Miguel Berrocal

MIGUEL ORTIZ BERROCAL (Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, 1933 - Antequera, Málaga, 2006)
"Mini Zoraida - Hommage à Paloma", 1969.
Nickel-plated metal, issue 2019/9500.
Signed and numbered.
Attached instruction book.
Measurements: 4,5 x 7,8 x 3,3 cm; 8 x 7,8 x 3,3 cm (with stand).

This work corresponds to one of Miguel Berrocal's emblematic detachable micro-sculptures, in which the artist condenses on a reduced scale the essential principles of his entire production.

It is presented as a sculpture-object of mechanical and sensual conception at the same time, conceived to be disassembled and reassembled following a precise order, like a three-dimensional puzzle. The compact and polished volume encloses within it a complex system of interlocking pieces, revealing Berrocal's obsession for the internal engineering of form and for sculpture understood as a thinking structure, not as a closed mass.

Formally, the work maintains an organic ambiguity: its soft curves and assemblages suggest an abstract female body, in coherence with the title and the character of homage, while the metallic finish reinforces the tension between sensuality and rationality, one of the fundamental axes of the artist's work. The playful gesture of disassembly, underscored by the inclusion of the instruction book, turns the viewer into an active participant, a distinctive feature of Berrocal's language.

Berrocal has exhibited in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United States, received the gold medal of the Bronze of Padua, the grand prize of honor at the Brazil Biennial, and was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He has sculptures in public places in Korea, Bordeaux, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as in various parts of Spain. He is represented in the Museums of Modern Art in New York and Paris, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, the Juan March Foundation in Madrid, the National Gallery in Rome and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.