Galería La Aurora S.L.

The Equipo Crónica or Crónicas de la reality was a group of Spanish painters that was active between 1963 and 1981, the latter date on which Rafael Solbes died. It was founded by Manolo Valdés, Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonio Toledo, although the latter soon left the group.
Equipo Crónica moved away from informal art to cultivate a figurative painting within the Pop art trend. He critically analyzed the political situation in Spain and the history of art. He was inspired by classic works such as Picasso's Guernica or Velázquez's Las Meninas.
Its mix is ​​unique: a bit realistic, a bit critical, quite pop, with pictorial quotes, anachronisms and bittersweet pastiches. All this with enough enthusiasm, but little joy, given that the shadow of Franco is present in all his work. His paintings and serigraphs parodied the royal portraits of Velázquez, which in those years were used in advertising posters by Manuel Fraga's Ministry of Information and Tourism. Faced with the grandiose and picturesque image of Spain that the Franco regime wanted to project, Equipo Crónica influenced a darker image by resorting to irony.
Equipo Crónica produced large-format paintings, along with sculptures and serial prints. There are relevant examples of this group in the IVAM of Valencia and the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.