Manolo Valdes

MANOLO VALDÉS BLASCO, (Valencia, 1942).
"New urban types (El País)", 1985.
Etching, aquatint and collage on Meirat paper. Copy 5/40.
Publisher: Galería Sen, Madrid.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 33 x 25 cm (print); 54 x 39, 2 cm (paper).
Nuevos tipos urbanos (El País), by Manolo Valdés, belongs to a mature stage in the Valencian artist's career, marked by the critical reinterpretation of art history through contemporary languages. The work shows clear influences of Cubism, especially in the formal fragmentation, geometric simplification and the incorporation of materials and references from everyday life. The use of the newspaper El País as a compositional element refers directly to the collage strategies developed by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque at the beginning of the 20th century, although reinterpreted here from a contemporary sensibility.
Manolo Valdés began his training in 1957, when he entered the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia. However, two years later he abandoned his studies to devote himself fully to painting. In 1964 he founded the artistic group Equipo Crónica, together with Juan Antonio Toledo and Rafael Solbes, in which he remained until the latter's death in 1981, despite the fact that Toledo had left the group two years after its foundation. Since then he has been based in New York, where he currently resides. Among the numerous awards Manolo Valdés has won are the Lissone and Biella of Milan, the silver medal of the II International Biennial of Engravings of Tokyo, the prize of the Bridgestone Art Museum in Lisbon, the National Prize of Plastic Arts, the medal of the International Festival of Plastic Artists of Baghdad, the Decoration of the Order of Andres Bello in Venezuela, the award of the National Council of Monaco, the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts, the Award of the Spanish Association of Art Critics and the Best Printmaking Artist Award, among others. He is represented in some of the most prominent museums around the world, such as the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Metropolitan, the MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Fons National d'Arts Plastiques in Paris, the Kusnthalle in Hamburg, the Kunstmuseum in Berlin and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, among many others.