The second edition of the George V Monumental welcomes this year the Spanish artist Manolo Valdés and his ten sculptures that will be presented all over George V Avenue from October 15 to January 15, 2021.
For this second edition, the Opera Gallery and George V Avenue are collaborating together to present the project of renowned artist Manolo Valdés named Monumental Egeries, in collaboration with partner members Gilles Dyan, President and Founder of the Opera Gallery, Alain Jodar, Secretary General of the George V Committee and its Artistic Director Bruno Darde.
First shown in Paris for his first exhibitions in 2005 and 2016 at the Jardin du Palais-Royal and Place Vendôme, this figure of the contemporary art scene is recognized throughout the world as one of the only artists to combine painting, drawing and sculpture. One of the most innovative styles of the second half of the 20th century.
The Monumentales Égéries project consists of a route of ten sculptures made of aluminum, bronze, resin and stainless steel, some of them measuring nearly 4 meters in height and 6 meters in span, stored along the entire length of the Parisian avenue facing the sumptuous luxury boutiques and Parisian palaces.
The theme of these works is the feminine portrait. The sculptures represent heads of women wearing different headdresses or crowns and to make them even more vivid, each sculpture bears the name of a woman from History, like the Muse Clio, Muse of History, declined from Sandro Botticelli’s Clio.
Through these sculptures, Manolo Valdés wants to express feelings of serenity, calm and appeasement, ideal faces in reference to female deities such as Egyptian, Buddhist or Romanesque statues. The Spanish artist highlights the ability of these women to assert themselves in their environment and therefore, as here, to take their place in this public space.
The artist is inspired by what surrounds him, what he sees and analyzes. The Mariposas series, for example, whose portrait of a woman is surrounded by giant butterflies, was inspired by a scene he saw where a woman was surrounded by thousands of butterflies in Central Park in the United States.
Manolo Valdés wanted to pay homage through these ancient deities to the key pieces of history and the great artists who have existed such as El Greco, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse or Constantin Brancusi: “The art of each era always brings together elements of the past, art is a succession and an infinite addition“.
Manolo Valdés manages to keep a very urban style on his different sculptures in order to plunge them perfectly into the heart of the universe of the avenue George V, thanks to round and horizontal forms that break the straightness of the avenue and the verticality of the buildings.
Featured photo : © Opera Gallery
