Madrid museum shuffles its pack charting decades of rapid change in Spain

"The Reina Sofia's new rehang opens, quite pointedly, with a painting of a detained man sitting, head bowed and wrists shackled, as he waits for the arbitrary hand of institutional bureaucracy to decide his fate. The picture, Document No , was painted by Juan Genoves in 1975, the year Francisco Franco died and Spain began its transition to democracy after four decades of dictatorship."

"Through the 403 selected works, the museum's curators examine how artists from Spain and beyond have chronicled and reacted to socio-historical changes, from the hedonistic explosion of creativity that followed the dictator's demise to the Aids epidemic, from second-wave feminism to growing environmental awareness, and from decolonisation to global terrorism. According to Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde, the president of the Reina Sofia's board, the rehang an exercise museums undertake to re-evaluate and reinvigorate their collections is much more than a simple rejigging."

Reina Sofia's rehang opens with Juan Genoves's 1975 painting Document No, portraying a shackled detainee and referencing Spain's transition to democracy after Franco's death. The fourth-floor rehang presents 403 works spanning 1975 to the present, exploring artistic responses to rapid social and political change. Two-thirds of displayed works have never been part of the permanent collection. Exhibited works range from international artists like Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe to Spanish artists chronicling local transformations. Curators frame the collection around themes including post-dictatorship creativity, the Aids epidemic, second-wave feminism, environmental awareness, decolonisation, and global terrorism.

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