The World Book Day is celebrated every year on April 23rd. This date, which commemorates the death of some of the greatest writers such as Cervantes, Garcilaso de la Vega or Shakespeare, is a reminder of the immense value of the written word to enrich our culture and generate knowledge.

We bring you a list of recommended readings for art lovers or those who begin to be it because the world of books is for everyone:

My Museum, by Joanne Liu

It is an educational book for the little ones of a journey that approaches art from the experience of a child visiting an exhibition hall. It is about encouraging observation, attention, knowledge of different styles and themes to feed the imagination and get familiar with the range of possibilities that art offers to express themselves without limitations. Do you want to train a future artist or curator?

A Journey Through Art, by Aaron Rosen

It is a book designed for the pre-teenagers. As its title indicates, the book presents a journey through the history of art from its beginning to the present, with a content that delves into the cultural substratum of the different civilisations and societies that created the great masterpieces. A pleasant reading, full of illustrations and images that exemplifies the wonders that art has left for posterity.

Teoría de la retaguardia, cómo sobrevivir al arte contemporáneo (y a casi todo lo demás), by Ivan de la Nuez

This acidic work condenses a scathing critique of the current cultural system, the power of "institutionalisation" of museums, the "franchise" character of some museum-factories and the weakness of discourse in many contemporary artworks that are based on "social causes" of the moment, with volatile and futile propaganda. The union between art and globalisation is the raison d'etre of many of these phenomena, and De la Nuez masters these issues in his work.

What are you looking at?, by Will Gompertz.

For those who still want to become familiar with the art of our days and know the significant milestones that have shaped the contemporary art scene, our recommendation is one of the classics: "What are you looking at?", a book that has almost become a “must” to answer some of the questions we always ask ourselves about art.

Guernica, la obra maestra desconocida, by José María Juarranz de la Fuente

For those who seek a bit of intrigue and often question the "official version" of things, we recommend this study focused on the most famous work of Pablo Picasso: "The Guernica." According to its author, who has devoted 14 years to researching this issue, behind Guernica there is a different motivation to the traditionally spread out to represent the horrors of war. An excellent book to delve into the research and the essay in modern art.

The CEART opens this Thursday, November 14th in the room A an exhibition dedicated to this master of photography, which will be open to the public until February 9th. The show includes one of the artist's latest projects, focused on the hard work carried out by the miners of Serra Pelada, an open gold mine in the heart of Brazil where employees daily risked their lives.

Immigration, poverty, marginal life, slave labour, man's relationship with the land, the use of natural resources... are issues that have always fascinated Salgado. From the beginning of his career as a photographer, his work has opted to give visibility to the most disadvantaged groups and to create with his images a vivid and impressive visual story without fakes. With a raw black and white, this author's work transits between photo-reportage and naturalistic photography.

And the idea that permeates all his work is human dignity. Salgado portrays employees, miners and gatherers from a purely humanistic approach that wants to value their integrity, their strength and their resilience.

“If you photograph a human, so that he is not represented in a noble way, there is no reason to take the picture. That is my way of seeing things.”

Salgado entered this discipline long after completing his studies in economics between Brazil and the United States, and a doctorate in statistics in France. But in 1973 his life took a turn, and he decided to start his career as a photographer. He achieved to work at the Gamma Agency and Magnum Photos for more than 15 years until in 1994 he founded his own agency “Amazonas Imagen”.

With the “Gold” project, the photographer portrays a harsh reality that takes place in the Serra Pelada mine, a name given to a totally devastated and anarchically excavated mining enclave, the world's largest open-pit gold mine, through which more than 50,000 people have passed. In the heat of the legends about the mysterious “El Dorado”, the enthusiasm for this precious metal led to the development of strenuous exploitation practices for the workers and to originate tales of grief and glory, of human victory and defeat between the soil, the tunnels and the cargo baskets.

The CEART exhibition brings together Salgado's full portfolio in his characteristical black and white and large-format photographs that leave no one indifferent.