Xavier Corberó

Xavier Corberó i Olivella (Barcelona, 1935 – 2017) started from an informalism working on elaborate bronze surfaces, evolving towards a three-dimensionality in which he often introduced the movement generated by electromagnetic currents. Subsequently, he abandoned working with metals (bronze and stainless steel) and turned to making sculptures in marble and stone, although formal purification and polished surfaces were omnipresent in his production. He began to draw and work with metals in his father's workshop, and later at the Escola Massana; at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London he was introduced to the work of famous sculptor Henry Moore, period in which he also cultivated painting. He took part in the Hispano-American Biennial of 1955. He exhibited individually in Lausanne in 1959, where he lived a key period of his formation working at the Medici foundry. He appeared in various European collectives and in the Barcelona May salons, where he won the Manolo Hugué (1960) and Ramon Rogent (1961) prizes. Two years later he exhibited in Munich, where he received the Bavarian state gold medal, continuing to exhibit in Pittsburgh, in New York and in Japan, and was invited to give lectures and workshop sessions across the USA, where he resided on multiple occasions. In late 1960s he published a series of lithographs and etchings, and in 1972 he founded the Center for Artistic Activities and Research of Catalonia in Esplugues de Llobregat. Corberó was the one who designed its headquarters as a set of nine buildings interconnected by a dozen patios, the predominant element of which are more than 300 arches. His public projection gained momentum when the Barcelona City Council commissioned a selection of his works for the city's public spaces on the occasion of the 1992 Olympic Games, for which he also designed the medals. Other works of his in the city are A Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí (1983), El huevo como baila. Tribute to the artists of Poble Sec (1987), Terminus Columns (1988), El viajero (1992) and Josep Tarradellas. Stone on stone (1998). Among his later works, it is worth mentioning the sculpture for the Fundación March collection (1973), in Cala Rajada (Mallorca) and Homenaje al Mediterráneo (1983), in the Plaza de Sóller in Barcelona. He also excelled as a jewelry designer, with pieces made of many different materials. There are works of his in the MoMA, New York, in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among other.