Provenance:
Artist's estate

Exhibited:
Art Fair Philippines 2020, The Link, Ayala Center,
Makati City, February 21 - 23, 2020

Literature: Guerrero Nakpil, Lisa. Leo Valledor: The Outsider of Park Place. León Gallery. Makati City. 2020. p. 26

ABOUT THE WORK

Valledor was thoroughly well-connected in an age brimming with possibilities in the civil rights movement and the space race. Martin Luther King would give his “I Have A Dream” speech in the 1963 March on Washington; a man would be on the moon by 1969. The Park Place shows attracted attention almost as soon as the space opened. Its exhibitions featured paintings and sculpture together, revolutionizing the way that new, avant-garde artists could present their art in marked contrast to the more conservative Madison Avenue galleries. Its cavernous spaces invited the creation of large works and interactions with sculpture, music, and the spoken word. Park Place became a significant part of the New York art scene until the late 1960s, putting a face on the city’s art scene for young artists and leading the move to Soho as a center for happenings that would in turn become the lightning rod for a whole new scene. It made art blisteringly cool. Paula Cooper, who would go on to establish her own gallery, was its second director. Valledor was thoroughly well-connected in an age brimming with possibilities in the civil rights movement and the space race. Martin Luther King would give his “I Have A Dream” speech in the 1963 March on Washington; a man would be on the moon by 1969. The Park Place shows attracted attention almost as soon as the space opened. Its exhibitions featured paintings and sculpture together, revolutionizing the way that new, avant-garde artists could present their art in marked contrast to the more conservative Madison Avenue galleries. Its cavernous spaces invited the creation of large works and interactions with sculpture, music, and the spoken word. Park Place became a significant part of the New York art scene until the late 1960s, putting a face on the city’s art scene for young artists and leading the move to Soho as a center for happenings that would in turn become the lightning rod for a whole new scene. It made art blisteringly cool. Paula Cooper, who would go on to establish her own gallery, was its second director. Valledor would eventually return to his native California where he would continue to produce his avant-garde art. Five of Leo Valledor’s works are in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). In 2019, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York acquired two paintings by Leo Valledor for its permanent collection: Odelight and Serena, both from the year 1964, both acrylic on canvas and each measuring 35 15/16 × 109 ½ inches. They were a generous gift from Valledor’s fellow Park Place founder, the sculptor Mark di Suvero. Leo Valledor is regarded as a pioneer of the Minimalism movement that would dominate the landscape throughout the 1970s. The work at hand pushes the boundaries of what Valledor would regard as the difference between "how you see" and "what you see". In "Alone", he tests perception by presenting the sparest of colors and shapes.