The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, or as most people call it, the Reina Sofía, attracts four million people per year. And probably 3,999,999 of them all gravitate here to see one thing: Pablo Picasso’s striking, plus-sized painting, “Guernica,” a work of art that shocks and awe the viewer into grasping the brutality of war, in general, and the Spanish Civil War, in particular.
But there are 21,000 artworks in the collection at the Reina Sofía. The museum has a focus on Spanish artists, but it also boasts works by an international cadre of famous artists as well. Like the Louvre in Paris with the “Mona Lisa,” it’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy to see “Guernica.”
It turns out, there are some really hidden gem masterpieces of art at the Reina Sofía. You just have to will yourself away from Picasso’s most famous painting for a while. And if you do, you’ll be rewarded with lesser-known but stunning pieces of art, artists who don’t get the attention they deserve, and relatively untrammeled swaths of the museum.
Here is what else to see at the Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Photography collection
By the time visitors get to the third floor of the Reina Sofía, they’re too exhausted to go up to the fourth. Don’t make this mistake. The fourth floor has some real gems, especially the photography collection.
Some real masterpieces are on display here include Man Ray’s famous “Les Larmes,” Robert Capa’s shocking “Death of a Loyalist Militiaman” from the Spanish Civil War, the dual midgets in Christopher Hara’s 1989 photo “Houses of Haro,” and Francesc Catalá-Roca’s “Gypsy Girl.”
“Un Mundo” (“The World”) by Angeles Santos
Created when she was just 17 in 1929, the monumental “Un Mundo,” or “The World” is a surreal-ish fantasyland on canvas, challenging the viewer to look beyond the physical world and into a different, imagined reality.
“La Table du Musicien” (“The Tables Musician”) by Juan Gris
Painted by early-20th century Madrid-born painter, Juan Gris (that’s John Gray to you!), ”La Table du Musicien” was painted in 1926 when the painter had a terminal illness (he would succumb just a year later).
The painting is just a few objects on a table—a pipe, a guitar, a sad-looking bust—but exudes a kind of profound, but beautiful melancholy.
The Dalí Collection
The Reina Sofía owns over 100 works of art—though, most of them are paintings and sketches—by that wizard of weirdness, Salvador Dalí. They’re not all on display at the same time but expect to be wowed by some of his greatest works in room 209.
In particular, “Figura en una Finestra” (“Figure at a Window”) is stop-you-in-your-tracks stunningly beautiful. This is a more classic-looking painting, not the LSD trip on canvas—melting clocks and deformed sentient beings—that we usually associate with Dalì. For that, make sure you check out his infamous “Face of the Great Masturbator” in room 205.
“Sonia de Klamery” by Hermen Anglada Camarasa
Barcelona-born Hermen Anglada Camarasa painted Russian ballerina Sonia de Klamery in 1913.
The vaguely Klimt-esque painting is dazzling with its contrast of bright and dark colors against the pale skin of the elegantly posed ballet dancer.
“Superposition de matière grise,” “Superimposition of Grey Matter” by Antoni Tàpies
This 1961 work was a revelation in its time, foreshadowing the eventual more common technique of artists using other types of materials and textures in their paintings.
Tàpies, who lived and died in Barcelona, is a master at tactile expression and this work is exemplary of that.
“Mujer en azul,” by Pablo Picasso
The museum has about 120 works by Picasso in its collection and most are overshadowed by the presence of “Guernica.”
When Pablo Picasso arrived in Madrid in 1901, he painted “Mujer en azul,” or “Woman in Blue,” a work that sat in oblivion for decades until the Reina Sofía acquired it in 1988 and it was met with great fanfare. After you see “Guernica,” point yourself to this lovely painting, said to be inspired by the work of Van Gogh and El Greco.
The Joan Miró Collection
Similar to their collection of the works of Salvador Dalí, the Reina Sofía holds a rich and abundant collection of art works by Catalan artist Joan Miró. In fact, there are about 200 various paintings, sculptures, and ceramic objects.
One of the most stunning is “Pienture (Escargot, Femme, Fleur, Étoile)” or “Painting: Snail, Woman, Flower, Star”), painted in 1934.
The painting is part of a set of works he did called “wild paintings,” which were inspired by the fear of the possibility that fascism was going to overtake Europe, in general, and Spain, in particular. His fear, unfortunately, proved to be prophetic.
Can’t get enough of the Reina Sofía? If you want to have the ultimate Reina Sofía experience—one where you can skip the line and couple it with a visit to the Prado—join us on our VIP Morning at Madrid’s Museums: Private Access Prado & Skip-the-Line Reina Sofía.