Xavier Corberó

Corberó's patrilineal family has its roots in Lleida, in the home region of Saint Peter Claver whose 16th-century mother was born Ana Corberó.{{cite web|url=http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/8224/san-pedro-claver |title=San Pedro Claver |website=Real Academía de la Historia}} The family held a tradition of metalworking, especially in bronze. Corberó's grandfather Pere Corberó i Casals (1875-1959) was an entrepreneur and artist whose works included the bronze memorial on the birthplace of Enrique Granados, also in Lleida. He was a cofounder of Barcelona's association for the promotion of decorative arts, a precursor to the Design Museum, now known as the {{ill|Foment de les Arts i el Disseny|ca}}. The Corberó foundry produced sculptures by prominent Catalan sculptors of the time such as Pablo Gargallo, {{ill|Josep Viladomat|ca|Josep Viladomat i Massanas}} and {{ill|Frederic Marès|ca|Frederic Marès i Deulovol}}.{{cite web|website=El Periódico |title=Muere Xavier Corberó, el escultor del espacio público de Barcelona |url=https://www.elperiodico.com/es/ocio-y-cultura/20170425/muere-escultor-xavier-corbero-5994958 |author=Natàlia Farré |date=25 April 2017}} It was also an industrial and commercial business that sold bronze doors, chandeliers, fountains, and other decorative items, with a showroom in downtown Barcelona at Rambla de Catalunya 105, in a building designed by {{ill|Arnau Calvet i Peyronill|ca}}, and a workshop nearby at Carrer Aribau 103.{{cite web|website=todocoleccion |title=Publicidad P. Corberó Bronces Rambla Cataluña Barcelona Ayuntamiento, 1929 |url=https://en.todocoleccion.net/collectables-small-posters/publicidad-p-corbero-bronces-rambla-cataluna-barcelona-ayuntamiento-1929~x196743653#sobre_el_lote }}{{cite web|website=todocoleccion |url=https://www.todocoleccion.net/documentos-antiguos/tarjeta-p-corbero-bronces-arte-talleres-aribau~x45892819#sobre_el_lote |title=Tarjeta P. Corberó Bronces de Arte Talleres Aribau }}

Pere's son and Corberó's father, Xavier Corberó i Trepat (1901-1981), also worked in the family bronze workshop. Together with his brother {{ill|Valeri Corberó i Trepat|ca}}, a noted interior designer and decorator, he was one of the co-founders of the {{ill|Escola Massana|ca}} art school in Barcelona.{{cite web|website=Segre.com |url=https://www.segre.com/noticies/opinio/col_laboracio/2017/04/30/xavier_corbero_escultor_arrels_lleidatanes_17717_1126.html |title=Xavier Corberó, escultor d'arrels lleidatanes |date=30 April 2017 |author=Josep Miquel García}}

During the Spanish Civil War Xavier Corberó i Trepat fought in the Spanish Republican Armed Forces and was thus separated from his family. Corberó's mother Montserrat, born Olivella i Vidal, passed away in 1936 while giving birth to his younger brother, who in turn died from smallpox a few years later.{{cite web|url=http://www.galeriaignaciodelassaletta.com/e/24d.html |website=Galería Ignacio de Lassaletta |title=Javier Corberó: La fuerza de las formas |date=2016}}

Corberó lived his childhood through the turmoil and scarcity of the civil war and early years of Francoist Spain. In 1950 he enrolled at Escola Massana, and in 1953 volunteered for military service in the Spanish Air Force. In 1955 he lived briefly in Paris and Stockholm, then until 1959 in London{{cite web|url=https://www.artic.edu/assets/259deba7-4bd4-b326-9699-5eb6ad0840df |website=Art Institute of Chicago |title=Xavier Corbero : exhibition of sculpture at the Schools of the Art Institute of Chicago |date=1964}} where he was the first-ever Spanish student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.{{cite web|website=Broadgate|url=https://www.broadgate.co.uk/art/collection/the-broad-family|title=The Broad Family. Xavier Corberó (1935-2017, Spain), basalt stone, 1991; Appold Street}} He then went on to work for a while in Lausanne.

