Visitors who come to the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid can now photograph ‘Guernica’, a decision by the center’s new director, Manuel Segade, which has been in effect since September 1, with the only condition of not using flash or tripods.
With this measure, Segade wants to improve the experience of seeing Picasso’s most famous painting, sources from the Museum have explained to Efe.
“Our intention was simply that it could be done normally, not to announce it to the press or anything because if photos are taken throughout the museum, in all the great museums in the world and, above all, that we live and are constantly mediated by cameras, when we go to a concert, when we go to any cultural event… well, we believe that it doesn’t make sense that ‘Guernica’ doesn’t have the same iconic character it deserves”, Segade specified.
The new director has pointed out that people should be able to have their photo with ‘Guernica’ “as it happens with any other cultural phenomenon”.
In reality, the ban affected the entire room in which the painting is located and was in force to protect a very fragile work, which was hung from the walls of the Reina Sofía in 1992 from the Casón del Buen Retiro, where it had been exhibited. since the painting arrived in Spain in 1981 after 42 years at the New York MoMA.
It was the only area of ??the museum that visitors could not photograph, but now the prohibition has been lifted because technological means have changed and no longer endanger the work, the sources have specified.
It is a way of giving visitors more facilities so that they can do like Mick Jagger, who visited the museum in June 2022 and took a picture of himself in front of the painting, an image that was highly criticized on social networks given the exceptional nature of the event.
Of course, you will not be able to use any type of stabilizer, selfie stick, tripod, or flash. And the capacity will continue to be controlled as before.
In this way, only three photographic ‘collages’ by Oskar Schlemmer remain in the Reina Sofía, which cannot be photographed because his heirs do not allow it.
“I would like us to reach one hundred percent photographic accessibility, especially for that young audience that also lives filtered by a screen. I think it is also important to pay attention to their way of approaching reality,” added Segade.
