EQUIPO CRÓNICA (Rafael Solbes, Valencia, 1940-1981; Manuel Valdés, Valencia, 1942)

The origin of Equipo Crónica is connected with the exhibition España libre and the birth of the Valencia branch of Estampa Popular, which gave rise to the sense of involvement necessary for the creation of an independent group in 1964. Initially it consisted of Rafael Solbes, Manuel Valdés and Joan-Antoni Toledo, although Toledo left the group a year later. Drawing on Informalism in their reaction against the subjective and irrational, they turned to painting that used political themes to reflect on the situation of the modern artist. These ideas coincided with those of the Paris group that consisted of Arroyo, Recalcati and Aillaud, which had a strong influence on Equipo Crónica in its contracts in 1965, the year of their first solo exhibition at the Galería La Pasarela in Seville. Their first series (1964-68) were close to international Pop Art in style, with compositional and thematic devices taken from the mass media and a flat-toned treatment of the image. Between 1968 and 1972 there was an evolution that tended towards a conscious reflection on the resources of painting and the construction of the artist, in various series in which Spanish paintings of the Golden Age were used with a high symbolic value, as in La recuperación (The Recovery), Guernica 69 and Autopsia de un oficio (Autopsy of an Occupation), and increased complexity in the narrative quality of the images, accompanied by the introduction of new technical and compositional elements, as in the Serie negra (Black Series). These series were presented at the Galeria Val i 30 in Valencia, Juan Mordó in Madrid, and Maeght in Barcelona. Having reached this stage of maturity, Equipo Crónica persevered with its exploration of the condition of painting, from Retratos, bodegones y paisajes (Portraits, Still-lifes and Landscapes), 1972-73, to La partida de billar (The Game of Billiards), 1976-77, while still maintaining its political commitment, as in El paredón (The Wall) or La trama (The Plot), 1976-77. In the early eighties the group developed four new series, exploring the themes of the pictorial in Paisajes urbanos (Urban Landscapes), 1979, and reaching Lo público y lo privado (The Public and the Private). This series coincided with the death of Rafael Solbes, which led to his dissolution of the group. Their work has been shown collectively in various major exhibitions, including those at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Centro M-11 in Seville in 1974, a retrospective of their graphic work at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao in 1988 and a selective exhibition at the IVAM and the MNCARS in 1989.