63 - MANOLO VALDÉS BLASCO (Valencia, 1942)

MANOLO VALDÉS BLASCO (Valencia, 1942) "The Raft of the Medusa". Carborundum etching and collage, copy 38/40. Signed and justified in pencil. Measurements: 97 x 62 cm; 131 x 95 cm (frame). Engraving realized by Manolo Valdés, key figure of the Spanish contemporary art and co-founder of the group Equipo Crónica. In this work, the artist reinterprets the famous theme of The Raft of the Medusa by Géricault from his characteristic plastic language, based on formal synthesis, historical appropriation and monumentalization of the figure. Executed using the carborundum technique -which allows for a dense and materially intense texture- combined with collage, the engraving presents a rotund, almost sculptural figure, built from radical hallmarks between black mass and white void. The head, treated as an abstract and heavy form, introduces a conceptual tension between art history and contemporaneity, an essential feature in Valdés' production since the 1980s. This piece brings together visual strength, historical relevance and technical quality within the artist's graphic production. Manolo Valdés introduced in Spain an artistic expression that combines political and social commitment with humor and irony. After training at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts, in 1964 he co-founded the Equipo Crónica group, which was active until 1981. Since then he has lived in New York, where he has expanded his work to sculpture. He has received numerous national and international awards and his work, of large format and strong material and symbolic charge, is present in museums such as the Reina Sofia, MoMA, Metropolitan, Guggenheim and Centre Pompidou, among others.