Art Madrid'23 – OUR RECOMMENDATION OF ART PUBLICATIONS TO CELEBRATE THE WORLD BOOK DAY

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.

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.