Exploring new worlds with Elton's favourite art pioneer

The A-list love Denise De La Rue's striking, futuristic work. At the opening of her new Madrid show, she tells Will Hosie that space is the final frontier, but she won't go

- Will Hosie

AMONG the demimonde at the V&A launch party last month for Fragile Beauty, Sir Elton John's new exhibition of his collection of photographs, one person was conspicuously absent. Denise De La Rue is one of the singer's favourite artists, and someone he has been collecting for years. He sold her picture of the matador Juan Pablo Sanchez for nearly $18,000 at a Christie's sale of his private collection in February.

But De La Rue couldn't make Elton's V&A launch. That was because she was in Madrid, launching an exhibition of her own - at the decadent Liria Palace, home of the Duke of Alba. Called A New World, it is the first to have been held inside the palace's hallowed halls, and now takes pride of place in the brand-new garden art annexe until July 31. That's where I meet De La Rue, who shows me around the spectacular show.

Too modest to boast of her famous fans, she explains the Albas have been among Spain's most prolific artistic patrons for centuries: their collection includes works by Goya and Velásquez, and furniture created for Napoleon III.

De La Rue is obsessed with the past.