Price On Request Mixed media on canvas 53,9 x 82,7 in (137 x 210 cm)Born in Valencia, Spain, Valdés is one of the few artists who have mastered multiple mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking. In each form he is considered highly original, technically sound and constantly provocative. Valdés began training as a painter at the age of fifteen in the Fine Arts Academy of San Carlos, Valencia. In 1964, with fellow artists Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo, Valdés formed the Equipo Crónica, utilizing the aesthetics of Pop Art to criticize the political climate under Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. After 1981, Valdés embarked on a solo career focusing on art historical motifs. Valdés’s work often quotes figures from well-known pieces of art, revitalizing the image through a change of context. Manolo Valdés moved away from linear irony to interpret the image as a symbol and a vehicle for contact between the work of Art and the spectator. He has continued to seek inspiration in the creations of the grand masters of the History of Art such as Velázquez, Rembrandt or Goya. Influenced by Rembrandt, Rubens and Matisse, Valdés creates large works in which the lighting and colors express a sensation of tactility. His work is forceful and decorated with historical art symbols. The timelessness of the image as the axis of the visual experience is the determining factor in his creations. For Valdés’s works, image and matter are fused in a body of work that wanders between Pop Art and material art, between social and political commitment and a continuous search for reinvention. The artist takes the familiar image and transfigures the work through inflating the figure’s size, minimizing detail and utilizing various materials thus creating a seamless dialogue with the original artwork. It is through this unique...