Miguel Berrocal

opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso

Opus 129 Monumento A Picasso

year 1972-74 created in Negrar, Verona - Italy . dimensions 310 x 500 x 220 cmmedia Kevlar, carbon fiber, resin and molecular bronze, dark patina.net weight 2000 Kg. exemplar Artist proof Signed and dated “Berrocal 03”

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

2

Opus 147 Monumento Pequeño

year 1976 created in Negrar, Verona - Italy . dimensions 50 x 50 x 30 cmmedia bronze, molted with lost wax cast

edition 8 exemplars in bronze (1/8 to 8/8)

Miguel Berrocal | opus 147 - Monumento Pequeño | 1976

2

Opus 129 - Monumento a PicassoHistory of a Piece:

In 1969 after more than seventeen years of absence from Spain, Berrocal,receives from the city of Malaga an important and honourable commission: He has to create a monumental work as an hommage to Pi-casso to be set up in the gardens that his born town had dedicated to the painter for his 90th birthday.

Berrocal accepted with such enthousiasm and emotion that he immediately decided to donate his work to Malaga. He soon convinced Paloma Picasso to acompany him for a short visit to Malaga to see the site: It was her first visit to her father’s land and Berrocal’s idea was to build in the Picasso Gardens a space for a permanent exhibition of Picasso’s sculptures. (It is only in year 2003 that the Picasso Museum finally opened in Malaga)

Berrocal writes: «MONUMENTO A PICASSO was committed to me by the Malaga Municipality [...] After visiting the Picasso Gardens in Malaga I chose to place my work between two secular ficus, of which the en-tangled aerial roots have much inspired me in trying to combine as much as possible the outline of the massive sculpture into the landscape.As the roots of the ficus, the volumes grow out of the Spanish ground, from which they obtain the lymph of inspira-tion and bring it to the heart. The cylindrical entangl-ing volumes suggest the figure of a reclining woman

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

4

with a heart shaped face, but in reality they form a double profile of an embracing couple, one of Picasso’s recurrent themes»

After seen the magnificent Ficus trees, Berrocal immediately embarked himself in the preliminary studies for the project wich included the sculpture and the garden rearangement.

He decided to empty the main room of the groud floor of the Villa Rizzardi to be able to sculpt the first model in styroform and worked there between 1971 and 1973, later, lacking of space as the sculpture was reaching the ceiling of the room, he mooved his work to the foundery facilities in

Sommacampagna, still ignoring at that time if his creation would be able to be placed in the choosen site, as those where days when anything related to the name and or the works of Picasso was suspicious to the spanish «franquista» establishment.

Many political difficulties occured to prevent the placing of this monument hommage to Pica-sso. They lasted until the death of Generalissimo Franco in 1975 (Picasso had died in 1973 ). The extreme complexity of the casting process required 32 moulds and lasted all year 1975. Finaly MONUMENTO A PICASSO was ready to be transported.

With a first stop in Paris (may 1976) to be exhibited in the Rond-Point des Champs Elysées, MONUMENTO A PICASSO reached Malaga to be settled in the Jardines Picasso in the Alameda avenue and was unveiled in the fall of 1976. This bronze has left his permanent location only once after 1976 for the anthological exhibition organized by the Spanish Ministery of Culture in Madrid at the Palacio de Velazquez in 1984.

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

5

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

6

Styrofoam model

Plaster model and casting process

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

7

In 2002 Berrocal restaured the moulds and the original styrophorm model to realize one exemplar in Kevlar and carbone fiber coated with resin and molecular bronze and patinated. This exemplar has been exhibited in several open air exhibitions in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Swit-zerland and presently is exhibited at the MART (Museo d’Arte Contemporaneo di Rovereto e Trento) in Italy.

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

8

[...] Apres l’avoir prié d’entrer, Picasso le reçut longuement, lui réservant un accueil chaleureux. Et, comme, malgré l’insistance de celui-ci, il ne parve-nait pas à le tutoyer, s’excusant: « Pour moi, vous étes comme Dieu...», Picasso lui rétorqua: «Mais, mon garçon, est-ce que tu vouvoies Dieu ?» De cette adoration juvénile allait naitre, dans la maturité de Berrocal, deux oeuvres monumentales, «MONUMENTO A PICASSO», en 1974, puis « SARABANDE POUR PICASSO », en 1984. Le «MONUMENTO» - long de 6,50 mètres, haut de 3 mètres 30 et profond de 1,50 metre - se trouve en plein air, entouré de ficus aux vieux troncs ligneux qui semblent lui répondre, [...] à Málaga. Il procede de la suite borroméenne dont il reprend et dével-oppe jusqu’au vertige les lacets qui s’entrecroisent, s’entrelacent, vont, reviennent, ouvrent, ferment l’espace avec une ampleur exceptionnelle. Cela, au premier abord, peut surprendre dans la mesure où Picasso, peintre instinctif, irrationnel, livré a ses pulsions, était tout le contraire d’un mathématicien, a l’inverse, par exemple, de Dalí - a la meme suite appartiennent notamment «DALIRIUM TREMENS» et «SALVADOR y DALILA» - qui était avide d’ouvrages de philosophie des sciences et avait le délire volon-tiers épistémologique. Cependant, la topologie n’est pas seule en cause puisque, comme nous l’avons vu plus haut, la suite borroméenne a également pour origine les neuds et tresses des arabesques islamiques, les Arabes qui occuperent I’Espagne

