The staircase

Equipo Crónica was a group of artists that was active from 1964- 1981, formed by the Valencian painters Manolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes (and also, until 1965, by Juan Antonio Toledo), with its roots in the Valencian branch of the group Estampa Popular. lt encouraged creativity in a range of art techniques (oils, sculptures, drawings and graphic art, among others). Their painting technique, figurativa and realist, was especially notable for using characters and icons from historical art works and placing them in different contexts. They also used contemporary advertising symbols and icons. Equipo Crónica wanted to set a new trend in the aesthetics and art scene and their work had a clear message of criticising the politics and society of the time. The group’s art production was structured into thematic series that were clearly differentiated by title and chronological sequence.

The work on paper The Staircase (1978) in the Carmen Thys-sen-Bomemisza Collection belongs to the later “Parable” series (1977-1978) (1). The use of contemporary advertising images in this series is notable. The Staircase by Equipo Crónica takes its title and composition from the canvas by Oskar Schlemmer Bauhaus Stairway, 1932 (2). From the original work by Schlemmer, Equipo Crónica only retains the central character on the stairway, dressedin bright orange, while the other characters have disappeared and are substituted by advertising icons. In the foreground is an image in a green moth-eaten coat, the symbol of the mothproofing product of the brand Polil-Cruz Verde (created by the graphic designer Josep Artigas in 1948). At the top of the stairs is a figure with his back to the spectator, a silhouette with a cape and Andalucian hat and a glass in his hand. This is the image of “The Don”, the Sandeman port and sherry brand (created by George Massiot Brown in 1928).

The Polil and Sandeman images are not chosen randomly but as a type of image with a certain air that is both mysterious and skulking, almost disturbing. These works, like parables, are highly loaded with symbols that contain a moral. Another in the “Parable” series, which uses the same icons as the work in the Carmen Thyssen Collection and has the Polil symbol centre stage, is the work The Colossus of Fear (1977), in the Spanish Senate’s Art Collection.

María Luisa García Serrano

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(1) Llorens, Tomas. Equipo Crónica. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Exhibition Catalogue, Ed. Fundación Museo Bellas Artes de Bilbao-BBK, Bilbao, 2015. P.227.
(2) Schlemmer, Osear. Bauhaus Stairway, 1932. Oil on canvas, 162.3 x 114.3 cm. MoMa, New York.