection. Jules Engel made the film , the first in an extensive range of films about Berrocal and his work, which was presented at the in New York and received numerous prizes. Other films and videos have been produced in European, American and Japanese editions. During his stay in New York, in Lipchitz’s studio, he learned about the Shaw process, a lost wax system for casting in porcelain. Despite considerable difficulties, after some years, he succeeded in importing this technique to Italy and applying it. It revolutionized the world of artistic casting because it permitted lost wax casting in bronze, significantly reducing costs and casting times, and guaranteeing high quality and fidelity to the original. He taught Technique of Materials at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg. He selected Thomas as his dealer in Germany and had his first exhibition in Munich.
The need to find better foundries obliged him to shuttle every week between Paris and Verona; he decided to settle definitively in the latter city in 1967. After remaining there for a while, he moved to Negrar, where he would live until 2004. His sculpture became increasingly complex. The search for a "fourth dimension" became evident in Adamo Secundus and David, small works with complex possibilities of disassembly. The sculptures of this period were so successful that in the United States they acquired the status of "conversation pieces".
In 1968 Berrocal was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, André Malraux. German television made a documentary about Negrar. He exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he met artist Henry Moore, and Baron Lambert, the first of the considerable number of his devoted Belgian collectors and friends. Colonel Marcel Stal became his dealer. He presented an exhibition at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe.
The successful series of exhibitions in private galleries begun in 1968 continued in: Frankfurt, Geneva, Paris, New York, Milan and Hanover, among others. This year he finally produced Romeo e Giulietta, using the technique of injection casting, which for the first time enabled him to make 2000 copies of a sculpture. He used similar techniques to make Goliath which consisted of 80 pieces and Richelieu which had 61. He worked on the book/object Petite Rapsodie de la main, with text by Loys Masson. Important works produced during this period are Sainte Agathe II, Cleopatra and Alfa e Romeo, a work specifically studied as an illustration for Petite Rapsodie de la main. Mini David began the series of five mini-sculptures produced in quantities of 10,000 copies, using the automatic injection technique, a procedure hitherto used exclusively in industrial manufacturing. The Galería Iolas-Velasco in Madrid presented his sculptures in Spain for the first time. Various well-known dealers created Multicetera, a company for the distribution of his mini-sculptures. He received the Gold Medal from the Presidency of the Italian Republic for "Metal as a pure expression of art" at the V Biennale del Metallo in Gubbio.

1970s

In 1971 Berrocal met Maria Cristina Blais of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Braganza, the daughter of a famous Portuguese throne pretender Maria Pia of Braganza. They married a few years later and had two sons, both born in Verona, Carlos Miguel Berrocal of Saxe-Coburg in 1976 and Beltrán José Berrocal of Saxe-Coburg born in 1978.
In 1972, the city of Málaga gave him a commission for a large monument as a tribute to Picasso. In 1976 was exhibited at the Rond-Point of the Champs Élysées in Paris before its final placement in Málaga.
In 1973, Berrocal represented Spain at the XXII Bienal de São Paulo, and was awarded the Grand Prize of Honour. He visited Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela and exhibited in Caracas. On the basis of the experience of the Monumento a Picasso, he undertook a new series of monumental works, including Richelieu Big, Almudena, Dalirium tremens and Torso C. Also produced in this period were the editions of Il Cofanetto, a tribute to Romeo and Juliet and the city of Verona, and Paloma Box, a tribute to Paloma Picasso. Paloma Picasso lived for a few months in the Villa Rizzardi, Berrocal's home, and she worked on her own jewelry in Berrocal's workshop.
He went back to painting and did a series of gouaches and numerous painting variations on recurrent themes in his sculptures: torsos, female figures, reclining nudes, heads, and still lifes. During a journey in the Belgian Ardennes he found a group of old anvils, which he bought which, in 1982, gave rise to the series Desperta Ferro, Almogávares, and the not completed Las Mujeres pasadas por la piedra. With the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, he studied a project for a sculptural work one kilometre long, on the border between France and Spain, and also a design for the trou des Halles. Neither of these ambitious architectural projects were carried out. He gave a talk at the École d’Art de Luminy in Marseilles.
, Spain
Works produced in this period included La Maja, Manolete, and Metamorehorses. His work Torero was included in the didactic exhibition Les mains regarding, organised at the Centre Georges Pompidou and intended for the blind. It was touched by thousands of people. Berrocal visited the United States. Espace Berrocal was inaugurated at the Centre Artcurial in Paris.
In 1979 the circuit of museums, galleries and collectors functioned actively, and the use of casting for the production of sculptures now became very important. Berrocal declined an increasing number of invitations in order to concentrate on his work, which became more varied. Works produced in this period included Caballo Casinaide and Omaggio ad Arcimboldo.

