In the early 1980s, Manolo Valdès began work on a series entitled Las Meninas, a contemporary interpretation of the painting by Velázquez and his role in the evolution of painting. He was guided by the search for volume and three-dimensional images. The first proofs were composed of cylindric...
In the early 1980s, Manolo Valdès began work on a series entitled Las Meninas, a contemporary interpretation of the painting by Velázquez and his role in the evolution of painting. He was guided by the search for volume and three-dimensional images. The first proofs were composed of cylindrical forms, cones, and spheres, which the artist realised in wood or bronze. The sculptor fashioned his own version of the French-style gown worn by Queen Marina. Valdès interpreted the portrait of the second wife of Philip IV, painted in 1652-1653 by Velázquez, both as a tribute to the great Spanish painter and as a pretext for adapting it to the avant-garde movement.Monumental sculptures of La Meninas are on display in Madrid, Munich, Bilbao, Biarritz, and Monaco.
Manolo Valdès was born in Valencia (Spain), on 8 March 1942. In 1957, he enrolled at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia. In 1964, Valdès co-founded the group “Equipo Crónica”; a movement influenced by Pop Art. From 1981, Valdès began his personal career and showed great admiration for the German neo-expressionists, and for the work of Rembrandt, Vélasquez, Rubens, Matisse, Monet, and Picasso. In the history of Art, Valdès’ work is considered a reinterpretation or distortion of painting, in which he combines a variety of often contradictory elements and materials. The artist has taken part in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums all over the world. In 1999, he was nominated to represent Spain at the 48th Venice Biennale, alongside the artist Esther Ferrer. In 2002, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao organised the first major retrospective dedicated to the artist’s work, which proved hugely popular with the public. Manolo Valdès was made an officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of the Principality of Monaco in 2005. Today, he lives and works in New York.
