CaixaForum Madrid unveils its most transversal season, featuring luxury, vampires, surrealism, photography and contemporary art

CaixaForum Madrid will launch its new season with an ambitious show, jointly organised with the British Museum, illustrating the importance of luxury in the different empires that occupied the Ancient Middle East. The superb pieces on show will range from the wall reliefs on the famous Palace of Nineveh to exquisite objects and miniatures from the Oxus Treasure.

”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection also occupies an eminent position in the programme. The exhibition Painting: The Permanent Challenge is an examination of the evolution of contemporary painting over the last three decades.

In February, vampires will colonise CaixaForum Madrid. Organised in cooperation with Cinémathèque Française, the exhibition Vampires will explore popular culture's fascination with those terrifying yet iconic figures, tracing their evolution: from painting, photography and literature to film and television. The show is illustrated by more than 400 works by artists including Warhol and Goya.

The first exhibition organised jointly by ”la Caixa” and the Pompidou Centre will open in April. The Camera and the City will explore urban photography from the early-20th century to the present through works from the French museum and some of the most outstanding collections of Spanish photography.

Objects of Desire will examine the mutual influences between surrealism and design over the last century, a little-explored theme, in a show presented at CaixaForum Madrid by the Vitra Design Museum.