Top 10 Intriguing Facts about Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia

Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid. By Museo Reina Sofia – Wikipedia

Top 10 Intriguing Facts about Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is Spain’s national museum of 20th-century art, which was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1990.  It is located in Madrid, near the Atocha train and metro stations, at the southern end of the so-called Golden Triangle of Art.

Therefore here are the top 10 intriguing facts about Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia;

1. It is ranked as one of the most visited art museums in the world

 The most visited art museum in Madrid was the Museo Reina Sofía, which racked up more than 1.6 million visitors in 2021. The figure shows an increase of over 30 percent when compared to the number of attendees the art museum registered in 2020. Museo Reina Sofía reported a peak of nearly 4.5 million attendees in 2019, having experienced positive growth in the annual number of visitors since 2014.

In  2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it attracted only about 1,248,480 visitors, which was a drop of 72 percent from 2019, but it still ranked sixth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world.  The decrease in the number of visitors was impacted by the pandemic, therefore the museum had to close its doors to the general public to ensure strict adherence to safety restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

2. The most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s painting’ Guernica’

 Guernica is a large 1937 oil painting on canvas by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It is one of his best-known works, regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history. It is exhibited in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Picasso painted Guernica while he was at home in Paris in response to the 26 April 1937 bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country town in northern Spain that was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists. Guernica was later on exhibited at the Spanish display at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, and then at other venues around the world.

3. It is one of the world’s largest museums for modern and contemporary art

Reina Sofía Museum, By Marco Pagni from Firenze, Italia –Wikipedia

Museum Reina Sofia is one of the world’s largest museums for modern and contemporary art due to its extensive collection and the mixture of national and international temporary exhibitions in the many galleries that it offers.

4. It is named for Queen Sofia

Queen Sofia is a member of the Spanish royal family who was Queen of Spain from 1975 to 2014 as the wife of King Juan Carlos I. Sofía became queen upon her husband’s accession in 1975. She is the first child of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover.

5. The Museum is mainly dedicated to Spanish art

The highlights of the museum include excellent collections of  two greatest 20th-century masters in Spain, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.  Certainly  the two were regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, The Reina Sofía collection also 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.Gutiérrez Solana, Lucio Muñoz, Jorge Oteiza, Julio Romero de Torres, Pablo Serrano, and Antoni Tàpies.

6. The central building of  the museum  was an 18th-century hospital

Courtyard in the  old hospital building, By Ian tom ferry at English Wikipedia

The central building of the museum was once an 18th-century hospital. The extensive modern renovations and additions to the old building were made starting in 1980, and later o,n the building functioned as the Centro del Arte (Art Centre) from 1986.

 In 1988, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina So In 1988 was established,  and subsequently that same year it was decreed by the Ministry of Culture as a national museum. Its architectural identity was radically changed in 1989 by Ian Ritchie with the addition of three glass circulation towers.

7. The Crystal palace belongs to the Museum

Crystal Palace in the Retiro Park, a Reina Sofía exhibition Centre, By vpogarcia – Wikipedia

The Crystal Palace belongs to the Reina Sofía Museu and is one of its exposition centers together with Velázquez Palace. It is located in Madrid’s Buen Retiro Park.

The Crystal palace was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It, however, also influenced the Palacio de Velázquez, particularly in its use of iron and glass to allow natural light to brighten the rooms.

8. The Museum features as a major protagonist in Jim Jarmusch’s ‘The Limits of Control (2009)

 The Limits of Control is a 2009 American film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Isaach de Bankolé as a solitary assassin, carrying out a job in Spain. Filming began in February 200 and took place in Madrid, Seville, and Almería, Spain.

The Museum lead in  ‘The Limits of Control’ can be perceived when a lone man visits the Reina Sofia Museum four times to see four paintings. To understand the paintings not only to see them but also stares at one painting at a time.

Each painting becomes an introductory visual note to the next step of his mission, not like a key to a riddle, but more like a reflection of reality, that makes the thing being reflected, the real world, make sense. Therefore, the emphasis on reflection is something recurrent in The Limits of Control.

9. The ‘Noviembre’ film scene was shot in the square in front of the museum

In the 2003 Spanish film Noviembre, the school entrance scenes and some performance scenes were shot in the square in front of the museum.  The Noviembre is a 2003 Spanish film about a guerrilla street theatre troupe presented as a retrospective false documentary, directed by Acheron Mañas.

10. The Museum hosts free- access library

Inside the Reina Sofía Museum, By Mazintosh –Wikipedia

The Library and Documentation Centre for the Reina Sofia Museum offers several services to help the public become aware of and take advantage of its collection. 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.