Deformación profesional (Professional Deformation)
Equipo Crónica
- Date:1966
- Technique:Acrylic on board
- Dimensions:70 x 70 cm
- Category: Painting
- Entry date:1999
- Register number:DE01357
Deformación profesional (Professional Deformation, 1966) dates from the early period of Equipo Crónica’s work, a period in which the subject matter primarily focuses on the political and social events of the immediate reality of their time. Through a form of obvious political activism, they engaged in constant questioning until the end of the Franco regime. Their visual chronicle depicts Spain under desarrollismo (no-holds-barred economic development), its budding consumer society and scenes of the oligarchy in power. The images question the iconography of information, using figurative work as a critical tool in their reformulation of political art. Their collective working method leaves behind the label of individual authorship, choosing photographic images as an objective representation of reality. Their handling and distortion of these reinforce the aim of presenting a revelatory re-reading of the influence presented by the mass media. This analysis of the very image of Pop Art is joined by an analysis of language in the context of new studies associated with structuralism and semiotics being debated in the 1960s. Through 1967, their production reiterated the news presented by the media through words and especially television images, in scenes such as those of the Vietnam War, the first military conflict in history to be televised live. In Deformación profesional, the image and the title of the work refer to their position in ideological opposition to political reality. The use of the repeated motif in different boxes, together with the flat colours, reinforces the visual impact that characterises the work of Equipo Crónica.