Manolo Valdés: La Rêverie

Opera Gallery takes hold of the parks of the Hôtel du Cap Eden Roc and of the Château Saint Martin & Spa and presents La Rêverie, an open-air exhibition with works by Spanish artist Manolo Valdés. Thus, thirteen monumental sculptures punctuate the sumptuous exterior settings of these two exceptional hotels. Recognized as one of the major artists of the contemporary art scene, Manolo Valdés has been revisiting the classics of Art History for nearly 60 years, inscribing his work in the lineage of the great masters who preceded him. His work pays tribute to classics and masterpieces of great signatures, such as Vélasquez, El Greco, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi… because, according to him, “the Art of each era always brings together elements from the past, Art is an infinite succession and addition”.

His undying passion for modern masters has made Manolo Valdés an artist whose contemporary work is a bridge between the past and the present. From his emblematic “Meninas”, which are a three-dimensional adaptation of Velasquez's famous 1656 painting, here declined in resin of several colors, bronze and aluminum to his female heads topped with extravagant headgear made of butterflies or foliage; his works echo the scintillating Mediterranean Sea, the historic buildings of the Château Saint Martin and Cap Eden Roc hotels and the lush vegetation of their parks. The contemplative state offered by his sculptures is not only brought on by the image but also by the transformation it induces to the landscape, like an ode to nature. The ensemble definitely encourages daydreaming, or Rêverie.