CONTEMPORARY ART INSTRUCTION MANUAL: FROM THE AVANT-GARDE MOVEMENTS TO THE PRESENT DAY. Art history course

The aim of this course is to offer a full analysis of the main currents, artists and issues that have shaped the history of art since the early nineteenth century till now.

Building on the foundations of the historical avant-garde movements and their origins, a study will be made of the aesthetic, conceptual and institutional transformations that have redefined what we understand as art today.

Over ten sessions, a chronological and thematic tour will be taken that addresses phenomena such as the functionalisation of the avant-garde movements, the crisis of representation, the emergence of new practices, the expansion of the artistic field and the dematerialisation of the artistic object.

The goal of the initiative is to provide participants with a solid reference framework to understand the dynamics that define the new artistic languages and behaviours, with the aim of fostering a critical and contextualised approach to the movements, agents and discourses that shape our cultural present.

PROGRAMME

14 OCTOBER
Contemporary art. Instruction manual. Introduction

21 OCTOBER
Genealogies of the avant-garde movements. The sleep of Romanticism produces monsters

28 OCTOBER
The painters of modern life. The first avant-garde movements

4 NOVEMBER
Ethos. Dada and Anti-Dada

11 NOVEMBER
The functionalised avant-garde. Constructivism, De Stijl and Bauhaus. New Objectivity

18 NOVEMBER
Death to Reason. Surrealism

25 NOVEMBER
Pathos. From Expressionism to Expressionists

2 DECEMBER
The defeat of high culture. Pop art

9 DECEMBER
The disappearance of art. Conceptual art, Land Art and new artistic behaviours

16 DECEMBER
After the end of art, a reset is needed. From the eighties to the day after tomorrow

SUSO FANDIÑO (Santiago de Compostela, 1971) is a Galician artist and theorist linked to conceptual art from a multi-disciplinary perspective. A graduate and Doctor of Fine Arts from Vigo University and in Art History from Santiago de Compostela University, he has had an extensive career in teaching, research and promoting contemporary art in Galicia’s most important centres and institutions.

He began his artistic career at the turn of the century, mixing with the new generation of artists who have led the change of direction of Galician art as of the decade of the nineteen-nineties, after the creation of the CGAC, Pontevedra’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Spain’s most important museums. He took part in numerous national and international exhibitions, among which feature the individual ones titled Wunderkammer (CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, 2022) and History of the Future (Appleton Square, Lisbon, 2024). His work has won awards on multiple occasions, and forms a part of public and private collections such as the Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Afundación Obra Social Abanca, the Fundación Coca-Cola España, the Jan Michalski Foundation or the CGAC Collection. His work El CGAC está aquí (2023), created specifically for the 30th anniversary of the CGAC, can currently be seen on the museum’s façade.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Primary education, compulsory and upper secondary education teachers of art history and artistic fundamentals; fine arts and art history students, and people with cultural interests.

REGISTRATION

Registration will be open from 22 September to 10 October 2025. Anyone interested in applying should send an email to cgac.educacion@xunta.gal, including the following information: surname, first name, national ID number, studies, area of work or interest, email address and contact telephone number. Places will be allocated by order of registration. Once the application has been accepted, those registered will receive information on how to make payment.

CERTIFICATION

The CGAC will issue a certificate of attendance to all those who participate in at least 70% of the sessions.