Artists Rafael Solbes (b. Valencia, 1940, d. 1981), Juan Antonio Toledo (b. Valencia, 1940, d. 1995) and Manolo Valdés (b. Valencia, 1942) founded Equipo Crónica in 1964, immediately after leaving the Estampa Popular group. They had the support of art critics Tomás Llorens Serra and Vicente Aguilera Cerni, and it was the latter who drew up the new group's manifesto. In a reaction against the informalist style that predominated at that time, and with conscious political intent, they adopted a collective imagery based on the mass media and the history of art to draw up a critique of the Franco regime, of the prevailing social and political circumstances and of the role of art in society. This took the form of a unique version of international pop art, with links with Eduardo Arroyo and foreign artists such as Frenchman Gilles Aillaud and Italian Antonio Recalcati, who were introducing US pop art into their works from a critical standpoint. Their works consisted of iconographic series based on a theme, beginning with Recovery (1967- 1969) and ending with The Execution Wall (1976), which was presented at the Venice Biennale. In the late 1970s their work was mainly pictorial, themed around masterpieces of painting with the clear intent of 'setting the record straight'. Toledo left the group in 1965 but the others remained together until the death of Rafael Solbes in 1981.
Their first appearance was at the 16th Salon de la Jeune Peinture (Paris, 1965). After that they took part in various exhibitions intended to disseminate new figurative art and pop art in Europe, including La figuration narrative dans l’art contemporain at the Creuze Gallery (Paris, 1965), Le monde en question at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris, 1967) and the itinerant pop art exhibition Kunst und Politik in Karlsruhe, Wuppertal and Cologne (Germany, 1970). In 1976 they took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1977 retrospectives of their work were shown at various venues in Germany. Significant presentations of their work have also been held at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (1988), the Reina Sofía in Madrid (1989) and the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (1989 & 2005).
Artists Rafael Solbes (b. Valencia, 1940, d. 1981), Juan Antonio Toledo (b. Valencia, 1940, d. 1995) and Manolo Valdés (b. Valencia, 1942) founded Equipo Crónica in 1964, immediately after leaving the Estampa Popular group. They had the support of art critics Tomás Llorens Serra and Vicente Aguilera Cerni, and it was the latter who drew up the new group's manifesto. In a reaction against the informalist style that predominated at that time, and with conscious political intent, they adopted a collective imagery based on the mass media and the history of art to draw up a critique of the Franco regime, of the prevailing social and political circumstances and of the role of art in society. This took the form of a unique version of international pop art, with links with Eduardo Arroyo and foreign artists such as Frenchman Gilles Aillaud and Italian Antonio Recalcati, who were introducing US pop art into their works from a critical standpoint. Their works consisted of iconographic series based on a theme, beginning with Recovery (1967- 1969) and ending with The Execution Wall (1976), which was presented at the Venice Biennale. In the late 1970s their work was mainly pictorial, themed around masterpieces of painting with the clear intent of 'setting the record straight'. Toledo left the group in 1965 but the others remained together until the death of Rafael Solbes in 1981.
Their first appearance was at the 16th Salon de la Jeune Peinture (Paris, 1965). After that they took part in various exhibitions intended to disseminate new figurative art and pop art in Europe, including La figuration narrative dans l’art contemporain at the Creuze Gallery (Paris, 1965), Le monde en question at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris, 1967) and the itinerant pop art exhibition Kunst und Politik in Karlsruhe, Wuppertal and Cologne (Germany, 1970). In 1976 they took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1977 retrospectives of their work were shown at various venues in Germany. Significant presentations of their work have also been held at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (1988), the Reina Sofía in Madrid (1989) and the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (1989 & 2005).