The artist Manolo Valdés, born in Valencia in 1942, established his own unmistakable visual language: sculptures, prints, and collage-like wall works made of paper, sackcloth, and paint, in which he always refers directly to art historical models. Nevertheless, through his treatment of the material as well as his feeling for composition and effect, he manages to make each motif his own.

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Manolo Valdés began his career in 1964 as part of the artist collective Equipo Chrónica, which consisted of Valdés and Rafael Solbes until the latter’s untimely death in 1981. Since then Valdés has continued his career alone.
His work is based on a profound knowledge of art history and a reflection on its distribution, marketing and consequences, though it cannot be reduced to this. Rather, he is moved by the question of what remains of art and can survive the centuries. His aim is to preserve the magic of art: the beauty in the silhouette of a figure, in color, form, ornament, and the wonder that can lie in a brushstroke. Each of Valdés' works constantly searches for renewed possibilities of sensual experience and experiencing art.

The gallery has a longstanding collaboration and friendship with Manolo Valdés. In the course of his career, which now spans more than 50 years, his work has been honored with numerous exhibitions in renowned international institutions. His monumental female head sculptures have been shown in New York, Paris, Valencia, and Monaco. Since the 1990s, he has also increasingly presented sculptural works in public space. In 2006 Beck & Eggeling made it possible for the city of Düsseldorf to purchase some figures from the »Las Meninas« group as part of the Quadriennale in Düsseldorf, which can now be admired in its entirety in the Hofgarten thanks to a generous donation by Manolo Valdés and the gallery.

Manolo Valdés lives and works in New York and Madrid.