Art Madrid'25 – Santiago Ydáñez and the heartbreaking beauty

 

 

El Jardín de las Delicias, 2017 (Al fondo)

 

 

Santiago Ydáñez studied Fine Art in Granada and for the last 14 years he has divided his time between Jaén and Berlin. He was born in 1969, in the town of Puente de Génave, Jaén. He was influenced by the contact with earth and the countryside, animals and hunting. These features will create his symbolic world: erothic or forbiden sensuality, huge and strident portraits, “dismemberments” as a type of vanitas, defiant animals close-ups, art history reinterpretation, etc. The axial line of his work rests on the basic, primitive feelings shared by both humans and animals.

 

 

Sin título 2014

 

 

The artist uses photography as source material. Taking it as an starting point, he firstly makes a quick charcoal sketch and then picks up his brushes. He paints swiftly and impulsively, applying energetic, grey and black strokes in a rapid brushwork. These pieces cause different emotions in viewers: pain, pleasure, ecstasy and nostalgia. The artist use different support surfaces: canvases, books or objects he picks up at markets.

 

 

Versión de la obra ¡…Y tenía corazón! / Anatomía del corazón de de Enrique Simonet

 

 

The exhibition features selected paintings from the last decade of his career. Among them, `El Jardín de las Delicias (2017)´, an enormous 315 x 1000 cm canvas, shows the face of a blonde girl whose melancholy gaze speaks of absence, versus the tranquil beauty of a lost paradise. It is a criticism of cultural and ethical decadence that brought Germany to Nazism.
His exploration of the philosophical links between original and copy can be seen in a version painted specifically for CAC Málaga of Enrique Simonet's work ¡… Y tenía corazón! / Anatomía del corazón (1890), now exhibited in the Museo de Málaga, that renders a doctor making an autopsy to a prostitute. Apart from these pieces, we can also find objects such as cutlery boxes, frames, a mirror and jewellery cases, on which he paints or draws the same motifs and characters that appear in his paintings.

 

 

Objeto intervenido

 

 

Ydáñez’s artwork can be admired until the 24th of September in Contemporary Art Centre Málaga, where can be also visited the permanent collection, several summer workshops or Danielle Van Zadelhoff exhibition, dutch photographer.

 

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.