A Guide To The Most Exciting Art Exhibitions In Madrid
Centro Centro
One of the most surprising and innovative spaces in Madrid, CentroCentro showcases a series of large-format immersive productions, cutting-edge exhibitions, musical cycles and debate stages. It also houses a large private collection of art that spans all eras and trends, from figurative painting to artificial intelligence or kinetic sculpture.The first room, titled Vedute, Canaletto and Guardi, displays works from the 17th century, including paintings by the vedutists such as Salvator Mundi entre San Pedro y San Juan (Salvator Mundi between Saint Peter and Saint John) and La familia del Virgen (The Family of the Virgin). There are also drawings and watercolours by Goya like Nu assis and Rostro invisible/ Ruinas con cabeza de medusa y paisaje (Invisible Face/Ruins with Medusa?s Head and Landscape).
In the second room, Laure Prouvost exhibits her immersive multisensory installations, straddling different media with interwoven plots that combine fiction and reality. Her works seek a new audiovisual grammar with a haptic and sensual approach.
Museo Del Prado
The Prado is a must-see for art lovers, whether you’re an expert or just barely scraped by in that one class on European painting. Its huge collections cover centuries of history, from Renaissance masterpieces to Spanish paintings by Goya.The museum’s most famous painting, Velazquez’s Las Meninas, dominates a central oval room and draws a crowd, while other rooms are filled with the works of other great artists, such as Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and Goya’s Black Paintings (room 67), in which the painter abandoned his earlier pursuit of pleasing patrons to express years of pent-up emotional trauma on the canvas.
Also on view in 2024 is a large-scale exhibition exploring the intersections between sculpture and painting, sponsored by Fundación AXA, that will open up a whole new world. Other notable exhibitions include:
Museo Sorolla
Sorolla’s work became internationally renowned at the turn of the 20th century and he participated in many national fine exposiciones arte madrid, where he displayed his most committed paintings with themes that were increasingly bold. Among them are scenes of beach life, labour by the sea and joyful play, which show off his technical virtuosity and attention to light, a trait that was already present in his earlier works.This immersive experience combines several traditional exhibition rooms with sensory ones that, using state-of-the-art technical resources, immerse the visitor in an experience of sound and moving images. It tells the story of the artist’s travels through all the different regions of Spain and highlights his sensitivity to nature.
It also reveals that Sorolla, despite being associated with the Impressionists, was an artist who forged his own path, which we call Valencian Luminism or neo-Impressionism. It was a path that was shaped by his love for nature and the sea, as well as by his deep attachment to his family and friends.
Museo Del Hombre
A visit to the Museo del Hombre offers a unique experience and an opportunity to discover how various vertebrates use their limbs in water, on land and in the air. It also shows how the body has been transformed into works of art over time.From 1885 onwards, Spain experienced a series of social changes that were reflected in the world of art. Factory labour, illness and prostitution began to appear in paintings with an unprecedented objectivity. At the same time, photography emerged as a medium capable of portraying these themes with greater veracity.
ARCOmadrid's General Programme includes curated sections such as Research on Territories, which will showcase galleries under 7 years old; Profiles | Latin American Art, a space dedicated to strengthening the fair's historical link with the continent; and Tell Me Who You Are, an exhibition of Luis Gordillo's work at Alcalá 31. These exhibitions explore a variety of topics such as forced marriage, drug addiction and the consequences of war.