Abstract

Upon opening in 1990, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid was intended as a modern and contemporary Spanish art museum that could stand on an international scale. It has since achieved this goal, with much of its success riding on the significant work of the second-floor gallery, Picasso’s 25-foot mural entitled Guernica. The painting sets the tone for the surrounding gallery space that narrates the story of the Spanish Civil War through paintings, propaganda, photographs, magazines, and films produced during the time period. The permanent collection in this gallery helps to display a violent past to a Spanish public that has either lived through or been taught this history and may want a new perspective on the events of the war, and an international audience who may have never known the Spanish Civil War even happened. However, as Spaniards continue to come to terms with their past, they grapple with how to remember such a problematic time period: three years of fighting (1936-39) followed by a 36- year dictatorship under Francisco Franco. This thesis will analyze the way in which the Reina Sofía Museum curated their collection relating to the Spanish Civil War, and created the secondfloor gallery to narrate a history that some may still wish to forget. This examination will be told through first-hand accounts of visits to the museum, with and without guided tours; articles pertaining to the history of the Spanish Civil War itself, Le Exposition des Artes et des Techniques dans la Vie Moderne1 in Paris in 1937, and the public memory debate in Spain; and critical essays about the museum. The second-floor galleries will be examined on the museum’s effectiveness to communicate the events of the civil war through art, to a public with mixed prior knowledge of and varied modes of memory relating to the history being told. This thesis will also provide insight into how the gallery spaces can be improved to provide a richer narrative to the public they serve, and it may also provide guidance for other institutions who grapple with re-presenting a forgotten past.

Publication Date

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Undergraduate

Degree Name

Museum Studies (BS)

College

College of Liberal Arts

Advisor

Juilee Decker

Advisor/Committee Member

John Monaco

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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