Cai Guo-Qiang is the first contemporary artist to create on-site at the Prado. This is his first solo exhibition solely focused on painting in over 30 years.

This exhibition, which arises from Cai Guo-Qiang’s ongoing dialogue with El Greco and in which he establishes a relationship with the great masters represented in the Prado, comprises nearly 30 paintings made with gunpowder; eight of them ignited on-site at the Salón de Reinos. Also on view are an oil and an acrylic created at the start of his activities as a painter; and various sketches and drawings on matchboxes by his father, Cai Ruiqin, who steered him towards painting.