Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is Spain’s leading institution for modern and contemporary art. Based mainly in Madrid’s former General Hospital and expanded by the Nouvel building, it combines collections, exhibitions, research, archives, a library and public programmes.
From the late nineteenth century to the present
The collection explores artistic, political and social transformations in the contemporary period. Spanish avant-gardes are central, but are placed in dialogue with European, North American, Mediterranean and Latin American scenes.
Guernica and twentieth-century memory
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is the museum’s emblematic work. Displayed with studies, photographs and documents, it forms part of a wider account of the Civil War, exile, anti-fascism and debates about representing violence.
A rethought collection
Reina Sofía organises its displays through multiple narratives rather than a single linear history. Surrealism, abstraction, conceptualism, feminisms, documentary practices, architecture, design, performance and social movements are brought into relation.
Why it matters
- Spain’s principal public collection of modern and contemporary art.
- A critical reading of twentieth-century political and cultural history.
- Strong dialogue with Latin America and international scenes.
- A natural complement to the Prado and MACBA.