Manolo Valdés

MANOLO VALDÉS (Valencia, 1942).
"Helene VI", 2005.
Etching and collage on paper, copy 37/50.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 167,5 x 96,5 cm; 204 x 136 cm (frame).

The game of stylistic and referential combinations and permutations to the history of art was an inexhaustible source for Manolo Valdés. Here, in this etching with collage on paper, we are before a classic example of that playful spirit: we recognize the painting "Portrait of Helene" as the main reference. The female figure (Rubens' second wife) wrapping her nudity in a fur coat has been abstracted from her physiognomic features in Valdés' engraving, reduced to a silhouette on a brown background. However, she is not entirely detached from the sensual suggestion of the original. Helene's headdress houses the faces of the two protagonists of Gustav Klimt's painting "The Kiss", so that with this wink three identities, three myths, seem to merge into a single body. Of this same work, "Helene", Manolo Valdés made a variety of versions (in graphic work and in original work), changing the aesthetics of the hairstyle in each case (Warhol, Liechtenstein, Miró..., among many others).
Manolo Valdés introduced in Spain a form of artistic expression that combines political and social commitment with humor and irony. He 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 settled in New York, where he currently resides and where he has continued to experiment with new forms of expression, including sculpture. Among the numerous awards Manolo Valdés has received are the Lissone and Biella of Milan (1965), the silver medal of the II International Biennial of Engravings of Tokyo (1979), the prize of the Bridgestone Art Museum in Lisbon (1979), the National Prize of Plastic Arts (1983), the medal of the International Festival of Plastic Artists of Baghdad (1986), the Decoration of the Order of Andres Bello in Venezuela (1993), the award of the National Council of Monaco (1997), the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts (1998), the Award of the Spanish Association of Art Critics (2000) and the Best Print Artist Award (2002), among others. With Equipo Crónica, Valdés used figuration as a vehicle of expression for his approaches, for his criticisms of art, society and politics, but prioritizing above any other content the pure act of painting. From the thematic point of view, Valdés is inspired by the art of the great masters of painting: Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Ribera or Zurbarán, and he never hides his models, but rather emphasizes them, even in the titles of his works. Formally, he creates a large format work in which lights and colors express tactile values, due to the treatment given to the materials. His work forces the viewer to delve into memory and search for significant images from the history of art. Valdés is represented in some of the most outstanding museums around the world, such as the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Metropolitan, the MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Georges Pompidou Center 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.