Spain Guide
Madrid
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Address: At the end of Paseo del Prado, facing Estación de Atocha
Website: www.museoreinasofia.es
Opening time: Mon & Wed– Sat 10am–9pm, Sun 10am–2.30pm; closed Jan 1 & 6, May 1, Sept 9, Nov 9, Dec 24 & 25
Price: €6, free on Sat after 2.30pm & Sun; audioguides €5; Paseo del Arte, combined with Prado and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, €14.40
The Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a leading exhibition space and permanent gallery of modern Spanish art whose centrepiece is Picasso's Guernica, is an essential stop on the Madrid art circuit. This vast former hospital, is a kind of Madrid response to the Pompidou centre in Paris, with transparent lifts shuttling visitors up the outside of the Sabatini building to the permanent collection. If the queues at the main entrance are too long, try the alternative one in the extension on the Ronda de Atocha.
Most visitors come to the Reina Sofía for Picasso's Guernica, and rightly so. Superbly displayed, this icon carries a shock that defies all familiarity. Picasso painted it in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika by the German Luftwaffe, acting in concert with Franco. Fascinating preliminary studies show how he developed its symbols – the dying horse, the woman mourning her dead, the bull, the sun, the flower, the light bulb.
The work was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, until, as Picasso put it, Spain had rid itself of Fascist rule. In 1981, it was moved to Madrid to hang (as Picasso had stipulated) in the Prado, and was subsequently transferred to the Reina Sofía in 1992. Many Basques believe the painting's rightful home is with them, but it's too fragile to move again.
Guernica hangs midway around the permanent collection on the second floor. Strong sections on Cubism and the Paris School follow, as well as good collections of other avant-garde Spaniards of the 1920s and 30s, including Juan Gris.
Dalí and Miró make heavyweight contributions to the post-Guernica halls. The development of Dalí's work and his variety of techniques are clearly displayed here, with works ranging from the classic Muchacha en la Ventana to famous surrealist works such as El Gran Masturbador and El Enigma de Hitler. The fourth floor covers Spain's postwar years and includes Spanish and international examples of abstract and avant-garde movements.