Manolo Valdes Art
From his audacious Pop art paintings that challenged Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s regime during the 1960s to his modern reinterpretation of works by masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Valencia native Manolo Valdés has created an extraordinary range of work. He is internationally renowned as one of the most influential Spanish artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Born in 1942, Valdés studied art at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia. As his career began to take shape, in 1964, Valdés cofounded Equipo Crónica with fellow Spanish artists Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo. Together, the collective produced politically charged graphic Pop works, which frequently merged imagery that referenced Spain’s history and culture, in order to expressly denounce Franco’s oppressive government. Toledo left Equipo Crónica after one year, and the group disbanded after Solbes’s death in 1981.
From 1981 onward, Valdés focused on his solo career. In his portraits, still-life prints and figurative sculptures, Valdés adopts familiar images from masterpieces by some of the world’s most recognizable artists, including Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens and Roy Lichtenstein, and recontextualizes them, minimalizing forms and the use of color, introducing collagist elements and more. Examples of Valdés’s methods can be seen in the textured lithograph print Claribel (1995) and his contemporary sculpture Butterflies (2010), which is inspired by Matisse’s Woman with a Hat (1905).
Valdés has exhibited his works around the world, including in New York City, Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin, Geneva and Mexico City. In 1999, he represented Spain at the Venice Biennale. His paintings and sculptures are also held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Moderna Museet in Malmö, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of original Manolo Valdés prints, sculptures and mixed media.
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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2010s Manolo Valdes Art
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Early 2000s American Modern Manolo Valdes Art
Other
1970s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Etching
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Engraving
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
20th Century Spanish Manolo Valdes Art
Paper
Late 20th Century Pop Art Manolo Valdes Art
Lithograph
Early 2000s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Paper
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Paper, Etching, Lithograph
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Paper, Etching, Lithograph
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Paper, Etching, Lithograph
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Etching, Paper
Early 2000s Modern Manolo Valdes Art
Monoprint, Mixed Media
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Paper, Lithograph, Porcelain
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Bronze
Henk Jan SandermanLeap of Faith II-original wildlife panda sculpture-painting-contemporary art, 2024
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain, Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Romantic Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain, Clay, Glaze
19th Century Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Pop Art Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain, Glaze
2010s Conceptual Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain, Glaze
20th Century Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
20th Century Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Slip, Textile, Porcelain, Ink
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish Expressionist Manolo Valdes Art
Wood, Paint, Paper
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Porcelain
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Etching
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Canvas, Burlap, Thread, Oil, Fabric
2010s Manolo Valdes Art
Bronze
Early 2000s Pop Art Manolo Valdes Art
Bronze
2010s Contemporary Manolo Valdes Art
Metal
Early 2000s Spanish Manolo Valdes Art
Paper
Early 2000s Pop Art Manolo Valdes Art
Paper, Etching