Bidspirit auction | Manolo Valdes Female Bust Collage

Manolo Valdes Female Bust Collage - Manolo Valdes (Spanish, b. 1942). Color etching and collage depicting a feminine bust with a colorful headpiece or turban. Pencil signed and numbered 17/55 along the lower edge. Lot Essay: Manolo Valdes is a celebrated painter and sculptor whose career began in the late 1950s. As a founding member of Equipo Cronica, alongside Rafael Solbes and Joan Antoni Toledo, Valdes challenged Spain’s Franco regime through politically charged art inspired by Pop Art, yet imbued with a distinctly narrative and critical dimension. After Solbes’s death in 1981 and the group’s dissolution, Valdes embarked on a solo career, reinterpreting masterpieces by Velazquez, Picasso, Matisse, and Van Eyck with a bold, modern sensibility. His recurring motifs - such as Velazquez’s Mariana de Austria - reveal his deep engagement with art history while forging a contemporary visual language. Since moving to New York in 1990, Valdes has expanded his practice to include large-scale works in unconventional and tactile materials such as jute, tar, bronze, wood, and marble. His art has been recognized with major honors, including the Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes (1984), and featured in prestigious exhibitions at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Museo Reina Sofia, and international biennials. His monumental sculptures have graced public spaces from Paris’s Place Vendome to Valencia’s Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies. Today, his works are held in major collections worldwide, including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Museo Reina Sofia. Sight; height: 40 in x width: 45 in. Framed; height: 63 in x width: 63 in x depth: 2 in. Condition: Please email us at condition@revereauctions.com for a condition report or additional photos.