MIGUEL BERROCAL. BRONZE SCULPTURE.

Bronze, 29/500 limited, signed, bronze dimensions: 6.5 x 7.5 cm, total height: 13.5 cm.

Miguel Ortiz Berrocal * 1933 Algaidas/Malaga In addition to studying architecture with a focus on mathematics and the natural sciences, which he began in 1949, Berrocal devoted himself early on to his artistic training. He attended courses at the city's various art schools and became a student of the sculptor Angel Ferrant. During a stay in Paris in 1955, he attended Pierre Canivet's ceramics school. The artist was so impressed by his acquaintance with the sculptors Cárdenas and Giacometti and by Chillida's works that he devoted himself more to sculpture in the future. The first iron sculptures are created. In 1960 he went to Crespières near Paris to set up a full-time job as a sculptor. However, technical and financial circumstances soon forced him to return to Italy. In 1966, Berrocal accepted a guest professorship at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg before settling in Verona at the end of the year. In the same year he wins the Sculpture Prize at the Paris Biennale, followed by the Gold Medal of the 7th International Bronze Competition in Padua 1967. Berrocal has been working in Negrar near Verona since 1973. In his own foundry workshop, he produces not only his own works but also works for Dalí, De Chirico, Duchamp-Villon, etc. In the same year he is awarded the Grand Prize of Honor at the São Paulo Biennial. In the fifties his works are still characterized by an abstract, delicate character. In 1961/62, however, his forms became increasingly anthropomorphic and rounded. In the 1960s and 1970s he developed dismountable sculptures that could be combined with one another, but which should also be understood as autonomous works of art. Parallel to the edition sculptures, monumental works were created in the seventies. In terms of content, Berrocal repeatedly addresses antiquity as well as the art and cultural history of Italy and Spain, often dedicated as a homage to artist friends.