Equipo Crónica was an art collective featuring the painters Manolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes. It was active from 1964 to 1981, the year of the death of Solbes. Its aesthetic principles questioned the hegemony of previous tendencies of informalism, opting on the one hand for the figurative and ironical tradition of Pop Art, and on the other for political engagement.
The work La rendición de Torrejón [The Surrender of Torrejón] shows one of the collective’s habitual ways of working: a reaction against the pompous use of great Spanish artists by the Franco regime, in order to bolster notions of national identity. In the face of the politically conservative instrumentalization of famous works that are part of collective memory, Equipo Crónica reinterpreted them with an irreverent tone and parodic intentions to denounce current events. In this case, the work is a caricature of Velazquez’s painting, alluding to the treaty signed between the Franco government and the United States on the occasion of the opening of American bases in Spanish territory, a political event that was interpreted as a concession to the interests of a foreign power in the context of the Cold War.
In 2024, the Suñol Foundation dedicated the exhibition ‘The history of art as a pretext’ to them, where works by the group that are part of the Suñol Soler Collection were shown along with others.
List of artworks
La rendición de Torrejón , 1971
La rendición de Torrejón , 1971
Documents and Memory
Act 24: Josep Suñol Collection's archive
Get a better understanding of the reality of culture in the private sphere but with a public...
5th Anniversary
Josep Suñol's Collection
A fresh insight into his collection that can help us understand the function of art in...
CosCru Serenade
By Sonia Gómez
On Saturday 13 July we will celebrate the closing of the exhibition Art History as a Pretext dedicated to Equipo Crónica with a performance by the dancer Sonia Gómez,...
The emancipation of the spectator's gaze
Equipo Crónica
On June 13 we celebrated a meeting between two of the art history professionals who have studied and admired Equipo Crónica the...
Guided tour
Equipo Crónica. Art history as a pretext
We invite you to visit the exhibition Art History as a Pretext dedicated to the collective of artists Equipo Crónica with the help of a member of the educational team of the Fundació...
Braiding memories
Collective Self-publishing day with Mitmaq_Ediciones
We invite you to participate in a self-publishing day that we will hold at the Fundació Suñol on Saturday, May 25, and which will be led by the visual...
Inauguration
Zush in Eivissa
We invite you to the inauguration that will take place next Friday, January 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fundació Suñol, and that will kick off the monographic exhibition...
La Nit dels Museus
Come to the Fundació Suñol during the Nit dels Museus and enjoy a free visit to the Zush in Ibiza...
Les Escales
In 1976 Josep Suñol moved his residence to Les Escales, an address specially designed to house his growing collection of works of...
Dialogue
Helena Tatay and Valentín Roma
Helena Tatay and Valentín Roma offer us a guided tour of the exhibition Act 24: Documents and Memory. Josep Suñol Collection's...
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