Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofè­a

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofè­a (MNCARS, also called the Museo Reina Sofè­a, Queen Sofè­a Museum, El Reina Sofè­a, or simply The Sofia) is Spain’s national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992 and is named for Queen Sofè­a. It is located in Madrid, near the Atocha train and metro stations, at the southern end of the so-called Golden Triangle of Art (located along the Paseo del Prado and also comprising the Museo del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza).

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 Dalè­. Certainly the most famous masterpiece in the museum is Picasso’s painting Guernica. The Reina Sofè­a collection has works by artists such as: Juan Gris, Joan Mirè³, Julio Gonzè¡lez, Eduardo Chillida, Antoni Tè pies, Pablo Gargallo, Pablo Serrano, Lucio Muè±oz, Luis Gordillo, Jorge Oteiza and Josè© Gutiè©rrez Solana.

International artists are few in the collection, but there are works by Robert Delaunay, Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Jacques Lipchitz, Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Max Ernst, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Gabriel Orozco, Clyfford Still, cubist still lifes by Georges Braque and a large work by Francis Bacon.

Along with its extensive collection, the museum offers a mixture of national and international temporary exhibitions in its many galleries.

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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