The successful exhibition of monumental sculptures by Manolo Valdés that the Hortensia Herrero Foundation is bringing to Valencia will stay forever at the city, at least partially. This is what Hortensia Herrero, the president of the Foundation, promised: to buy one of the six art pieces that will be exhibited in Valencia.
This temporary exhibition will include the six sculptures that made up the exhibition in Paris, named “La Mariposa” (“The Butterfly”), “Los Aretes” (“The Earrings”), “La Diadema” (“The Headband”), “Mariposas” (“Butterflies”), “La Doble Imagen” (“The Double Image”) and “La Pamela” (“Pamela – Picture Hat”). Hortensia Herrero will buy one of these sculptures, which will later be donated to the city of Valencia. The piece will be chosen via a popular vote. Anyone visiting the exhibition may vote and the ballot boxes will be placed at the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciències, where the Manolo Valdés’s exhibition will be set up.
“For me, it is a huge satisfaction to contribute to bringing this exhibition over to Valencia. Manolo Valdés is one of the most important and most international Valencian artists; witnessing these six sculptures is going to be a true spectacle, during these months at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències. This is why I would like a part of this exhibition to remain forever in Valencia and thus, I promise to purchase one of these sculptures to be donated to the city. Besides, I’d like Valencian people and tourists visiting the exhibition to be the ones who choose the sculpture which they like the most,” Hortensia Herrero explained.
The opening of the exhibition will be on 28 June and will remain open up to 10 December. Once the exhibition is over and the winning sculpture has been chosen, this one will be moved into La Marina de Valencia, specifically next to La Marina de Empresas, where EDEM Escuela de Empresarios and the Lanzadera are located.
An internationally successful exhibition
This is the very same exhibition that Manolo Valdés himself set up at Place Vêndome in Paris. For this exhibition, the Valencian artist created several large heads whose headdresses are made up of various motifs, such as butterflies, geometrical shapes, and a picture hat. Thus, Valdés takes inspiration from the objects that surround him and brings them in works that are inspired by the Spanish painting tradition and by art history in general.
In order to make these monumental sculptures, which are over 5 metres in height, the artist used very diverse materials such as weathering steel, aluminum, cast iron, and marble; besides, some of these works have also been painted with a coat of epoxy paint.
This exhibition comes to add up to a series of exhibitions of monumental works that this Valencian artist has already done in iconic places such as Place Vêndome in Paris, the Botanical Garden in New York, Chambord Castle in Loire Valley, and Broadway Avenue in New York, the latter being the city where he has lived for more than 25 years.
Some of the works by Manolo Valdés (Valencia, 1942) are part of the permanent collections of many important museums such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Houston Museum, the National Art Museum in Beijing, the Israel Museum, the MOMA in New York, the Hispanic Society of America, the State Museum of St. Petersburg, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and IVAM in Valencia, among many others.
The Hortensia Herrero Foundation would like to thank the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències for the selfless collaboration, necessary to carry out this exhibition project.