New York, May 15 (EFE) .- Like a large part of the world population, the coronavirus forced the artist Manolo Valdés to isolate himself, but far from being carried away by passivity and boredom, the Spanish spent up to 18 hours a day dedicated to his work, and now shows the fruits of that effort at the Opera Gallery in New York.
“It’s the job of the year I’ve been held on Long Island with the history of the pandemic. They are the first words that this Spaniard, who has lived in New York for more than three decades, utters when he is asked to explain the origin of the new pieces exhibited in this space in the Upper East of Manhattan, where they can be seen from May 20 to 20 of June.
To avoid the agglomeration that characterizes the city of skyscrapers, Valdés decided to spend time outside the metropolis, east of New York, where he also has a studio from which to produce his pieces.
HOURS AND HOURS OF WORK
“I have not stopped working, but the way of working has changed because I have not had the assistants with me. I have had to do it alone, and it has been a smaller work in its scale, and I have spent more time with her because she lived where she worked. “The painter and sculptor said in an interview with Efe.
“I would get up at 6 in the morning and leave when my body was no longer giving any more of itself,” explained the artist, who formed Equipo Crónica (1965-1981), a mainstay of Spanish pop art, together with the late Rafael Solbes. .
Valdés, whose monumental bronze figures of Velázquez’s meninas have become almost part of the usual landscape of a long list of cities, has also changed the materials used in his pieces during the pandemic.
NEW MATERIALS AND TEXTURES
The glass on this occasion is very present in his busts, which he uses in the creation of heads with simple lines in which the features are barely distinguished, but which nevertheless decorates with a kind of crowns made of a mixture of metallic wires, nails of all sizes, or iron butterflies.
“By changing the material, in this case with the glass, there has been a change, both in textures and in language. I am quite happy and quite excited with the new material,” confessed the respected artist, whose career has seen markedly influenced by the works of Velázquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Picasso or Mattise.
The new works were not easy to do either, he said, because he had to set up his own kilns together with his assistants to process the glass pieces, since the owners of the commercial kilns have not wanted to take the risk.
“It is difficult for the industry to assume the risk of putting those glass things, those proportions, and with those iron inlay materials and other things that sometimes make them explode and break and can damage the ovens and the environment,” he said. .
At the Opera Gallery he now exhibits 17 sculptures, including several of his popular meninas, but these made of wood and glass, and 10 paintings, in which he uses different textures and bright colors, some of which are reminiscent of Picasso’s cubism.
The coronavirus has not only not slowed down Valdés’ work pace, but has accelerated it, and it has not caused the cancellation of a good part of his exhibitions, since a good part of them, which have been carried out in Rome, Paris , Istanbul, Miami or South Korea, have been in outdoor spaces.
TEMPORARY FACILITIES, PLEASE
In addition, he revealed, he is preparing another exhibition on the luxurious Park Avenue in New York, a city that has already been able to see his sculptures in front of the iconic Public Library, the spectacular Botanical Garden or scattered throughout Broadway.
Most of them temporary, to the relief of the Valencian, because the definitive installation in a public place of one of his sculptures causes him “fear” and “stress”.
“As a consumer, and I spend many days in (New York), where sculptures are put on the street, I am very happy when I see something that I like, and when I see something that I do not like I think ‘what luck, I know that the they are going to remove and they are going to put another one ‘. And that is exactly what I think of mine. It gives me a lot of stress to think that it is going to stay forever, “he confessed.
After living in New York for 32 years now, Valdés admitted that he misses Spain and has plans to return at some point, but said that he also considers himself a New Yorker.
“Just as I came here without the intention of staying forever, I am not with the intention of staying forever. What happens is that time passes and I think it is inevitable, because I have my life and an infrastructure here,” he settled.
Helen Cook
(c) EFE Agency
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