EQUIPO CRÓNICA

Equipo Crónica was founded in Valencia at the end of 1964 by three artists: Rafael Solbes (Valencia, 1940-1981), Manolo Valdés (Valencia, 1942) and Joan Antoni Toledo (Valencia, 1940-1995), who left the group shortly afterwards. The following year, the group took part in the 16th Salon de la Jeune Peinture de Paris, organised at the Musée d'Art Moderne in the French capital, where it received a warm welcome.

The collaboration between Manolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes was so close that both ceased to sign their works personally and renounced individual creative activity, breaking with the classical and romantic figure of the artist-individual.

Once again, the Spanish avant-garde established an international dialogue with the other artistic avant-gardes, particularly the French and Anglo-Saxon ones.
Since the mid-1950s, we have witnessed, on an international scale, the emergence of discussions about figuration in art. In Western countries, the consumer society saturated the public space with images and advertising became increasingly important in the aesthetic experience of the individual. To explore this new stage of capitalism, the Independent Group (IG) launched the Pop art movement in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. Shortly afterwards, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein brought it to the United States.
At the same time, in Spain, developmentalism marked a second great stage of Franco's dictatorship. However, the relative openness of the regime contrasts with the persistence of political authoritarianism and strong material inequalities.

These elements of context give us the keys to situate Equipo Crónica in its time. Inspired by the aesthetics of Pop art, this collective is nevertheless inscribed in an eminently critical perspective. Thus, we should not be misled: the reference to popular images - be they iconic paintings or consumer objects - is not intended to extol the experience of the individual-consumer like Pop art or to pay homage to the masters of the past. It is about documenting, chronicling the cruel paradoxes of the times, in which colorful images of progress and development parade against the gray backdrop of dictatorship. As journalist Raul Minchinela points out, "recovering Equipo Crónica includes revisiting the gloomy Francoism with a layer of color".

EXHIBITED WORKS:

-Rainy Day, 1979