The Valencian artist Manolo Valdés embarks on his most personal project. The volume “Ladies and Gentlemen” is an exciting journey through his work, including Menina’s statue. It costs 7,000 euros.
Manolo Valdes (Valencia, 1942), is one of the fundamental names of Spanish art. After an early stint at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in his hometown, he began his career as a painter in the 1960s as one of the founding members of the Chronicle Team. Together with Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo, he was responsible for renewing the pictorial language of Spain in the 60s and 70s using art as a protest tool. Two decades later, starting in 1981, the Valencian decided to continue his solo career, settling in New York, where his stay became indefinite.
His work, which includes painting, collage, engraving and sculpture, reviews and celebrates the history of art by exploring diverse currents, ranging from Pop Art to Abstract Expressionism to develop his own style that is characterized by giving a new meaning to works by other great figures, such as the odalisques of Henri Matisse, the kinetics of Alexander Calder or the iconic meninas of Diego Velázquez. With its reinterpretation it gives the works contemporaneity and three-dimensionality.
Almost 20 years have passed since the Reina Sofía Museum dedicated a major retrospective to him in the capital, but in 2024 the artist has returned to Madrid. The Opera Gallery headquarters has exhibited, under the title Allegro, an important selection of his works that includes more than 40 pieces between sculptures and paintings. In a walk through the exhibition you can see the skill with which he combines different materials for both disciplines and you can understand his recurring phrase “my painting comes out of the sculpture“.
Emotional journey through the art of Manolo Valdés
Throughout his prolific career, the National Prize for Plastic Arts (1983) has conceived a personal universe. To achieve this, he has used materials as diverse as ceramics, bronze, wood, alabaster and even resin, a changing material under the light that stars in the artist’s new project with the luxury publishing house. Artika Books. It is his most intimate and personal work, the book Ladies and gentlemen, which offers a deep look at his universe and confirms that at 82 years old he is still in top shape. For him, this work “encapsulates my personal experiences, influences and the emotional journey that has marked my career.”
The volume works as an exciting journey through the career of this creator composed of three parts. The first is a artist book with 53 paintings, engravings and collages that allow you to explore his techniques and get to know the vision of the great figures that his works contain, from Velázquez to Warhol, including Goya and Matisse. The collection has been personally selected by the artist for the edition and reproduced with the highest quality.
The second part consists of a study book, which reveals the intricacies and motivations of the author through experts in his work such as Guillermo Solana, director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum; María Toral Oropesa, exhibition curator and culture manager for museums and institutions; and Kosme de Barañano, professor of Art History at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche, who also carries out an exhaustive analysis of the 53 engravings that appear.
The third piece is the case made up of a wooden box covered in fabric with the artist’s name silk-screened on the cover and held by a sculpture made of resin which, of course, is shaped like a Velázquez menina. Valdés, known for his mastery in modeling, gives each piece his personal and unique stamp through fractures, cracks and incisions, making each resin figure unique and unrepeatable. The set makes up an exclusive volume, limited to 998 copies numbered and signed by the artist, with a price of 7,000 euros.
