Equipo Crónica

Equipo Crónica (Valencia, 1964–1981).
“Pencils” from the Black Series, 2016.
Silkscreen print on Arches paper, EA 26/30.
Signed and dated by hand.
Measurements: 54 x 72.5 cm; 69 x 86 cm (frame).

The silkscreen print on offer fully embodies the language of the Black Series: characters inspired by film noir and detective novels appear in an atmosphere of suspense, rendered almost in black and white, while the only colored elements are drawing and painting materials. In this work, the protagonists are large Alpino pencils, transformed into key objects within a scene reminiscent of a criminal investigation or a detective story.

Equipo Crónica, or Crónicas de la Realidad, was a group of Spanish painters active between 1964 and 1981. It was founded by Manolo Valdés, Juan Antonio Toledo—who soon left the group—and Rafael Solbes, whose death in 1981 brought the project to an end. The historian and critic Tomás Llorens was also part of the group; he explains the Equipo’s theoretical foundations in a text titled “The Distancing of Distancing.” Likewise, the three painters signed a manifesto in 1965, in which they defined themselves as a working group with collective methods and supra-individual goals. Equipo Crónica broke away from the prevailing informalism to cultivate a figurative style of painting closely linked to Pop Art. Tired of introspection, these artists took to the streets and observed the world around them—a society marked by nascent industrialization and tourists. Their style was a unique blend of realism, criticism, Pop Art, pictorial references, anachronisms, and bittersweet pastiches. The group produced paintings, sculptures, and prints, and often worked in series, which allowed them to explore a single theme through different variations. Equipo Crónica draws on a very simple visual language, featuring monochromatic and repetitive images that closely resemble contemporary media, particularly newspaper photographs. Works by Equipo Crónica are held at the IVAM in Valencia, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Juan March Foundation, and the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid, among others. In 2007, an exhibition dedicated to Equipo Crónica was organized at the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca.