1942 Born in Valencia, Spain
Lives and works in New York and Madrid
Master Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker Manolo Valdés was one of the founding members of Equipo Cronica, the highly influencial Pop Art group of 1906's Spain. With the death of fellow founding member Rafael Solbes in 1981, Valdes has reinvented himself as a soloist and has emerged as one of the foremost living Spanish artists.
His newly refined, expressive style is often centered on art-historical motifs, but without the political overtones and slick painting style that had characterized Equipo Cronica's work. By quoting figures from well-known works of art, he revitalizes these familiar images by taking them out of their original context. In both paintings and sculptures, he inflates the figure's size, abstracting form and minimizing detail, while incorporating a lot of roughly applied paint and unusual materials.
1957-1959 Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos
1964 Established the artists' group
Equipo Crónica with Joan Toledo and Rafael Solbes in which he remained until Solbes' death in 1981
1965-1981 had over seventy expositions, as many individual as collective
1965 Lissone and Biella prize in Milan silver medal in the second International
Prints Biennial in Tokyo an award from the Bridgestone Art Museum in
Lisbon the Alfons Roig Award in Valencia the National Award for the Fine
Arts in Spain a medal from the biennial International Festival of the
Plastic Arts in Baghdad
1993 the Medal of the Order of Andrés Bello in Venezuela.
PRIZES AND AWARDS
1965 Prize Lissone, Milan, ItalyPrize Biella, Milan, Italy
1979 Silver Medal, II International Biennial of Engraving, Tokyo, Japan
1984 Premio Nacional de Bellas Artes, SpainPremio Alfons Roig, Valencia, Spain
1985 Medalla Nacional de Pintura, Spain
1986 Medal for the Biennal, International Festival of the Plastic Arts, Baghdad, Iraq
1993 Condecoración de la Orden de Andrיs Bello en la Clase deBanda Honor, Republic of Venezuela
1997 XXXIIème Prix du Conseil National Fondation Prince Pierre of Monaco
1998 Gold Medal of Merit for Fine Arts, Spain
2000 Prize from Art Critics Association for Estampa, Madrid, SpainPrize from ARCO
Art Critics Association, Madrid, Spain