1980s

In 1980 there were further exhibitions in Caracas and at the Palazzo delle Prigioni Vecchie in Venice. Berrocal was the only artist invited to the I Symposium sur la Sculpture Éditée in Brussels, where he participated in a seminar on multiplied sculpture with students from the University of Louvain. He completed Astronauta, a tribute to Jules Verne, composed of 21 different pieces of jewellery.
In 1981, Berrocal returned to colour: he painted a series of gouaches and silkscreen prints and made two large patchwork hangings for Vogue International. He held an exhibition of his work in New York, which he visited. His portrait by Andy Warhol dates from this trip. For the centenary of Picasso’s birth, he made a medal and a plaque for the artist’s birthplace, which had now become a museum. He made Hoplita, which contained the famous Rubik’s cube, in tribute to the Hungarian mathematician. He held various exhibitions in Europe.
His first exhibition in Kuwait took place in 1982. He produced the series Desperta Ferro, ten pieces on a theme that anticipated the Almogávares, and completed Neon - a sculpture with computer-controlled neon circuits, which gave life to countless combinatorial possibilities of equestrian figures. He undertook his first collaboration with the architect Núñez Yanowski, for the design for the Place Picasso in Marne-la-Vallée, Paris. This led to the creation of Sarabande pour Picasso. He visited New York, where he met the mayor of the city, Ed Koch, who showed great interest in the possibilities of Berrocal’s sculpture in an urban context.
In 1984 the Spanish Ministry of Culture hosted a major exhibition to him at the Palacio de Velázquez in Madrid. An exhaustive historical and critical catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition, with critical texts by Julián Gállego, and Franco Passoni. After Madrid, the exhibition was presented at the Palau Meca in Barcelona, and at Le Botanique in Brussels during Europalia. In 1984, the citizens of Algaidas established the Asociación Amigos de Berrocal, to create a documentation centre and a museum devoted to him; and, after an absence of 25 years, Berrocal returned to the city of his birth.
1986 was a period characterised by the installation of various urban monuments: Sarabande pour Picasso in Paris, Fuente del Limonar, a project for a garden with a fountain in Málaga and, Torso Es for the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seoul. A substantial monograph was published in French by Éditions de la Différence in Paris, with a critical essay by Jean-Louis Ferrier. He gave his first exhibition at the museum in Villanueva de Algaidas, in conjunction with the award of the status of Favourite Son in his native town. He designed the sets and costumes for Bizet’s Carmen at the Arena in Verona.

