Manolo Valdés
Manolo Valdés is a renowned artist known for his bold reinterpretations of classical art through contemporary forms. His work spans painting, sculpture, and printmaking, where he masterfully blends historical references with modern aesthetics. Valdés' prints are particularly noted for their textural richness and layered imagery, often revisiting themes from past art movements with a new, innovative perspective. His art is celebrated for its intellectual depth and visual impact, making his prints valuable additions to any collection.
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Manolo Valdés was born in 1942 in Valencia, Spain. He is an artist who doesn’t limit himself in the mediums he works in, whether it be painting, printmaking, sculpture or mixed media.
He attended the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts however left before he had graduated in order to start his career. At the age of 20, along with friends Juan Antonio Toledo and Rafael Solbes, he formed the artists’ group, Equipo Crónica. Their objective was to critique and challenge both Franco’s current dictatorship as well as the accepted History of Art in Spain through the use of irony and humour. Their movement ended in 1981, due to the death of Solbes, but Valdés continued to explore his own artistic appropriation and desire to reinterpret masterpieces, this time in intense solitude and privacy.
In the following period, Valdés cultivated an individual artistic style by adapting and revitalising history through the works of Old Masters (Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens) and the 20th century Masters (Matisse, Picasso, Lichtenstein). His unique fusion of image and material means his work contextually adheres to both Pop Art and material art spheres, where his search to reinvent art is achieved in a timeless manner and in his own words where ‘painting is learned from painting’.
Valdés’ works have featured in over 60 solo exhibitions during his lifetime as well as numerous group exhibitions. He continues to live between his homes in New York and Madrid. His works feature in the collections of notable galleries that include the Museum of Modern Art, New York, de Young Museum, San Francisco, Peggy Gugenheim, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.
