Manolo Valds In Glass [Hardcover]

For over half a century, Valencia-born, New York-based Manolo Vald?s has been a prominent international figure in the arena of contemporary art, known for his work in the mediums of sculpture, painting, drawing, and collage. In this striking and imposing publication, designed in close dialogue with the artist by Peter B. Willberg and produced in Italy, Vald?s presents a body of thirty-five sculptures created in 2020 and 2021. Along with wood, alabaster, aluminum, steel, and resin, the primary medium employed in this body of work is glass, following a significant and intense period of research and experimentation.The resulting works are engaging contemporary portrait busts that make reference to the history of modernist painting and sculpture, taking inspiration from imagery and objects by twentieth-century masters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Constantin Brancusi. Developing his recipes for their fabricationmaterials, processes, conditions, and timingswith both care and flair, Vald?s has created sculptural glass busts in a range of amber oranges, ruby reds, emerald greens, sapphire blues, and onyx blacks, all of which almost seem to glow with what Dr Kosme de Bara?ano, the books author, describes as an inner light .Bara?anos comprehensive and illuminating essay not only investigates aspects of the history of glass making and its use as a material by artists past and present, but also traces the evolution of the language and forms of Vald?ss glass and mixed-media works across a number of key exhibitions and bodies of work over the course of the past two decades. These include his monumental sculptures at the New York Botanical Garden in 2012 and his dramatic solo presentation in the Place Vend?me in Paris in 2016, both of which offered opportunities to see the artists large-scale sculptural works in outdoor settings. Discussing the significance of Cabezas (heads) in his oeuvre, Bara?ano asserts: These glass 'Cabezas' are tremendously somber l“œ