In Barcelona in the early 1960s he befriended Ricardo Bofill, Antonio Gades, Luis Marsans, and {{ill|Manuel Viola|ca|Manuel Viola i Gamón}}. In 1962 he moved to New York City at Viola's suggestion.{{cite web|website=Casa de VbN |url=http://casavbn.blogspot.com/2017/04/xavier-corbero-escultor-y-autor-de.html |author=Rafael Vallbona |title=Xavier Corberó, escultor y autor de medallas olímpicas |date=27 April 2017}} There he spent time with such prominent artists as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Man Ray, before moving back to Barcelona in the mid-1960s.{{cite web|website=BBVA Collection |url=https://www.coleccionbbva.com/en/autor/corbero-xavier-2/ |title=Xavier Corberó (Barcelona, 1935 - Esplugas de Llobregat, Barcelona, 2017)}} In the ensuing years he immersed himself further in the artistic community of Barcelona and Cadaqués, developing a close friendship with Salvador Dalí (whom he described as his "first patron"{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/psihoyos-photography/xavier-corbero-416ec74810cc |author=Viki Psihoyos |date=27 February 2016 |title=Xavier Corbero: Spain's Best Living Sculptor, Architect and Dreamer}}) as well as with Jorge Castillo, {{ill|Robert Llimós|ca|Robert Llimós i Oriol}}, Josep Llorens i Artigas, Roberto Matta, Joan Miró, Elsa Peretti, Joan Ponç, and Josep Lluís Sert among others.{{cite web|author=Cristina Ros |title=Xavier Corberó, escultor: "Als 60, Cadaqués tenia tot el que no trobava a Espanya" |date=22 August 2016 |url=https://www.ara.cat/estiu/xavier-corbero-escultor_1_2820963.html |website=Ara}} By the early 1970s he was printing etchings on behalf of Miró and producing jewelry for Peretti in his Esplugues workshop.{{citation|newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/11/archives/for-a-sculptor-and-his-friends-a-place-to-live-a-place-to-work.html |date=11 December 1973 |author=Angela Taylor |title=For a Sculptor and His Friends: A Place to Live, a Place to Work}} Around that time he also met the British landscape architect Russell Page, of whom he viewed himself as a disciple. From the mid-1970s he again spent extended periods in New York, where his circle included Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, Donald Sultan, Bryan Hunt, Beverly Pepper, Vincent Desiderio, Kenneth Frampton, and Robert Hughes.

Corberó married actress Mary-Ann Bennett in 1958. Their daughter Ana Corberó was born in 1960. They separated in the early 1970s, at a time when Corberó was in a relationship with Italian model Elsa Peretti whom he had helped become a jewelry designer.{{cite web |website=La Vanguardia |title=Isabella Rosellini recuerda a Elsa Peretti |author=Sergio Vila-Sanjuán |date={{date|2022/05/05}} |url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/culturas/20220505/8245875/isabella-rosellini-teatre-akademia-elsa-peretti.html }} In 1983 he married Maria Luisa Tiffón.{{cite web|website=AncientFaces |url=https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/maria-l-tiffon-corbero-birth-1952/102595228 |title=Maria L. (Tiffon) Corbero}}{{cite web|website=El Mundo |url=https://www.elmundo.es/loc/2014/10/10/5436bff1268e3e58668b4595.html |title=Joan Manuel Serrat, su loro Matías y sus mujeres |author=Anna R. Alós |date=10 October 2014}} In his later life he was in a relationship with Maria Dolors (Midu) Rica, whom he had known in 1973.{{cite web|website=El Periódico |title=Lluís Lleó, Trump y el arte público |url=https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20180424/lluis-lleo-arte-publico-barceloneando-6781940 |author=Natàlia Farré |date=24 April 2018}}

Corberó died in April 2017, aged 81, and was buried at Montjuïc Cemetery in Barcelona.

Corberó had his first metal sculptures exhibited in 1955 at the third Hispano-American Biennial Exhibition.{{cite web|website=Culture Trip |title=Xavier Corberó: Profile Of A Prominent Catalan Sculptor |url=https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/xavier-corbero-profile-of-a-prominent-catalan-sculptor/ |date=20 July 2016}} He participated in successive sessions of the avant-garde {{ill|Saló de maig|ca}} exhibition in Barcelona and won awards there in 1960 and 1961. He had his first individual exhibition in Munich in 1963, for which he received a Gold Medal from the State of Bavaria. Later solo exhibitions included shows at the Art Institute of Chicago (1964), Staempfli Gallery in New York (1966, 1975, 1980), Meadows Museum in Dallas (1980), and McNay Art Museum in San Antonio (1985).{{citation|title=Xavier Corberó: Buttonholes and Button |date=October 1994 |publisher=BlumHelman Gallery |location=New York City}}

