Art history as a pretext

Equipo Crónica is initially made up of Manuel Valdés, Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo (who will soon leave the group) based on the theoretical proposals of Tomás Llorens. After passing through Estampa Popular, with whom they shared the same ideals, and at a time of ideological crisis, Solbes and Valdés began to collaborate both in theory and in practice. In 1965 they held their first exhibition, at the XVI Salon de la Jeune Peinture.

It takes from Pop Art the use of flat colors, depersonalized drawing and art as a means of mass communication. His painting is interpreted as a critique of individualism. His works are made in series. The work contains a political-social content, as it coincides at a time of American expansionism (Vietnam) and the Spanish dictatorship. It is also a reaction against other disintegrated groups such as Dau al Set or Equipo 57. Many of their themes are inspired by Spanish painting from the Golden Age but inserted in contemporary society. Works such as La rendición de Torrejón or El intruso clearly allude to painters such as Velázquez or Picasso.

The group undergoes an evolution at the beginning of the 1970s, as they abandoned the rigor of drawing and line to make a more pictorial type of work with trompe l’oeil compositional effects. Also in this final phase there are more autobiographical references, as can be seen in the work El perro. In 1981 activities were interrupted with the sudden death of Rafael Solbes.

With the collaboration of: Colección Mariano Yera (Madrid), Col·lecció Rafael Tous (Barcelona), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dôle (França), IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (València), Col·lecció d’Art Contemporani Fundació ‘la Caixa’ (Barcelona), Naturgy Energy Group – Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid), Diputació Provincial de València, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), Private collections from France and Spain.

OPENING: April 11 at 18:30h (Fundació Suñol, Barcelona)