Art Madrid'25 – “El Guernica”. Picasso 80 years after the horror

 

 

“El Guernica”, Pablo Picasso, 1937. “Piedad y terror en Picasso. El camino al Guernica”. Exposición en el Museo Reina Sofía

 

The exhibition, which can be seen until September 4, presents a tour of works by the artist from Málaga after 1925, in which scenes of outrageous actions can be seen, where violence and horror are very present. This is intended to reflect on how previous artistic research could have had a significant influence on the creation of Guernica.

 

 

Pablo Picasso. Woman Dressing Her Hair, Royan, 1940. Óleo sobre lienzo. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Louis Reinhardt Smith Bequest, 1995. © 2017. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/ Scala Florence. © Sucessión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2017

 

 

"Piedad y terror en Picasso. El camino al Guernica”, curated by Timothy J. Clark and Anne M. Wagner, collect more than 180 of the artist's greatest works, from the Reina Sofía Museum collection and over 30 Institutions around the world such as the Musée Picasso and the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, the MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, or the Beyeler Foundation (Basel), and some private collections such as Claude Ruiz-Picasso, Nahmad or Menil.

 

 

Vistas de sala. Piedad y terror en Picasso. El camino a Guernica, 2017

 

 

The tour of the exhibition begins and ends in a room with documentation and references about the viewer to the fatality of the Civil War. Several spaces are dedicated to preparatory sketches and notes, some of them very violent load, like “La muerte de Marat” and “Retrato de la marquesa de culo cristiano echándole un duro a los soldados moros defensores de la virgen” (1937). As a centerpiece of the exhibition is majestic and solemn, which can be considered one of the most celebrated works of art of the twentieth century and probably "the work of the twentieth century that has generated more interpretations," remarks Manuel Borja-Villel, Director Of the Reina Sofía Museum: "El Guernica".

 

 

“Piedad y terror en Picasso. El camino al Guernica”, vista de la exposición. 

 

 

The Reina Sofia Museum has created the Guernica Documentary Fund, an archive curated by Rosario Peiró and Rocío Robles Tardío which compiles historical documentation on the work. The exhibition can be seen until September 4 in the Sabatini Building and there is a conference program entitled “Devenir Guernica. Lecturas sobre guerra, exilio e iconoclastia”, to reflect about the art work.

 

 

 

 

From July 7 to 9, 2025, the Balsera Palace will host the First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art, an intensive 15-hour program that will explore the complex and fundamental question of taste in contemporary art. Organized by the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities at Nebrija University and the Avilés City Council, in collaboration with 9915 — Association of Private Collectors of Contemporary Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, the course offers a unique opportunity for analysis and debate on the dynamics that shape aesthetic and symbolic value in today’s art scene.


First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art. Avilés, Asturias


The notion of taste, intrinsically tied to aesthetic judgments and power relations, has played a decisive role in the historical prominence of artists and artworks. However, contemporary art—marked by its breaking of conventions, diversity of media and techniques, and critical stance toward traditional canons—raises fundamental questions about the continued relevance of this concept.

This course will explore how the decisions made by key players in the art system—institutions, private collections, galleries, curators, and artists—continually redefine a field of taste shaped by aesthetic, symbolic, cultural, social, and political logics.


"¿But does it exist, and what is the prevailing taste of our time—so seemingly confused, fragmented, indecipherable?" - Omar Calabrese, The Neo-Baroque Era.


The academic program, directed by José Luis Guijarro Alonso, Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University, and Pablo Álvarez de Toledo, Head of the Department of Arts at Nebrija University and the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities, will bring together a distinguished group of national experts—including collectors, critics, curators, gallery owners, and artists—whose contributions will address key issues in shaping aesthetic, symbolic, and market value in today’s art world.


PROGRAM

MONDAY, JULY 7

9:30 AM Registration.

10:00 AM Course Opening Nebrija University Avilés City Council Presented by Rosario López Meras – President of the Association of Contemporary Art Collectors, 9915, and Adrián Piera – President of the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art.

10:30 AM Course Presentation By José Luis Guijarro Alonso – Art Historian and Anthropologist, Researcher, and Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion The Taste of Private Collecting as a Prelude to History. Speakers: Candela Álvarez Soldevilla – Entrepreneur and Collector; Javier Quilis – INELCOM Collection; José Miguel Vegas Valle – Collector. Moderator: Luis Feás – Critic and Curator.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Individual Lecture On Good Taste in Contemporary Art. Speaker: Marisol Salanova – Curator and Art Critic, Director of Arteinformado.

4:45 PM Panel Discussion The Influence of Galleries in Shaping Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Elba Benítez – Gallerist; Ricardo Pernas – Gallerist (Arniches 26); Aurora Vigil-Escalera – Gallerist. Moderator: Rafael Martín – Coleccion@casamer.

6:00 PM End of Day.

6:30 PM Activity and Cocktail Visit to the Exhibition Asturian Artists in the Pérez Simón Collection – Avilés.

TUESDAY, JULY 8

10:00 AM Individual Lecture Contemporary (Bad) Taste: Kitsch, Camp, and Tacky. Speaker: Julio Pérez Manzanares – Autonomous University of Madrid.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion Institutions and the Formation of Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Virginia López – Artist, Founder of PACA_Proyectos Artísticos Casa Antonino; Julieta de Haro – Artistic Director of CentroCentro; Carlos Urroz – Director of Institutional Relations, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Moderator: Laura Gutiérrez – Director, School of Art of Oviedo.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Panel Discussion Beyond the Eye: The Taste for Ethical, Ecological, Social, or Political Concerns in Contemporary Art. Speakers: Semíramis González – Independent Curator; Eugenio Ampudia – Artist; Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga – Independent Curator. Moderator: Bárbara Mur Borrás – PhD in Fine Arts.

5:00 PM End of Day.

5:30 PM Activity Visit to the Studiolo Exhibition – Candela Álvarez Soldevilla Collection.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9

9:30 AM Meeting with Asturian Artists Speakers: María Castellanos – Artist; Avelino Sala – Artist; Consuelo Vallina – Artist. Moderator: Pablo Álvarez de Toledo – Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Activity Visit to the Niemeyer Center – Avilés.

Course Closing Ceremony.





This course is designed for art professionals, collectors, researchers, and students seeking an in-depth analysis of the dynamics that shape taste and collecting practices in contemporary art. Adopting a critical and multidisciplinary perspective, it provides a unique opportunity to rigorously examine the aesthetic, symbolic, and structural factors that underpin the legitimization of contemporary art.