Miguel Berrocal
opus 359 - Florero Para un Atleta Big
Miguel Berrocal
| opus 359 - Florero para un Atleta Big | 1987-89
Opus 359 Florero para un Atleta Big year created in dimensions elements caracteristics
1987-89 Negrar, Verona - Italy . 32.5 x 36.5 x 18.2 cm 7 Disassemblable
edition
8 artist proofs in bronze, lost wax cast (EA I / VIII to EA VIII / VIII ) 6 exemplars out of commerce, lost wax castl ( HC 1/6 to 6/6)
notes
the tile “Florero”, means “Flower vase”, hence the sculpture can be optionally used as one or five separate flower vases
Miguel Berrocal
Opus 359 - Florero para un Atleta Big
History of a Piece
The opus 359 - Florero para un Atleta Big, is one of the many models that the artist developed as a study for a bigger monument, the opus 402 - Citius Altius Fortius, and having liked the size, decided to edited it in a very exclusive Artist Proofs edition o 8 exemplars. When preparing for the Expo of Seville in 1992, The Olympic committee asked Berrocal to develop a monumental sculpture that was to be located at the entrance of the Olympic Pavilion, and that aimed at attracting the eye and the interest of the visitors. Berrocal conceived a male torso, named after the Olympic motto, Citius Altius Fortius, (Latin for Faster Higher Stronger), that could also disassemble into 5 elements, evoking the 5 interlocked rings of the Olympic symbol. The sculpture opus 402 - Citius Altius Fortius, is a mechanized monument whose elements open up, turn around their axes and close back again, so that they reveal their inner hidden beauty to the spectator. The Mechanized sculpture required Berrocal to research new materials and constructive technologies that would allow him to build the work at a much cheaper price than in bronze. For this he employed Kevlar, a light but very resistant sort of carbon fiber that had just been patented by Dupont a couple of years earlier.
Today the opus 402 - Citius Altius Fortius can be admired in the sculpture garden of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne Switzerland, where it keeps opening and closing for the public every day.
opus 402 - Citius Altius Fortius Top: the open elements turning around their axes bottom: just opened or almost closed Opus 359 - Florero Para un Atleta Big that as the title suggests ( Flower Vase for an Athlete Big), can be optionally used as a flower vase
| opus 359 - Florero para un Atleta Big | 1987-89
Miguel Berrocal
| Miguel Berrocal: biography | 1933-2006
MIGUEL BERROCAL: short biography Miguel Ortﾃｭz Berrocal was born in Villanueva de Algaidas, Mﾃ｡laga, on September28, 1933. He began his academic training in the Faculty of Exact Sciences in Madrid, where he read the first two years of mathematics as a requirement for enrolment in the School of Architecture. Meanwhile, like many others who aspired to study architecture, he attended the School of Arts and Crafts, where he was taught by ﾃ］gel Ferrant, and later he studied with the potter Pierre Canivet in Paris. He took an early interest in sculpture that could be taken apart, transformed or combined, and this has remained a feature of all his subsequent sculptural output. In his sculpture there is a constant search for new concepts and unknown areas within the very structure of the work, creating a path by which the viewer can enter the world of construction and deconstruction. His work has been influenced by sculptors such as Oteiza and Chillida, among others. He uses classical themes (torsos, heads or reclining figures) and, above all, a certain anthropomorphism to avoid an excessively geometrical, abstract result, although in his work there is a clear imprint of mathematics and architecture, resulting from his own inclination or his academic training. His style is characterised by a Hellenic inspiration, a baroque quality, and a complexity and breadth of forms. The meticulousness and precision in the construction of complex manipulable pieces and the exactness of the drawings and subsequent assemblages result in sculptural elements that in turn consist of other pieces with an identity of their own. It was precisely the difficulty involved in the creation of each individual sculpture that in 1962 led him to embark on serial production. This provided the sculptor with a way of multiplying his pieces, just as painters do by means of graphic arts procedures. Thus a given theme may be repeated in a different dimension, with the combination of new elements or arranged in a different way. In 1974 his style underwent a remarkable reduction, and he began to make simpler, forms. In his most recent period he has used increasingly elemental, essential drawing. His first solo show was at the Xagra gallery in Madrid in 1952. Since then he has presented numerous exhibitions throughout the world, and his work is to be found in leading museums and institutions in Europe and America, establishing Berrocal as one of the most significant and important artists of our times.