Corberó's monumental sculptures can be seen in many places of Catalonia that include Barcelona, Esplugues de Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat,{{cite web|website=Art a l'espai public del Prat |url=http://www.xtec.cat/crp-elprat/mediloc/escultur/artprat/obraelviatger.htm |title=28. Xavier Corberó. El viatger}} Sabadell,{{cite web |url=http://uab.cat/servlet/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobnocache=true&blobwhere=1345717546320&blobheader=application&blobcol=urldocument_en&blobtable=Document |title=UAB Artistic Heritage |website=UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona}} Terrassa, Cassà de la Selva.{{cite web |url=http://www.zuzuku.de/laender/sonstige/spanien/parcart/parcart-eng.htm |title=Cassa de la Selva Sculpture Park "ParcArt" |website=Zugang zur Kunst}} Others are in Palma de Mallorca,{{cite web|website=SeeMallorca |title=Palau March Sculpture Gallery, Palma de Mallorca: Modern & contemporary sculptures in a historical palace |url=https://www.seemallorca.com/museums/palau-march-sculpture-gallery-de-689896 |date=2017}} Santa Cruz de Tenerife, London, Beirut,{{cite web|website=Beirut Souks |url=https://www.beirutsouks.com.lb/attractions |title=Promenade à l'Hippodrome}} Dubai,{{cite web|title=Emaar Properties unveils Spanish sculptor Xavier Corbero's 'Gathering' in Downtown Dubai |url=https://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/emaar-properties-unveils-spanish-sculptor-xavier-corbero%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98gathering%E2%80%99-downtown-dubai-40 |website=Al-Bawaba |date=6 December 2011}} Chicago,{{cite web|website=Emporis |url=https://www.emporis.com/buildings/117374/77-west-wacker-drive-chicago-il-usa |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203154418/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/117374/77-west-wacker-drive-chicago-il-usa |url-status=usurped |archive-date=February 3, 2020 |title=Chicago / 77 West Wacker Drive}} as well as in numerous museums such as the Meadows Museum in Dallas, the Nassau County Museum of Art,{{cite web|title=Sculpture Map of NCMA |url=https://nassaumuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/NCMA-MAP.pdf |website=Nassau County Museum of Art}} the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{cite web|website=Interior Design |author=Meghan Edwards |date=8 July 2013 |title=Inside the Spain Home of Sculptor Xavier Corberó |url=https://www.interiordesign.net/articles/7225-inside-the-spain-home-of-sculptor-xavier-corbero/}}

While sculpture was Corberó's dominant medium, together with architecture for his house, he also produced whimsical drawings,{{cite web|website=MUVAC Museo Virtual d'Art Contemporani Català |url=https://www.museoartecontemporaneo.es/exposicion-ficha-pdf/corbero-privat |title=Intimo y privado, la capacidad de sorprendernos de Xavier Corberó |date=2017}} abstract paintings, and poems in Catalan.{{cite book|publisher=blurb |url=https://www.blurb.com/b/6400167-poemes |title=Poemes |author=Xavier Corberó Olivella |editor=Ana Corberó de Gholam |date=2015}}

Following the return of democracy in Spain and the corresponding blossoming of cultural activity in Barcelona, culminating in the 1992 Summer Olympics, and jointly with New York art dealer Joseph A. Helman, Corberó successfully encouraged his prominent artist friends to donate monumental sculptures as a participation to the city's renewal, at almost no cost to the city other than that of the sculptures' materials.{{cite web|website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/17/arts/gallery-view-a-city-on-a-monument-binge.html |title=Barcelona Is on a Monument Binge |author=Grace Glueck |date=17 April 1983}} That initiative brought Roy Lichtenstein's "El Cap de Barcelona" on the Port Vell waterfront, Claes Oldenburg's "Matches" in Vall d'Hebron, Richard Serra's "Wall" on Plaça de la Palmera, Beverly Pepper's "Cielo caído" and "Espiral arbolada" in the {{ill|Parc de l'Estació del Nord|ca}}, Bryan Hunt's "Rites of Spring" in the {{ill|Parc del Clot|ca}}, and Anthony Caro's "Alto Rhapsody" in the {{ill|Parc de l'Espanya Industrial|ca}}.{{cite book |title=Urban Change and the European Left: Tales from the New Barcelona |page=156 |author=Donald McNeill |publisher=Routledge |date=2005}} He was also the designer of the 1992 Olympic medals, for which on his insistence real gold was used for the first time.{{cite web|website=La Vanguardia|title=Fallece Xavier Corberó, diseñador de las medallas de Barcelona'92|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20170425/422037659035/xavier-corbero-escultor.html|date=25 April 2017}}

In 1992 he received the Creu de Sant Jordi Award from the Generalitat de Catalunya, in recognition of his role in Barcelona's public sculpture program. In 2000 he became a member of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi.

