Valencia had hosted 6 sculptures of the Spanish artist Manolo Valdés and now the winner had been announced. The free exhibition, funded by la Fundación Hortensia, have been placed at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias from June 28th to the 10th of December.
What attracted many people to this exibhition was the opportunity for the visitors to vote the sculpture that they mostly liked and the winner would have been donated to the city of Valencia by the Fundation.
The six sculptures,made with different materials such as aluminium, melted iron and marble, represent massive women’s head that are more than 5 meters high. The exhibition was inspired to Henri Matisse, showing similar traits to his piece of works that have been incorporated by Valdés to some daily life’s objects, like the Pamela hat, butterflies and a diadem. For this reason the women’s heads were called: “La Pamela”, “La Mariposa”, “Los Aretes”, “La Diadema, “La Doble Imagen” and “Mariposas”.
This project of the Valencian artist Manolo Valdés differs from his previous ones for some characteristics. Firstly, this was the first time that a Valdés’ work has been painted, as the artist used to leave his works in the natural color of their material. Secondly, none of his works have ever been placed in the water, which made this exhibition even more unique.Moreover, an added value is represented by the location of the exhibition, being placed by the side of the majestic building of the arquitect Santiago Calatrava they create a special artistic atmosphere together.
The idea of this exhibition came from the daily life of the artist Valdés living in New York. For instance, the idea of the sculture called “Mariposas” came a day when walking in Central Park he saw some butterflies lie on the head of a men.
For 5 months more than 41.500 people had voted for the scultures, and the final outcome had been announced on the 10th December when La Pamela has been declared the winner with 12.855 votes. While the second and third place had been assigned to “Las Mariposas” (with 10.703 votes) and “La Mariposa” (with 7.996 votes). According to the majority’s preference, La Pamela has been moved to la Marina in Valencia, where it will stay permanently as a donation by la Fundación Hortensia, while the other 5 scultures have been moved to Singapore.
With this new acquisition from the Fundation, Valencia currently hosts 3 works of its natal artist Valdés adding to “La Dama Iberica” at the roundabout of la avenida de las Cortes Valencianas, and “La Reina Mariana” in la calle San Vincente.
Hortensia Herrero has expressed her interest in continuing the collaboration with la Ciudad de las Ciencias, so on 2018 there will surely be a new exhibition. Stay tuned for more information!
