Miguel Ortiz Berrocal (Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, 28 September 1933 – Antequera, Málaga, 31 May 2006) was a 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 (Berrocal Sculpture Foundation) continues to preserve and promote his artwork and legacy, from its headquarters in his hometown of Villanueva de Algaigas in Spain.
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 museum, 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 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.
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.
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 in the early 60's, 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 Torch and Torso, the first in an extensive range of films about Berrocal and his work, which was presented at the Museum of Modern Art 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.