La Réserve Genève – Hotel, Spa and Villas welcome six special summer guests who will be gracing the hotel’s grounds and interior venues till August 20, this year. Far from being reclusive, they look forward to having face-to-face encounters with the other guests and visitors of the hotel. They hope to evoke emotions. They are six contemporary sculptures by the world-renowned Spanish artist Manolo Valdés.
Through a magnificent pairing of metal and alabaster, Valdés’ sculptures evoke the feminine figure through a plantlife reinterpretation of the portrait theme. The stylized foliage and the materials used ensure a symbiosis between the works and their setting.
Three of the sculptures are oversized and prefer the outdoors; a natural setting entirely in tune with the inspiration of the artist. Two have found a place for themselves on the lush lawns of the hotel, in the shade of the centuries-old trees. The third one is located near the hotel swimming pool.
The three remaining sculptures are of a more standard size and prefer the confines of the interior space, but once again, they are able to blend effortlessly into their surroundings. One is located near the fireplace and welcomes guests upon their arrival. Another stands in the spot usually occupied by the iconic elephant in the La Réserve lobby, while the third has opted for the more intimate setting of the Café Lauren.
The six sculptures by Valdés at La Réserve Genève complement the simultaneous showing of paintings by the artist at the Opera Gallery in downtown Geneva. This internationally renowned modern and contemporary art gallery founded in 1994 offers a permanent exhibition of works by modern and contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder and Pierre Soulages, as well as personal, collective and themed exhibitions.
Born in Valence in 1942, Manolo Valdés is a globally renowned, multi-disciplinary artist who declares himself “a consumer of art and its history.” Valdés has been exploring an intensely personal vision of the use of shapes, materials, colours through his paintings, monumental sculptures, etchings, and collages since the 1960s. He was Influenced by the great masters such as Velasquez, Picasso and Matisse, and is a co-founder of the influential Equipo Crónica movement. His works have found their way into the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, as well as Berlin’s Kunstmuseum and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