pendant neuf siecles ayant laissé derrière eux des traces profondes, tant sur le plan de l’art que sur celui des habitudes mentales. C’est par là, à travers le domaine culturel hispano-arabe, que le «MONUMENTO» s’adresse a Picasso. Mais, d’autre part, en dehors de son ampleur dont la surabondance engloutit le regard, il est le seul de la série a intégrer des éléments anthropomorphes tels qu ‘une main ouverte qui semble chercher de l’aide et un visage renversé en arrière qui se montre simultanément de face et de profil comme Picasso en a réalisé de nombreux. Citation, sans doute, mais plus encore radicalisation du theme, des lors que cette main et ce visage paraissent entrainés par ses anneaux dans l’abyssale problématique du Néant. [...]

extrait de:Jean Luis Ferrier, « BERROCAL »Collection Mains et Merveilles Éditions La Différence, Paris, 1989. Ch.IV “Les pantoufles de Picasso” p.72

Opus 129 - Monumento a PicassoCritical Quote: Jean Luis Ferrier

Berrocal and Cristina with french writer Roger Peyrfitte in front of the Monumento, Paris Rond Point des Champs Elysées,1976

detail of opus 129 - Monumento a PicassoAerial Ficus

Opus 129 - Monumento a PicassoRelated Works

MONUMENTO A PICASSO belongs to the theme of the “reclining figures”, a group of works that share similar formal shapes although with different dimensions. If in several sculptures of Berrocal the main intent is that of the interlocking elements, the works of this group are characterized by the fluid-ity of the entangling curves, that enclose the void within their sinuous volutes, therefore creating an interior space, an attractive void. The sculptures

belonging to this theme are issued from the analytical study of the evolution of logarithmic curves, and the artist applies it to his peculiar introspective analysis of forms and voids. Once again Science and Art meet in Berrocal’s work.

This formal research can be apreciate in several other works: Berrocal’s restless research brings him tocreate variations of the same subject.

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

9

Miguel Berrocal with opus 148 - Siextasis in the foreground and opus129 - Monumento a Picasso in the background

Preparatory guache for opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

10

When revisiting the volumes of MONUMENTO A PICASSO he maintains the same shapes but analy-ses them from others angles and points of view Some of these variations are:

SIEXTASIS (opus 148), a preliminary study for MONUMENTO A PICASSO, is a disassembling sculture made of 20 elements which hold together by magnets.By using the dismounted elements of the sculpture to form the words “a Picasso”. Berrocal‘s tribute to the great andalusian master and fellow countryman is evident.

PUZZLE (opus 158), 17 elements is another work issued from SIEXTASIS in which each single element is positioned at an angle of 90° to the horizontal plan. Each elements acquire the singularity of an unique complete work of art.

From PUZZLE issues also an inedit project that was never accomplished: the set of a spanish ballet, hommage to Picasso with texts of the famous poet Rafael Alberti: At the beginning of the show all the elements are separated as the trees of a wild forest and are moved by the dancers. At the end of the dance the pieces come back together in front of the scenary and rotate to form the MONUMENTO A PICASSO.

opus 158 - Puzzle opus 158 - Puzzle disassembled elements One of the elements of opus 158 - Puzzle. As often happens in Berrocal’s works, every single and separated element has a sculptural strength of its own. Moreover, at every element that is taken apart from the full sculpture, a new sculpture is revealed: Berrocal’s works hide sculptures within sculptures.

Monumento: Carpet

year 1980 created in Negrar, Verona - Italy . dimensions 200 x 300 cmmedia Pure wool. Carpet with 60-80.000 knots for square meter, hand made under the artist’s supervisionedition 100 exemplars.

