Museo Reina Sofía

Madrid, Spain

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS, also called the Museo Reina Sofía) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated in 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía.

The museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. Highlights of the museum include excellent collections of Spain's two greatest 20th-century masters, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Certainly, the most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso's painting Guernica. The Reina Sofía collection has works by artists such as Joan Miró, Eduardo Chillida, Pablo Gargallo, Julio González, Luis Gordillo, Juan Gris, José Gutiérrez Solana, Lucio Muñoz, Jorge Oteiza, Julio Romero de Torres, Pablo Serrano, and Antoni Tàpies.

International artists are few in the collection, but there are works by Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Robert Delaunay, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Nam June Paik, Man Ray, Diego Rivera, Mark Rothko, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Clyfford Still, Yves Tanguy, and Wolf Vostell.

Along with its extensive collection, the museum offers a mixture of national and international temporary exhibitions in its many galleries, making it one of the world's largest museums for modern and contemporary art.

It also hosts a free-access library specializing in art, with a collection of over 100,000 books, over 3,500 sound recordings, and almost 1,000 videos.

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Details

Founded: 1992
Category: Museums in Spain

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Ilan Kader (8 months ago)
An amazing modern art exhibition including paintings, sculptures, installation and more by some of the 20th century leading artists such as Dali and Picasso... The later famous "Guernica" painting is on exhibit. Well worth the time to explore the different rooms showcasing a variety of art movements. There is a free entrance, depending on the day and time that you can find through Google.
alex bonick (8 months ago)
Easily my favorite art museum in Madrid! I think it beats the Prado, which is more concerned with the national heritage and patrimony of Spain for the last 500 years. In contrast the Reina Sofia focuses on the last 100 years of Spanish history - starting with the civil war. Exhibits on the 1930s are extensive, well documented, thorough, fascinating - serves as a history museum as well. A lot of supporting documents, such as newspapers and drawings and photographs, not just "art" and paintings. You could spend a week in here... and still not see the awesome Picasso and Dali collections (Guernica is here). All modern art movements since the 1940s are covered here. Contemporary exhibits include sculpture, performance, installations, etc and include artists from the Americas and North Africa. You will be up to date with everything happening in the art world after spending a few days here. Finally, the architecture of the old and new museum buildings are to be studied themselves!
Sean O'Neill (11 months ago)
An incredible gallery. The Guernica galleries are incredible, and not to be missed. It's understandable yet sad that photos aren't allowed. The rest of the second floor with the 20th century design and architecture rooms were such a bonus for us. Book in advance and you will still have to queue, but it should be a shorter queue than the no ticket line. A real must visit if you're in Madrid for 2 days or more.
julz asher (11 months ago)
Amazing gallery and exhibition space in the middle of Madrid. Probably my favourite gallery in the whole of Spain. Unbelievable art always on show and fantastic exhibitions that are highly rated. The building is superb with a very contemporary new building adjoining the old building. It's definitely worth a visit and has Picasso Dali Goya etc always on show
Adams_coffee (2 years ago)
An incredible museum and a must go if you’re in the city. The museum is a bit of a maze but after a few minutes you’ll figure it out. Amazing architecture and of course, Guernica is just a stunning piece of art (and history). Must go.
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