Alberto Valdés belongs to a generation of Mexican-American artists whose mid-20th century practices predated - yet were intrinsically connected to - El Movimiento, the Chicana/o movement for social justice that gained momentum across the United States during the Vietnam War era. Born in 1918 in El Paso, Texas, Valdés moved with his family between the U.S. and Mexico before permanently settling in Los Angeles in 1920. His father, a renowned classical pianist and composer, performed regularly at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, dividing his time between the two artistic capitals. Through these early trips, the young Valdés encountered Mexico’s vibrant arts and culture, particularly its Pre-Columbian or pre-invasion indigenous heritage, which would become a lasting source of inspiration. 

After attending Lincoln High School and Harper's School of Art in Los Angeles, Valdés worked as a commercial artist and illustrator. Like many of his contemporaries, “Al,” as he would later be known, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941, serving during World War II in North Africa and Europe, including Italy and France.  His time in Italy left an indelible impression as the sleekness of modern design reawakened his interest in the art of antiquity. From the monumental architecture of the Mussolini era to the dynamism of Italian Futurism, Valdés absorbed the energies of the industrial age, bringing their rhythmic intensity to Pre-Columbian imagery upon his return to California. 

In Untitled (Coatlicue), c. 1955, the hard-edged geometries associated with the Futurists are implied by thin layers of oil glazes, suggesting movement and an animated life force as the Indigenous mother goddess emerges from darkness. Alberto’s exploration of ancient Mesoamerican and Latin American motifs coincided with a growing interest in Southern California in this cultural heritage fostered by dealers such as Earl Stendahl, whose gallery encouraged collectors and artists to explore the distant past. As with the ceramic sculptures of his contemporary Dora De Larios, Valdés reimagined ancestral subjects through a modern sensibility. Paintings such as Untitled (Wari Man), c. 1952, draw on this shared personal inheritance investigating themes of history, religion, and mysticism. In this work, part of a series of gold ground oil paintings, Valdés looks to Mexican and Latin American art history - from Mexican enconchado paintings of Roman Catholic subjects painted atop mother of pearl, to Wari ceramics and lapidary works of gods and leaders, to Peruvian Nazca Lines viewed only from above by the gods themselves. 

These interests also shaped his abstractions, which like fellow modernists Anni and Josef Albers, take Andean masonry and Mesoamerican jade works as points of departure. Working within the language of mid-century painting, Valdés transformed its structural rhythms into interlocking shapes and atmospheric expanses. Pre-Columbian sources inform not only his imagery but also the organization of his painted surfaces. As defined geometries dissolve into ambiguous spaces, the compositions evoke surreal landscapes and a primordial realm in which the constructed, natural, and spiritual worlds have yet to become distinct. Rooted in historical references, Valdés’ paintings open an imagined terrain that is beyond a particular time or place.

Although his subjects resonate with his Mexican-American contemporaries and subsequent Chicana/o artists, Valdés chose not to exhibit his paintings publicly. His discipline remained a personal inquiry into a shared artistic and spiritual lineage. Seen together, these paintings reveal a singular vision in which ancestral memory and modern experimentation continually inform one another. This exhibition brings that private world into public view, offering a fuller understanding of Valdés’ contribution to the art of his generation.

Alberto Valdés’ paintings have been featured prominently in exhibitions including Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2013–14) and Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation at the Autry National Center (2011–12), presented as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980. His work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.