Contemporary art drinks from the great artists of the avant-garde, creators who squeezed the plastic languages to get the maximum expressiveness to color, shape or texture in contrast with the more traditional and academic figuration. We can not understand much of the emerging art without knowing the avant-garde masters, and in Art Madrid we have some of their most representative names.

Antoni Tàpies

Sense titol, 1970

Acrylic, graphite, collage and assembly on cardboard

28 x 39cm

Surrealism, abstract expressionism, the school of Cuenca, pop art, Equipo Crónica, the El Paso Group ... the avant-garde movements removed the foundations of art in the last century and its authors are the seed of the most current art. Conceptualism, site specific, ready made, material painting have their roots in those masters and there are galleries whose background is a treasure of the vanguards.

Antonio Saura

Charles, 1989

Oil on canvas

130 x 97cm

The Benlliure Gallery (Valencia) founded in 1984 and directed by Vicente and Alejandro Segrelles has specialized in these consolidated values without neglecting young artists. In these 20 years they have exposed artists of recognized prestige, painting of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, School of Paris, El Paso Group, historical Vanguard, Spanish landscape of the twentieth century, highlighting their collective exhibitions entitled "Muestra Benlliure" where they annually exhibit selected works of reknowned authors. In Art Madrid'18 they propose a collective exhibition of different reference authors, belonging to the El Paso group, such as Luis Feito, Antonio Saura or the eclectic Luis Gordillo, supporter of the new figuration. They also feature the work of José Guerrero, an American nationalized Spanish engraver and painter framed within abstract expressionism, and artists such as Carmen Calvo, Eduardo Chillida, Juan Genovés, Manuel Hernández Mompó, Joan Hernández Pijuan, Miquel Navarro, Jaume Plensa, Antoni Tàpies, Juan Uslé and Manolo Valdés.

Joan Miró

Peinture VI, 1969

Oil on canvas

27 x 16cm

For its part, the Marc Calzada Gallery (Barcelona), founded in 1996, presents in Art Madrid'18 a collective that unites the figure of Joan Miró with the artists present at the controversial Spanish exhibition of the XXXVII Venice Biennial of 1976, entitled "Artistic Vanguard and Social Reality: Spain 1936-1976".

Marc Calzada will turn his stand into the fair in a mini Biennial of the 76th with the work of Miró and those artists he chose to accompany him in Venice: Picasso, Calder, Alberto Sánchez, Josep Renau, Dau al Set, El Paso, Eduardo Arroyo, Alberto Corazón, Chillida, Oscar Domínguez, Equipo Crónica, Team 57, Juan Genovés, Gordillo, Millares, Lucio Muñoz, Oteiza, Palazuelo, Saura or Tàpies ... A true journey through the history of Spanish "new art".

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.