Federico Brook

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1933, Federico Brook completed the Fine Arts programme at the University of La Plata in 1954. Since 1956 he has made his home in Rome, where he obtained the Fine Arts Academy diploma. Brook’s artistic endeavour has been characterised by constant structural research into space, first through kinetic pieces, followed by large-scale sculptures in tune with their natural and urban sites, such as La Nube de Santo Tirso [The Cloud of Santo Tirso], built in 1997 for the 4^th International Symposium of Contemporary Sculpture. This sculpture is also a representative example of the shapes frequently chosen by the artist – large, stylised clouds standing out from the surrounding natural landscape. Using materials like stone, metal, acrylic or glass, Brook has created a number of public sculptures for symposia and biennales of open-air sculpture in several countries. A recent example may be seen in Jardim do Arco do Cego, a public garden in Lisbon, where he built Monumento a Jorge Luís Borges in 2008. After his first solo exhibition in 1960, he has participated in a number of sculpture events, namely the 31^st and 36^th Venice Biennales, in 1962 and 1972 respectively.