Museo Reina Sofia

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The Irruption of the 20th Century. Utopia and Conflict (1900-1945)

The crossroads between the 19th and 20th centuries, between modernity and tradition, are represented perfectly in the museum by the art of Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa, José Gutiérrez Solana and Medardo Rosso. The museum's permanent collection also includes works by Julio González, Pablo Gargallo and Juan Gris, artists that favoured the European avant-garde movements alongside Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Sonia Delaunay and Francis Picabia, also part of the museum's collection. A collection of costumes for the Triadic ballet created in 1922 by Oskar Shlemmer, a teacher at the legendary Bauhaus art school, forms one of the most evocative pieces on display at the MNCARS.

Dalí, Miró and Picasso, the most influential Spanish artists of the 20th century, form the backbone of the permanent collection. Throughout his long career, Pablo Picasso was painter, sculptor, ceramist, set designer, poet, playwright and director of the Prado Museum during the Civil War. As an essential member of the avant-garde, his chameleonic personality influenced all arts and styles. He was a Classicist, Primitivist and Cubist and was always fascinated by myths, the circus and bullfighting. One of his key artworks, El Guernica, is displayed in the MNCARS and could be described as a synthesis of the avant-garde movements. Put on display by the government of the Spanish Republic at the International Exhibition in Paris, the mural conveys the pain of the victims that were bombed in Guernica on April 27, 1937.