Galeria Freites, Caracas
Private Collection

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. The surface inconsistencies, striations and cracks to the wood appear to be inherent to the artist's chosen medium and working method.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In his career of over 20 years, Manolo Valdes has produced an exhaustive body of work that has strived to recreate and re-contextualize some of the more iconic images in the canon of western art. Valdes is at once an artist and a historian in his own right. His vast knowledge and understanding of art history has allowed him to create a body of work that virtually reconfigures the history of art.  Over the course of his long career, Valdes has developed a singular and bold language that pervades the different series created over the years and whose primary subject is always drawn from art historical icons.

Valdes’ statuesque Reina Mariana is a masterful appropriation of Diego Velázquez’s famous portrait of Mariana of Austria, queen of Spain and the second wife of Felipe IV. Velázquez portrayed a stoic queen who lived a notoriously unhappy life while in the Spanish court. Valdes has taken Velázquez’s interpretation of this figure in Spanish history and art history and has left us only with a silhouette. The joints of the wood double as seams for her elegant attire and the stoic stare is replace by a faceless suggestion of a head and coif. However, Velázquez’s portrait of Mariana is merely a pretext to create something entirely new by appropriating and recreating iconic subjects in the history of art. Like his paintings, composed of layers of painted canvases or pieces of burlap, Valdes’ Reina Mariana is assembled by accumulating layers of boards of wood. Reina Mariana is one of Valdes’ favored subjects—having reworked this image into many sculptures and paintings alike. The present work is undoubtedly one of t🐼he most impressive renditions o♔f this favored subject of the artist. Standing at almost 6 feet tall and placed directly onto the floor, the sculpture confronts the viewer while reclaiming its layers of art historical allusions but with a life of its own.