1990s

In 1991 Berrocal received a commission to produce three monumental works for the Spanish celebrations of 1992. The 1992 celebrations were the Exposición Universal in Seville, the Olympics in Barcelona, and the nomination of Madrid as Cultural Capital of Europe. As a result, he produced Doña Elvira, a sculpture intended for the Auditorium on the Isla de la Cartuja in Seville; Manolona, a sculpture erected in the Parque Juan Carlos I in Madrid; and Citius, Altius, Fortius, a torso 4 metres high, presented at the Exposición Universal in Seville, before being moved to its final site at the entrance to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne in 1993. He was nominated as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO. In response to technical difficulties encountered when making his monumental sculptures, Berrocal carried out research into new materials and techniques, not hesitating to turn to the most highly specialised industrial sectors in order to learn avant-garde technologies. For example, the three monumental works produced in this period were made using Kevlar and carbon fibre. The application of technologies never before used for artistic purposes like sculpture, is significant in terms of the profound symbiosis between art, science and technology that had always accompanied Berrocal’s sculptural research.
In July 1994, the artist introduced the monument Torso de Luces in Seville. This was made for the company Sevillana de Electricidad to celebrate its centenary. In the autumn, there was a retrospective of multiples at the Cankarjev Dom cultural centre in Ljubljana.
In 1995 Berrocal introduced the Fuente de la Paz in Ibiza. The exhibition Berrocal: Sculture e Disegni was held at the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti, in Verona.
From June to September 1996, Berrocal exhibited at the Barchessa Rambaldi, Bardolino. He installed three large monumental sculptures, Pepita in Bordeaux, Alcudia on the campus of the Polytechnic University in Valencia, and Marcelisa in the Marselisborg sculpture park in Denmark.
Between 1997 and 1998 Berrocal took part in the following exhibitions: VI Biennale di Scultura in Monte Carlo Venice, Piccole sculpture, grandi scultori at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and Berrocal, Forme et Mouvement, catalogued by Pierre Restany and Robert C. Morgan.
In 1999 he appeared at the ARCO art fair in Madrid. At the same time, there was a large solo exhibition presented at the Centro Cultural Conde Duque in Madrid, which then traveled to Oviedo, where it was seen at the Teatro Campoamor from 15 October to 8 December, and then to Málaga, where it was shown at the exhibition rooms of Unicaja. Berrocal illustrated Emilio Prado’s book The Mystery of Water for the City Council of Madrid. In September he took part in the international exhibition of sculpture and installations OPEN’999 at the Lido in Venice, with El Diestro, a work 3 metres high. In October he presented a solo exhibition at the Galerie Artcurial in Paris. In December he had a large solo exhibition at the Galleria Ghelfi in Verona.

2000s

In 2000 Berrocal took part in the Miami Art Fair, the ARCO Art Fair in Madrid, the laying of the foundation stone for the Museo Berrocal in Villanueva de Algaidas, a solo exhibition in Málaga, and another exhibition at the Fondation Veranneman in Belgium. He gave talks in Spain at the University of the Basque Country, Faculty of Fine Arts, Bilbao and the Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, Thales, in San Fernando.
He participated in group exhibitions in Hamburg and Como and in several collective and international exhibits such as: International Fair of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Málaga Provincial Council; the exhibit Golden Imagination: Artists, Silver and Goldsmiths in the Second Half of Italy’s 20th Century, in Ancona; the monographic exhibit, Return to Classicism: The Fusion of Art and Science at the Gallery of the City Hall in the village of his birth, Villanueva de Algaidas; the 36th Abitare el Tempo a Verona; and lastly, an extensive personal retrospective at the Spazio Creativo Cardin in Venice.
In 2002 he took part in the group exhibition, Scultori a Verona 1900–2000, at the Palazzo Forti in Verona, and at the Mostra Internazionale di Arte Contemporanea in Vicenza. In the spring, he was involved in an itinerant exhibition with the name Ecume: Autour de la monnaie unique, which took the design of the Euro as its motif and was organized by the French Government. The Swinger Art Gallery presented the exhibition Berrocal Scultorea. That summer he prepared another extensive exhibit at the Institute Valencià d ́Art Modern that included drawings and sculpture. During that retrospective an important monograph was published. The book was illustrated with photographs of Roberto Bigano and included texts of high intellectual soundness.
In 2003, the retrospective in Valencia continued into the spring, in this case in Málaga at the "Episcopal Palace". It was organized by the Unicaja Benefit Society. Several large sculptures were presented, such as the wooden Richelieu Big, which is two meters in height and can be taken down to 61 pieces. Several monographic and collective exhibits showed the presence of Berrocal in Europe. These included his participation in Milan on the occasion of the Furniture Fair, as well as in Belgium, Venice, Frankfurt and Rome. A collection of jewellery was presented at the Château de Seneffe in Belgium with the title Être ou ne pas être: Peintres ou Sculpteurs? Les bijoux des plus grands. It received a positive response from critics and the public.
During 2004 he showed various works at the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Madrid. He was also in the exhibition Forme Animali–Warning Colours that unified art and science. It was organized by the University of Aquila at the Abbey of Saint Maria di Collemaggio. He also participated at the Milan MIART. In June he took part in the collective exhibit Objects of Desire, Objects of the Artist at the Elvira Conzales Gallery of Madrid. In June and August, an open-air exhibit of monumental sculptures, held in the magnificent Mediterranean landscape of Cap Roig in Costa Brava, was attended by more than 150.000 people. In that show the work Melilla was presented for the first time. The piece was to be permanently placed at the Plaza de las Cuatro Culturas in the city of Melilla.

