MANOLO VALDÉS | LIDIA

Acquired directly from the artist circa 2010

“A consummate lover of images…. Valdés’ sensibility comes through via the more sensate side of appropriation, where the quest to improve on the things of the recent past comes not from an impulse to deepen our rupture with the past, but from the deepest possible appreciation of the values embodied by the sources themselves.”

(Dan Cameron, “The Hunter Gets Captured” in Exh. Cat., 1991, Marlborough Gallery, Manolo Valdés: Recent Work. May 22 – June 21 1991)

Recognized worldwide for his distinctive style, Manolo Valdés is one of the most influential Spanish artists of his time. With a distinctive re-evaluation of iconic imageries, Valdés pays homage to the masterpieces that have shaped Western cultural traditions, infusing the classical works from both the Old Masters and Twentieth Century icons with his contemporary vision. In Lidia, he has utilized one of the most ancient artistic materials, wood, and activated the texture of its surface to create the deliberate appearance of disintegration that emphasizes the organic materiality of his work. Valdés’s work resides in the collections of such institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.