Manolo Valdés

One of the most internationally established contemporary Spanish painter, sculptor and draughtsman, Manolo Valdés was born in Valencia in 1942. He attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia and began his career in the 1960s as one of the founding members of Equipo Cronica, a group of artists who took inspiration from Pop Art to challenge the Spanish dictatorship of Franco and the History of Art itself. When the movement ended in 1981, Valdes continued his own artistic exploration centered on the appropriation and reinterpretation of masterpieces. He currently lives and work between Madrid, Spain and New York city, USA.

 

Manolo Valdés has developed an individual style that reviews History without detracting from the original subject. Quoting figures from well-known works of art by old masters such as Velázquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Fra Angelico, as well as twentieth-century masters such as Matisse, Picasso, and Lichtenstein, Valdés revitalizes these familiar images by taking them out of their original context. In both paintings and sculptures, he inflates the figure's size, abstracting form and minimizing detail, while incorporating a lot of roughly applied paint and unusual materials. The timelessness of the image as the axis of the visual experience is the determining factor in his creations. In his works, image and matter are fused in a body of work that wanders between Pop Art and material art, between social and political commitment and a continuous search for reinvention.

 

Valdés has received numerous awards, including the Lissone and Biella in Milan in 1965; the silver medal in the second International Prints Biennial in Tokyo; an award from the Bridgestone Art Museum in Lisbon; the Alfons Roig Award in Valencia; the National Award for Plastic Arts in Spain, the Medal of the Order of Andrés Bello in Venezuela. He has had numerous solo and group shows internationally in galleries and museums alike and his work is part of prestigious private and public collections, notably the de Young Museum of San Francisco; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany; the Menil Foundation, Houston, Texas; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Modern Museet Art, Stockholm, Sweden;the  Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts just to name a few. Manolo's iconic sculptures are exhibited outdoors in the parks and gardens of major cities such as the New York Botanical Gardens, Hofgarten, Dusseldorf and Chatsworth House, UK.

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SELECTED WORKS

Manolo Valdés Infanta Margarita2018

Bronze

130 x 107 x 69 cm | 51.2 x 42.1 x 27.2 in

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Manolo Valdés Matisse como pretexto con azul y rojo2020

Mixed media

130 x 100 cm | 51.2 x 39.4 in

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Manolo Valdés Mariposas con Alabastro2019

Alabaster and steel

50,8 x 100,3 x 25,4 cm | 20 x 39.5 x 10 in

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Manolo Valdés Clio dorada2018

Bronze with gold patina

114 x 255 x 90 cm | 44.9 x 100.4 x 35.4 in

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Manolo Valdés Cabeza de Marmol y Resina

Marble, resin and steel

109,2 x 210,8 x 35,6 cm | 43 x 83 x 14 in

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Manolo Valdés Cabeza con Mariposas Azules2019

Resin, steel and steel wire

114,3 x 124,5 x 71,1 cm | 45 x 49 x 28 in

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Manolo Valdés Doble Imagen2020

Mixed media

200,7 x 149,9 cm | 79 x 59 in

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Manolo Valdés Retrato con Fondo Naranja2020

Mixed media

165,1 x 177,8 cm | 65 x 70 in

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Manolo Valdés Portrait I2018

Mixed media on burlap

165 x 140 cm | 65 x 55.1 in

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Manolo Valdés Selene2020

Bronze

68,6 x 45,7 x 30,5 cm | 27 x 18 x 12 in

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Manolo Valdés Mariposas Blancas y Negras2020

Polychromated wood and iron

62,2 x 48,3 x 43,2 cm | 24.5 x 19 x 17 in

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Manolo Valdés Matisse como Pretexto en Rosa2021

Oil on burlap

195,5 x 381 cm | 77 x 150 in

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Manolo Valdés Reina Mariana Amber

Resin

173 x 125 x 90 cm | 68,1 x 49.2 x 35.4 in

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Manolo Valdés Reina Mariana2019

Resin

180 x 130 x 89 cm | 70.9 x 51.2 x 35 in

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Manolo Valdés Odalisca Roja y Amarilla2021

Mixed media

195,5 x 381 cm | 77 x 150 in

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Manolo Valdés Mariposas Blancas2022

Wood and steel

127 x 71 x 17 cm | 50 x 28 x 28 in

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Manolo Valdés Perfil XIII2022

Mixed media

158 x 158 cm | 62 x 62 in

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Manolo Valdés Cabeza Ambar2022

Glass, wood and steel

96,5 x 51 x 28 cm | 38 x 20 x 11 in

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Manolo Valdés Escultura de Vidrio Azul con Tocado en Aluminio de Mariposas con Resina Azul2022

Resin and painted aluminium

114,5 x 236 x 114,5 cm | 45 x 93 x 45 in

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Manolo Valdés Matisse Como Pretexto XVI2022

Mixed media

100 x 130 cm | 39.5 x 51.2 in

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Manolo Valdés Matisse Como Pretexto XV2022

Mixed media

97 x 71 cm | 38 x 28 in

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Manolo Valdés Picasso Como Pretexto I (Doble Imagen)2022

Mixed media on wood

146 x 239 cm | 57.5 x 94 in

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Manolo Valdés Mariposas de Colores2022

Bronze and resin

96,5 x 96,5 x 76,2 cm | 38 x 38 x 30 in

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Manolo Valdés Vidriera como Pretexto II2022

Aluminum and resin

147,3 x 248 x 61 cm | 58 x 97.5 x 24 in

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