Return to Spain

At the end of 2004, Berrocal decided to move to Andalusia permanently. He established a home in his birthplace, Villanueva de Algaidas, in the province of Málaga. There he managed the building of his new studio, an immense warehouse among olive trees, to hold the works his insatiable appetite for knowledge, fantasy, and versatile curiosity had led him to accumulate during more than 50 years of making art.
During 2005, he wrote and edited his memoirs, and prepared two other publications: a general catalogue of his sculptures, and a separate catalogue of his painting, drawing and graphic works.
Along with ten other sculptors of different nationalities, he participated in the symposium Creator Vesevo organised by the city of Herculaneum, close to Naples. That fall, a powerful and monumental torso made out of volcanic stone was placed on the side of Mount Vesuvius. Berrocal started to move his material possessions from Villa Rizzardi de Negrar in the Valpolicella, where he had lived and worked for forty years, to his new residence in Spain.
In February 2006 he finished Large Leaning Nude, made of white Kevlar, which now projects as a white cloud over the landscape of Lake Como. That year, he finished writing his memoirs, but continued to work enthusiastically on drawings and sketches for several new works to be built at his studio.
Miguel Berrocal died on 31 May in Antequera.

Principles of Berrocal’s art

The young Berrocal, inspired by the great creative forces of the first half of the 20th century, sought his own artistic path and asked himself: "How to awake people to sculpture?". This question fostered a personal artistic philosophy and esthetic language that can be better understood through seven main points:
In order to protect and enhance the vast creative legacy of Berrocal, the Fundación Escultor Berrocal was established on 22 November 2007 in Madrid by the heirs of Miguel Berrocal, fulfilling his expressed will and culminating the projects which the artist started during his life. The aims of the institution are the preservation, research, and dissemination of the work of Miguel Berrocal, as well as contributions to the advancement of sculpture in all its forms, and to the development and progress of culture and the arts. The foundation is headquartered in the Estudio-Taller Berrocal, the artist's last studio and workshop, in his hometown of Villanueva de Algaidas in the province of Málaga, Spain.
The following seven permanent programs were created:
The Berrocal Creative Universe is a 3 place exhibition venue around the work of the sculptor. Opened in 2013, the Museum exhibits paintings and graphical works. The Studio-Workshop allows visitors "to discover the incredibly complex creative endeavors as well as technical process needed to prototype and produce disassemblable works." The House-Museum provides visitors with a sense of Berrocal's personality and exhibits works by his many artist friends.

Museum

The building of the Berrocal Museum, still in development, hosts in its first wing open to public the Center of Interpretation of Water and Contemporary Art. Through an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s monumental fountains. it proposes a different approach to the works of Berrocal, looking to understand how the mind of an artist uses the poetry and complexity of the liquid element in different ways. Another feature of this exhibition is the lesser known graphical works of the sculptor, a small representative selection that shows the strong relationship of the artist with his homeland, with the landscapes of Villanueva de Algaidas: the young artist started out as a painter, wandering in the fields, honing his passion and work, researching his inspiration among the hills of olive trees, in the faces of people, in the light of this ancient territory.

Studio-Workshop

Visitors can see a selection of Berrocal's sculptures, especially of the first period; his mechanical workshop, where the prototypes were created and the sculptures were finished; as well as his personal studio, revealing the process of research, study, calculations and drawing that kept the artist busy while conceiving the sculptures. The Studio also contains Berrrocal's personal library, with more than 5000 books and a collection of his limited editions.

Representative works