The Reina Sofía turns 40, with Picasso’s Guernica as the “backbone of the museum discourse”

The Reina Sofía Museum turns 40 this May 28 since the Reina Sofía Art Center (CARS), origin of the current museum, opened its doors to the public on May 28, 1986, after its official inauguration two days before. Among its pieces, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica stands out, which was presented to the public on September 10, 1992 as the “backbone of the museographic discourse” of the institution.

Located in the old General Hospital of Madrid, CARS began its journey as a center for temporary exhibitions of a national and international nature. Two years later, on May 27, 1988, it became a national museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. On October 31, 1990, with the presence of the Kings, Juan Carlos I and Sofia, the Museum headquarters was officially inaugurated.

The headquarters of the Reina Sofía Museum has an area of 84,048 square meters (m2), in which are located the Sabatini Building, an 18th century construction that originally served as a hospital, declared a Historical-Artistic Monument in 1977, and the Nouvel Building, the glass and steel extension designed by Jean Nouvel and inaugurated in 2005. It also has two headquarters: the Crystal Palace, currently under construction in the Parque del Retiro de Madrid, and the Palace of Velázquez.

The Collections, which began with funds made up of nearly 10,000 works from the former Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (MEAC), have reached the current 31,289 pieces. Throughout these years, it has expanded with purchases, donations and deposits, in addition to expanding its formats (film, video, living arts and performance), with special emphasis on the incorporation of women artists (who currently represent 15% of its funds) and on Latin American art.

Among the artists present in the Reina Collections are, among others, Francis Bacon, María Blanchard, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delaunay, Pepe Espaliú, Juan Gris, José Gutiérrez Solana, Maruja Mallo, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Juan Muñoz, Pablo Picasso, Ángeles Santos, Richard Serra, Dorothea Tanning, Antoni Tàpies, Gerda Taro, Delhy Tejero or Rosario de Velasco.

As the institution adds, the Queen’s Collections are currently in a review process. The first phase of the presentation –Collection. Contemporary art: 1975-present–, was inaugurated on February 16, 2026 on the fourth floor of the Sabatini Building.

The second part will be presented in 2027, on the third floor, with works from the period ranging from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the project will culminate in 2028 with the reorganization of the second floor dedicated to the avant-garde.

After the founding of the Reina Sofía Art Center by the Minister of Culture Javier Solana, at the initiative of Carmen Giménez, then director of the National Exhibition Center, since its constitution as a Museum, seven people have directed the institution: Tomás Llorens (1988-90), María de Corral (1991-94), José Guirao (1994-2001), Juan Manuel Bonet (2001- 2004), Ana Martínez de Aguilar (2004-07), Manuel Borja-Villel (2008-23) and the current one, Manuel Segade, (2023).

On the other hand, the Reina has the support of the Reina Sofía Museum Foundation foundations, since 2012 together with its American counterpart, and the Friends of the Reina Sofía Foundation, since 2018. Likewise, last year the Cáder Institute of Central American Art (ICAC) was created, with the aim of promoting research and dissemination of the art of this region and its diasporas.

MORE THAN 650 TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS

Since its inauguration in 1986, the Reina Sofía has consolidated a program of temporary exhibitions of international scope, aimed at hosting the newest expressions of contemporary art.

Throughout these 40 years, more than 650 exhibitions have been held as well as intense activity marked by large influx of public such as the exhibitions dedicated to Salvador Dalí in 2013 (with 730,000 visitors) or ‘Picasso, Piety and Terror in Picasso. The road to Guernica’, in 2017, which brought together 681,127 people. Every year, the Museum receives 1,700,000 visitors.

Currently, under the direction of Manuel Segade, the exhibition program seeks to integrate unpublished stories from the history of art and attend to the diversity of contemporary production, as emphasized by the institution, which highlights exhibitions by artists such as Maruja Mallo, Néstor Martín-Fernandez de la Torre or the recently inaugurated ones by Aurèlia Muñoz and Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

The Museum has also carried out performative practices, with interventions such as those of Laia Estruch or the programming of Space 1 dedicated to exhibition cinema, inaugurated by Oliver Laxe. Thus, Manuel Segade’s current project (2023-28) is oriented towards an “open and close museum that generates mechanisms of participation, dialogue and discussion,” says the Reina Sofía.