Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
I decided to run over to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia Saturday afternoon while I was in Madrid. It is very close to the hotel we stayed in and I really did want to see Picasso's Guernica, which is the highlight of their collection.
The art museum has a number of temporary exhibits, but the main permanent collection is on the 2nd floor. The museum is focused on themes like "From Revolt to Postmodernity" and "The Interruption of the 20th Century: Utopias and Conflicts." I am not sure I completely understood the themes. They seemed rather arbitrary given the chronological aspects as well.
The collection has some strong, stand-out masterpieces, of which Guernica is the star. I had no idea it was so large (11 x ~26 ft). The museum dedicated ample space to it, which was fantastic. Given the size of the painting and the crowd looking at it, Guernica has a room to itself. The materials to learn about the painting were helpful too. They had some photographs of Picasso and the work-in-progress masterpiece. I had not realized it had only somewhat recently returned to Spain (1981) and had been in MoMA before that. I can understand (although they needed to) why MoMA were reluctant to give it up!
I enjoyed the rest of the collection -- I was very happy to see some Dalis and Picassos in Spain! I found it well edited. I was not as impressed with some of the exhibits not on the second floor.
I was very happy I dragged my tired feet to el museo! Guernica alone was worth it!
Time in museum: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-
The art museum has a number of temporary exhibits, but the main permanent collection is on the 2nd floor. The museum is focused on themes like "From Revolt to Postmodernity" and "The Interruption of the 20th Century: Utopias and Conflicts." I am not sure I completely understood the themes. They seemed rather arbitrary given the chronological aspects as well.
The collection has some strong, stand-out masterpieces, of which Guernica is the star. I had no idea it was so large (11 x ~26 ft). The museum dedicated ample space to it, which was fantastic. Given the size of the painting and the crowd looking at it, Guernica has a room to itself. The materials to learn about the painting were helpful too. They had some photographs of Picasso and the work-in-progress masterpiece. I had not realized it had only somewhat recently returned to Spain (1981) and had been in MoMA before that. I can understand (although they needed to) why MoMA were reluctant to give it up!
I enjoyed the rest of the collection -- I was very happy to see some Dalis and Picassos in Spain! I found it well edited. I was not as impressed with some of the exhibits not on the second floor.
I also loved their Calder mobile!
I was very happy I dragged my tired feet to el museo! Guernica alone was worth it!
Time in museum: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-
Comments
Post a Comment