Lee Mathews The House Of Xavier Corberó

Xavier Corberó (1935–2017) is among the foremost Spanish artists of the last century. His sculptures in rough-hewn stone, marble, and bronze gave form to ideas running through a circle of contemporary surrealist artists, including Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Joan Miró, but with pieces distinctly his own. His works are widely and internationally celebrated in institutions like London’s V&A and New York’s The Met, but maybe his greatest artwork is located on the outskirts of Barcelona in the form of the home he built for himself over a period of five decades, a series of labyrinthine rooms, levels, buildings, and arches that he continually added to whenever money came his way, conceiving new plans on morning strolls with the local builder.

The House of Xavier Corberó, edited by his daughter Ana Corberó, is the first publication to explore this home in Esplugues de Llobregat, which soon looks to be sold. With original photography by Daniel Riera, it also features a series of texts by long-time friends and colleagues of the artist: the architects Ricardo Bofill and Josep Acebillo, program director at World Architecture Festival Paul Finch, artist and journalist Celia Lyttelton, RBTA director Pablo Bofill, as well as an interview with Corberó himself by the filmmaker Albert Moya, originally published in issue #16 of Apartamento magazine.

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