Manolo Valdés (b. 1942, Valencia, Spain) is a celebrated Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker known for his bold reinterpretations of art historical imagery. A founding member of the influential Pop-inflected collective Equipo Crónica, Valdés emerged in the 1960s as part of a generation of artists responding to the political climate of Francoist Spain with sharp wit and visual innovation.

Valdés studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia, where he met fellow artists Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo. In 1964, the trio established Equipo Crónica, whose narrative-driven, politically charged works adapted the strategies of American Pop Art while maintaining a uniquely European and critical lens. After Solbes’ death in 1981, Valdés began a solo career, evolving his style while maintaining a dialogue with the visual language of the past.

Deeply engaged with art history, Valdés draws inspiration from artists such as Velázquez, Matisse, Picasso, and van Eyck, distilling iconic forms into expressive, contemporary compositions. In both painting and sculpture, he explores texture and volume through materials like jute, wood, bronze, alabaster, and marble, often working on a monumental scale. His recurring reinterpretation of Velázquez’s Mariana de Austria has become a signature motif.

Valdés has lived and worked in New York since 1990, and his work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Guggenheim Bilbao and Museo Reina Sofía. He represented Spain at the 1999 Venice Biennale and has exhibited monumental public sculptures in Place Vendôme (Paris) and Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences. His works are held in prestigious collections worldwide, including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Kunstmuseum Berlin.

Valdés continues to bridge classical tradition with contemporary expression, offering new life to the great icons of art history.