Manolo Valdés

Galeria Freites, Caracas
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is in very good condition overall. There is some light surface dirt due to the artist's chosen medium. There is some very light evidence of wear and handling to the edges. Framed under Plexiglas.
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"Velázquez as a point of reference has always been the testing ground for Valdés' paraphrases. Each new research effort has been carried out on the fallow land of Velázquez's figures [...] Valdés falls back on Velázquez's work time and again to move forward with his own imagery." (Kosme de Baraño cited in Exh. Cat., Paris, Ministère de Culture, Las Tres Dimensiones en Valdés, 2005, p. 15)

One of the most original and prolific Spanish Contemporary artists, Manolo Valdés draws subjective inspiration from art historical motifs. Using his own immensely personal and visual language to skillfully play tribute to many of the Old Masters, Valdés uses their work as a pretext to create an entirely new aesthetic object through which to examine ideas of cultural inheritance and aesthetic continuity. His approach to art is to focus not on the subject, but on the way art is created; for Valdés, the subject is simply the first step. Throughout his career, Valdés has explored his artistic practice through a variety of materials and media, achieving a rawness and tangible quality in his art that is both powerful and evocative.

In this magnificent example, Valdés draws his subject from the Infanta Margarita figure in Diego Velázquez's multi-layered masterpiece Las Meninas, painted in 1656. By focusing the subject of his artwork on this solitary figure and thus removing her from her historical context, Valdés creates a completely new and purely formal approach to this iconic figure, eliminating all anecdotes, her regal surroundings and her Meninas, concentrating solely on the image. It is not therefore a mere mirroring of Velázquez's iconic Infanta, but rather a confrontation with it -- a discovery of new possibilities and approaches. Infanta Magarita in its monumental scale cannot help but affect its surroundings and in doing creates a dialogue with them. Despite its monumental size, however, there remains an underlining fragility and femininity in this painting which remains powerful and rather arresting. By augmenting the figure's scale and minimizing details, especially to her face, Valdés creates an abstract expressionism which further places the subject into a modern setting. Through Infanta Magarita, we see Valdés' continuous exploration with material. The artist uses mixed media on rough burlap, to create a built up, at times rough and tactile surface, leaving surface irregularities and imperfections visible, which emphasizes the importance to him of an expressive and experimental process.