TOLEDO.- Miguel Herrero is one of the most important European artists of the second half of 20th century and a key figure in the promotion of the Spanish culture. During his art career, he held a number of varied and diverse art exhibitions with Picasso, Dalí and Miró in the 1950s & 1960s in a variety of places including his native Spain as well as South Africa.

His friendship with Dalí was one of most important, visiting his house in Port-Lligat and he also met Picasso during his last years at Vallauris. The link between Dali, Picasso and Herrero was the “Tauromaquie” (Bull-Fighting).

Miguel Herrero mainly developed his artistic work via his painting but he was also an established film director and poet. The famous Spanish writer, Francisco Umbral described Miguel Herrero as “The Leonardo of the Sixties”.

Throughout his career, Miguel Herrero’s art works have had a very significant international following; Hollywood actors and film directors have collected his art work including John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Charlie Chaplin and family as well as Alain Delon, Mel Ferrer and Laurence Harvey. As Miguel Herrero’s popularity grew during the 1950s and 60s, he began to exhibit his work at a number of international locations including Lausanne, New York, London, Tokyo and Philadelphia, etc…

Important personalities from the world of Government, Culture, Flamenco & Bull-Fighting all attended his Exhibitions and these included the Duchess of Alba, Kings of Bulgaria, Manuel Fraga, Princess Hohenhole, Natalia Figueroa, Sean Connery, Duchesses of Cumbres Altas, Verges, Toro, the Romeral, Angulo, Duchesses of Medina Sidonia, Andría, Beatriz de Borbón, Pepe Banus &Lamela Architect.

Within the world of Flamenco, Miguel Herrero is considered a prominent and key artist with his own unique interpretation of its style and promotion of its culture. During his Art Exhibitions he arranged Flamenco events with some of the best Flamenco history artists. Miguel Herrero had friendship with very important Flamenco artists such as Vicente Escudero, Jacinto Almaden, Rafael Romero “El Gallina”, Antonio Mairena, Fosforito, Maria Albaicín, Lucero Tena, Pepe of the Matrona, Lola Flores, Sworn Dew, Antonio Gades, Antonio, Pillar Lopez, Marienma, Blanca del Rey, Manolo del Rey. Some of these artists performed at his exhibitions and others are collectors of his art work.

Within the “Tauromaquie”, Miguel Herrero developed his expression and style with great personality and became one of the most important artists on this subject. He developed great friendships with the most famous Spanish Bull-Fighters including Luis Miguel Dominguín, Bienvenida, Paco Camino, Vitoriano Valencia, Ángel & Rafael Peralta, El Cordobés, Palomo Linares. Miguel Herrero also wrote several articles in the Bull-fighting magazine El Ruedo related to the “Tauromaquie”. During the 1950s & 1960s El Ruedo was considered the most important magazine related to “Tauromaquie”.

The current Miguel Herrero Exhibition RAICES Y ESENCIAS at Santa Cruz Museum, includes art works of Miguel Herrero that the Spanish Ministry of Culture selected and took in 1962 to International Museums including The Nagoya National Museum in Japan, Okland Art Museum in California (USA), International Denver House (USA), D´Arcy Gallery, New York (USA), Art Alliance, Philadelphia (USA). The Exhibition also includes art works that won the prestigious Alexandria Biennale medal in 1961.

The Exhibition is also arranged chronologically, beginning at the start of Miguel Herrero’s art career in the 1940s continuing up to his last works in the 1990s. This Exhibition brings together Miguel Herrero’s art diversity gathering several artistic aspects which reflects his unique and personal style. The Exhibition brings together almost 50 art works, including paintings, drawings, cinematography art works, photographs, poems and media reports.

His art works create a tool of expanding the personality of Miguel Herrero’s renaissance spirit while paradoxically it has been enhancing the sense of intimacy with the viewer. He transformed his attitude towards the development of diverse artistic channels. The various themes provide each work with its own area of expressionism feeling, creating a kind of ‘unique and personal art” around every one of his art works.

In summary, the Miguel Herrero Exhibition RAICES Y ESENCIAS explores the ways in which Miguel Herrero´s works achieve monumental impact.