Manolo Valdés

Manolo Valdés is one of the most famous painters and sculptures of the present time, introducing into Span a form of artistic expression that combines political and social commitment with humour and irony.

He studied the baccalaureate at a Dominican school in his city of birth.

In 1957, he entered the San Carlos Fine Arts school. The excessively academic formation given there was not to satisfy him too much because only two years after, he left this institution to dedicate himself completely to painting.

Already in the first works executed very shortly after leaving the school, the young Valdés showed a creative capacity and a technical-formal skill which were out of the ordinary.

In 1962, he presented a collection of works in the Nebli Gallery in Madrid, which supposed his first solo exhibition.

In 1964 he founded an artistic group called Equipo Crónica, together with Juan Antonio Toledo and Rafael Solbes, I which he remained up to his death of Solbes in 1981.

After the deal of Rafael Solbes, he went on working alone in Valencia for some years, until in 1989 when he went to New York and establishes his studio, continuing to experiment with the new forms of expression. Shortly after, he opened a studio in Madrid for doing large sculptures, alternating his creation in the two cities.

Influenced by Velázquez, Rembrandt, Rubens and Matisse, his work, for the person observing it, forces probing into the memory y look for significant images of the history of art.

Apart from the words exhibited as part of the Equipo Crónica, Valdés did more than 70 exhibitions, both solo and collective.

He has done sculpture of great format for different cities, like Madrid, Valencia, Biarritz and Düsserdolf, and numerous itinerant exhibitions of monument sculptures, like the sectacula exhibition of 21 ladies in waiting.

“The only art that I reject is that which cannot be understood directly from the image.

Exhibited Works

• “El pañuelo de María Luisa”, screenprint and collage.