Miguel Berrocal | opus 147 - Monumento Pequeño | 1976

2

opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ANTOLOGICA BERROCAL (1955-1984) Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid, 1984. ISBN 84-85938-18-6p.88, 89, 450 BERROCAL, JEAN-LOUIS FERRIER Éditions De La Différence, Paris, 1989.ISBN 2-7291-0467-4 p.281, 345

BERROCAL SCULTURE E DISEGNI 1958-1995 Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Palazzo Forti, Verona, 1995 p.112

MIGUEL BERROCAL “SCULTURE E OPERE SU CARTAGiorgio Ghelfi Editore, Verona, 1999 p.124, 125 BERROCAL Centro de Arte Moderno Ciudad de Oviedo, 1999.ISBN 84-605-9596-X p.38, 39 BERROCAL Centro Cultural del Conde Duque, Madrid, 1999. ISBN 84-88006-46-2 p.38, 39

BERROCAL Sala Unicaja “Italcable”, Malaga 2000. ISBN 84-605-9596-Xp.38, 39

BERROCAL EN CAP ROIG ISBN 84-89632-05-7Imparce Barcelona, Barcelona, 2004

Miguel Berrocal | opus 129 - Monumento a Picasso | 1972-74

12

MIGUEL BERROCAL: short biography

Miguel Ortíz Berrocal was born in Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, 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 Ángel 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 dif ficulty 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 dif ferent dimension, with the combination of new elements or arranged in a dif ferent 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, Málaga on May 31.2006 en plena actividad creativa.

Miguel Berrocal | Miguel Berrocal: biography | 1933-2006

On the 22nd of November 2007 the Fundacion Es-cultor Berrocal Para Las Artes (Foundation sculptor Berrocal for the Arts) has been constituted in Madrid, Spain. 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 Foundation will develop its activities from Spain with international projection. It is leaded by the widow of the sculptor Mrs Cristina de Braganza de Berrocal.

The Institution aims at the conservation, the 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.

for information berrocal.net fundacion@berrocal.net

Foundation Scultor Berrocal for the Arts[Fundación Escultor Berrocal para las Artes]

Miguel Berrocal | Fundación Escultor Berrocal para las Artes | 2007

Aerial view of Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, Spain, birth town of Miguel Berrocaland center of development of the Museum-System project that is currently in construction.During 2010 the last Workshop of the Artist (point 1) will open it’s doors to visitors.

3

Miguel Berrocal

Main Public Collections

Miguel Berrocal | Main Public Collections | 1933-2006

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Auditorio de la musica de la Cartuja, Sevilla

Ayuntamiento de Huelva

Ayuntamiento de Madrid

Ayuntamiento de Málaga, Málaga

Ayuntamiento de Oviedo, Asturias

Ayuntamiento de Villaneuva de Algaidas, Málaga

Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza

Beelden aan Zee Museum, Scheveningen

Fonds Cantonal de Décoration et d’Art Visuel, Genève

Camera di Commercio di Carrara, Carrara

Fundación Juan March, Madrid

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma

Hamburger Kunstahalle, Hamburg

Hirshborn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.

International Sculpture Museum, Olympic Park, Séoul

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

Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles

Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid

Museum Boymans-va Beuningen, Rotterdam

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Museum Ludwig, Köln

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Oficina de Turismo Español, Roma

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Rathaus, Ulm

Sprengel Museum, Hannover

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim

Univeristy of Michigan- Museum of Art, Ann Arbor

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Miguel Berrocal

Awards

Miguel Berrocal | Awards | 1933- 2006

1955 Medaille de bronze de la “Première Biennale di Alexandrie – Pays de la

Méditerranée

1966 Grand Prix de Sculpture de la Biennale de Paris

1967 Medaglia d’oro del VII° Concorso Internazionale del Bronzetto, Padova

1968 Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française

1969 Medaglia d’oro della Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana per “Il

metallo come pura espressione d’arte” Va Biennale d’Arte del

Metallo,Gubbio

1970 Medalla de oro del Ateneo de Mälaga Corona d’onore dell’ International

Aesthetic Research, Torino

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.

1987 Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana

Academico numerario de la Real Academia de Bellas

Artes Santa Isabel de Hungría, Sevilla

1988 Goodwill Ambassador, UNESCO, Paris

1989 Académico correspondiente de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de

San Fernando, Madrid

1990 Accademico dell’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Roma

1993 Medalla de Oro de Andalucía, Sevilla

1994 Academico de Honor de la Réal Academia de Bellas Artes Santa Isabel

de Hungría, Sevilla

2000 Scientific Council, International Institute for Opera and Poetry.

UNESCO,Verona

2002 Cruz de Plata, Agrupación Española de Fomento Europeo, Barcelona