Desnudo V (Naked V)

Celebrated for his vivid reimagining of canonical art history, Manolo Valdés’ Desnudo V (Naked V) is a vibrant totem to reincarnation. Throughout his career, Valdés has interpreted historical works from the Baroque to the surreal, reconfiguring these canvases according to his own visual idiom. The present work belongs to a series for which the artist paid homage to Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Diego Velázquez, and in Desnudo V, Valdés has reinterpreted Matisse’s Draped Nude, 1936, held in the collection of Tate Britain. Part of a cycle of four paintings, Draped Nude depicts a woman lounging lazily, her nude body filling much of the canvas; the theme of the odalisque was central for Matisse, who began painting these figures during his Nice period. For Desnudo V, Valdés has cropped the original composition, eliminating the background details and her long, curving legs. His closeup portrait is an exultation of the face, deftly outlined in inky black. It is a postmodern gesture to bring the past into the present, and by doing so, Valdés hopes to reanimate history within a contemporary frame; ‘I am just a narrator,’ he said, ‘who comments on the history of painting in various ways, using new materials: it is like a game that consists of changing the code and the key to the artwork… Many of my colours, materials and textures are the product of relived experiences of other masters. My painting involves much reflection’ (M. Valdés, quoted in Manolo Valdés 1981-2006, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2006, p. 20).