The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (), formerly known as Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo, is a municipally-owned museum in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain, located in the historic Conde Duque barracks. The museum was inaugurated in November 2001.

Inauguration

The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo was inaugurated as ''Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo'' on 12 November 2001. The opening pursued two basic aims: to create a permanent forum in the context of a center like the Conde Duque, open to an intense cultural and exhibition program, and to complement the other museums and contemporary art collections in Madrid. Similar to other contemporary art museums, both national and foreign, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo has used a historic building to house the contemporary art collection, in this case of the Madrid

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

. The Museum is further part of an ongoing program of renovation to adapt it to use for cultural purposes. It showcases the works of art that the City Council has been acquiring since 1980, the year in which the collection began. The Museum covers two floors over roughly 22,000 square feet. This space exhibits nearly 200 works by over 175 artists from different periods and artistic movements in Spanish art, from the historic

vanguard The vanguard (sometimes abbreviated to van and also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. ...

s to date, through its collection of

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

graphic art A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional graphics, i.e. produced on a flat surface,Francisco Bores Francisco Bores (Madrid, May 6, 1898 - Paris, May 10, 1972) was an important figure of twentieth-century European art. His presence was important among the second wave of Spanish artists who arrived in Paris in the 1920s, which also included Pablo P ...

, Benjamín Palencia,

José Caballero José Caballero may refer to: * José Caballero (baseball), Panamanian professional baseball player * José Caballero (painter), Spanish painter * Jose Caballero (martial artist), Filipino martial arts practitioner * José Luis Caballero, Mexican f ...

Daniel Vázquez Díaz Daniel Vázquez Díaz (January 15, 1882 – March 17, 1969) was a Spanish painter. Biography Born in Nerva, Spain, Vázquez Díaz settled in Paris in 1918, where he found cubism to be the ideal form of expression. Unlike other artists such as ...

and Hipólito Hidalgo de Caviedes.

New creators

Under the title ''New Creators: Figuration and Abstraction'', this section brings together a wide range of artists who represent, using very different languages, a broad spectrum of tendencies and aesthetics. In the abstract category, there are works by Alejandro Corujeira, Alberto Reguera, Xavier Grau and Amaya Bozal. The figurative section is represented by artists such as Juan Carlos Savater, Sigfrido Martín Begué, Abraham La Calle, Dis Berlin and Fernando Bellver, among others.

Realism

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *American Realism *Classical Realism *Liter ...

– or rather realisms – are represented here in their multiple fields: intimate, urban, fantastical or scenery. This section is opened by

Amalia Avia Amalia may refer to: People *Amalia (given name), feminine given name (includes a list of people so named) *Princess Amalia (disambiguation), several princesses with this name Films and television series *Amalia (1914 film), ''Amalia'' (191 ...

and Isabel Quintanilla. The

urban iconography Urban iconography is a branch of iconography, a term used both extensively, to mean a collection of illustrations of a specific subject and, within art history, the study of the subject matter of figurative representations. Iconology is more specif ...

of Madrid is represented by Daniel Quintero, José Manuel Ballester,

Félix de la Concha Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

and Menéndez Morán. Jesús María Lazkano and Carlos Díez Bustos offer examples of realism as applied to scenery and the fantastical. Luis Mayo offers a slightly

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

vision of some Madrid enclaves.Museo de Arte Contemporáneo

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the ...

Official web site

New figuration and abstraction of the 80s

The Museum has dedicated fours rooms to this section which shows a wide variety of artists who fully reflect the rich artistic panorama in Madrid post-

informal Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal att ...

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

and neo- figurative tendencies. Among them the presence of

Eduardo Arroyo Eduardo Arroyo Rodríguez (26 February 1937 – 14 October 2018) was a Spanish painting, painter and graphic arts, graphic artist. He was also active as an author and scenic design, set designer. Arroyo is regarded as one of the most important ...

Miguel Condé Miguel Condé (born 1939) is a Mexican figurative painter, draughtsman, and print maker. According to ''Radio France'', he is "one of the most important contemporary masters in the field of engraving." Condé's works are in important museum ...

Juan Genovés Juan Genovés Candel (31 May 1930 – 15 May 2020) was a Spanish painter whose work is considered to symbolise the defence of democracy during the Spanish transition. His work has been recognised domestically and internationally, forming part of ...

, Alfonso Fraile and

Eduardo Úrculo Eduardo Úrculo (21 September 1938 – 31 March 2003), was a Spanish pop artist who also worked in other art movements, including Expressionism and Neo-Cubism. Both painter and sculptor, he is notable for his portrayals of luggage, the gentlem ...

must be highlighted. The New Madrid Figuration is very well represented by works from the time by Juan Antonio Aguirre, Carlos Alcolea and Manolo Quejido. Abstraction from these years is represented by Alfonso Albacete, among others.Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
'' Time Out Madrid'' official web site

References

External links

Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid
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