Miguel Berrocal lived and worked in Negrar, Verona Italy between 1964 and 2005 when he decided to return to his born town in Andalucia Villanueva de Algaidas to build and open a new studio. He dies in Antequera, Mﾃ｡laga on May 31.2006 en plena actividad creativa.
Miguel Berrocal
| Fundación Escultor Berrocal para las Artes | 2007
Foundation Sculptor Berrocal for the Arts [Fundación Escultor Berrocal para las Artes]
The Fundacion Escultor Berrocal para las Artes (Foundation Sculptor Berrocal for the Arts) was established in 2007 to protect and enhance the vast creative legacy of the spanish sculptor Miguel Berrocal. The Foundation has been created by the heirs of Miguel Berrocal, fulfilling so his express desires and completing the project that the artist started while still alive. The Institution aims at the conservation, research and diffusion of Miguel Berrocal’s works, as well as the contribution to the development and progress of Culture and Arts, Science and Technology in all its forms. It achieves it’s objectives through exhibitions worldwide, promoting cross-disciplinary research and development in the fields of Arts, Sciences, Technology, Design and Education. for information
berrocal.net fundacion@berrocal.net
Aerial view of Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, Spain, birth town of Miguel Berrocal and location of the Berrocal Museum-System, a 3 place exhibition venue around Berrocal’s Creative Universe
Miguel Berrocal
| Main Public Collections | 1933-2006
Miguel Berrocal
Main Public Collections
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles
Auditorio de la musica de la Cartuja, Sevilla
Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles
Ayuntamiento de Huelva
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Ayuntamiento de Málaga, Málaga
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Ayuntamiento de Oviedo, Asturias
Museum Ludwig, Köln
Ayuntamiento de Villaneuva de Algaidas, Málaga
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Beelden aan Zee Museum, Scheveningen
Oficina de Turismo Español, Roma
Fonds Cantonal de Décoration et d’Art Visuel, Genève
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Camera di Commercio di Carrara, Carrara
Rathaus, Ulm
Fundación Juan March, Madrid
Sprengel Museum, Hannover
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Hamburger Kunstahalle, Hamburg
Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim
Hirshborn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Univeristy of Michigan- Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
International Sculpture Museum, Olympic Park, Séoul
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Israel Museum, Jerusalem Jewish Museum, New York Mairie de Noisy-Le-Grand, Marne-la-Vallée Musée d’Art Moderne de St-Etienne, St-Etienne Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds Musée Olympique, Lausanne
Miguel Berrocal
| Awards | 1933- 2006
Miguel Berrocal
Awards
1955
Medaille de bronze de la “Première Biennale di Alexandrie – Pays de la
1988
Goodwill Ambassador, UNESCO, Paris
Méditerranée
1989
Académico correspondiente de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid
1966
Grand Prix de Sculpture de la Biennale de Paris
1967
Medaglia d’oro del VII° Concorso Internazionale del Bronzetto, Padova
1990
Accademico dell’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Roma
1968
Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française
1993
Medalla de Oro de Andalucía, Sevilla
1969
Medaglia d’oro della Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana per “Il
1994
Academico de Honor de la Réal Academia de Bellas Artes Santa Isabel de Hungría, Sevilla
metallo come pura espressione d’arte” Va Biennale d’Arte del Metallo,Gubbio 1970 1973
Gran Premio de Honor da Biennal de Saõ Paolo.
1976
Accademico associato dell’Accademia Tiberina di Roma
1977
Medaglia d’Oro della XXXIIIaMostra Internazionale dell’ Arredamento-M.I.A., Monza
1981
Cambio 16, X° Aniversário, “Figura de la Decada” ,Madrid
1984
ABC de Oro del periodico ABC, Madrid
1985
Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française. Medalla de Honor “ VictorioMacho” de la Asiciación de Escultores y Artistas Españoles. Medalla de Honor “ VictorioMacho” de la Asiciación de Escultores y Artistas Españoles. Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana Academico numerario de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes Santa Isabel de Hungría, Sevilla
Scientific Council, International Institute for Opera and Poetry. UNESCO,Verona
Medalla de oro del Ateneo de Mälaga Corona d’onore dell’ International Aesthetic Research, Torino
1987
2000 2002
Cruz de Plata, Agrupación Española de Fomento Europeo, Barcelona