In 1968, Corberó started acquiring land, including a former potato farm, bordering {{ill|Montserrat Street (Esplugues de Llobregat){{!}}Montserrat Street|ca|Carrer de Montserrat (Esplugues de Llobregat)}} in the Barcelona suburb of Esplugues de Llobregat, not far from where his parents lived. He developed it into a highly elaborate complex of spaces, known as of 2022 as "Corberó's space" ({{langx|ca|Espai Corberó}}).{{cite web |website=The Guardian |title=Folly or art? Catalonian town to buy labyrinthine Espai Corberó for €3m |author=Stephen Burgen |date={{date|2022/07/18}} |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/18/catalonian-town-buys-labyrinthine-espai-corbero-for-euros-3m }} While Corberó was alive, the property was partly devoted to hosting artists-in-residence as well as his own home. The sprawling compound includes a significant share of his life's work and personal collections, and he kept building it up until his death.{{cite web|url=https://graphics.wsj.com/glider/corbero-182952a4-ba1b-46de-ad1e-831699f43ad3|title=A Sculptor's Labyrinthine Home, Still a Work in Progress|author=Brooke Anderson|website=The Wall Street Journal|date=2017}}

The Espai Corberó ensemble includes two historic houses, {{ill|Can Cargol|ca}} and {{ill|Can Bialet|ca}}, the former of which he restored in 1970-1971 with the help of architect and builder Emilio Bofill,{{cite web|website=Generalitat de Catalunya |url=http://invarquit.cultura.gencat.cat/Cerca/Fitxa?index=0&consulta=&codi=18888 |title=Can Cargol}} who was also involved in the early stages of construction of the main complex across Montserrat Street.{{cite web|website=El Poder De La Palabra |url=https://www.epdlp.com/arquitecto.php?id=7315 |title=Emili Bofill i Benessat (España, 1907-2000)}} Corberó's visually striking house has been featured as background stage in multiple occasions, including Woody Allen's film Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008 and The New Yorker's "Goings on About Town" section in 2020.{{citation|newspaper=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/14/tragedy-and-compassion-at-the-opera |title=Tragedy and Compassion at the Opera |date=4 September 2020}} Lluís Lleó, an artist and acquaintance of Corberó, described it as "a self-portrait".{{cite web|website=El Periódico |url=https://www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/20180820/escultura-oculta-esplugues-casa-xavier-corbero-6596426 |title=La gran escultura oculta de Esplugues |author=Anton Rosa |date=20 August 2018}}

In July 2022, it was reported that Corberó's heirs would sell the complex to the municipality of Esplugues for development as a cultural property. It opened to visitors on {{date|2024-5-18}}, on the occasion of International Museum Day.{{cite web |website=Salir por Barcelona |url=https://salirporbarcelona.com/en/espai-corbero-opens-its-doors-for-free-visits-today-may-18th/ |date=May 2024 |title=Espai Corberó opens its doors for free visits today, May 18th}}

Image: Corbero 04.jpg|"Ejecutores y ejecutados", Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1973)

Image: 303 Homenatge a la Mediterrània, de Xavier Corberó, pl. Sóller.jpg|"Homage to the Mediterranean", Sóller Square, Barcelona (1983)

Image: A Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí.JPG|Monument to {{ill|Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí|ca}}, Gaudí Square, Barcelona (1983)

Image: La barca del Barça, de Xavier Corberó (1987) Recinte de la Masia del FC Barcelona, Barcelona (13671250184) (2).jpg|"La Barca del Barça", grounds of the FC Barcelona (1987)

Image: Columnes de terme - 003.jpg|"Columnes de Terme", Kennedy Square, Barcelona (1988)

Image: Al-legoria DSC03927.JPG|"Allegory of life", Avinguda Diagonal, Barcelona (1988)

Image: El Rei i la Reina - 2.jpg|"King and Queen", UAB Campus, Sabadell (1988)

Image: The Broad Family sculptures, Broadgate, London.jpg|"The Broad Family", Broadgate, London (1991)

Image: A Josep Tarradellas P1440627.JPG|Monument to Josep Tarradellas, Tarradellas Avenue, Barcelona (1999)

Image: 231 Família Vapor, de Xavier Corberó, pl. Vapor Ventalló.jpg|"La Familia Vapor", Terrassa (2002)

Image: Xavier Corberó Jardíns de Cap Roig.jpg|"Dos artistas flamencas", Jardíns de Cap Roig in Calella de Palafrugell (2003)

Image: Corbero,Xavier Familia BCN artpublic 08019-938-1.JPG|"La Familia", Poblenou, Barcelona (2003)

Image: Trobada, obra de l'escultor Xavier Corberó.jpg|"Trobada", Esplugues de Llobregat (2005)

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Category:1935 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Sculptors from Catalonia

Category:Spanish male sculptors

Category:Spanish modern sculptors

Category:20th-century Spanish sculptors

Category:20th-century Spanish male artists

Category:Artists from Barcelona