Madrid turning into one of the European art's centres

[Ferran]

A short stroll among masterpieces

An ambitious expansion programme will put Madrid's three world-class art museums firmly on the international cultural map. But this week architects announced it will be hit by the latest in a long series of delays.


The Prado is set to double in size

It should turn Madrid into one of the centres of European art.

In one short stroll, visitors to the capital will be able to enjoy Picasso's Guernica, Velazquez's Las Meninas and the 'dark' paintings of Goya.

Three of the most famous galleries on the Continent are to be rejuvenated when they are joined by one single route.

It has been called the Paseo del Arte — or the Art Walk — and will link the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza.

When the work is finally finished, the promised extensions will, in effect, add the equivalent of two more museums to its Art Walk.

Already a series of landmark exhibitions have put Madrid -its 'big three' museums - on the international art map in preparation for the completion of its long-awaited expansion.

The works of 30 of Spain's most famous artists went on show last week in a new exhibition at the Prado showing the evolution of portraiture over five centuries.

The exhibition at the Madrid's most well-known museum marks the first appearance of a Picasso in the institution he would have headed had it not been for the eruption of Spain's Civil War in 1936.

The exhibition "Spanish Portraits: From El Greco to Picasso," which runs to 6 February, was inaugurated by Crown Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia.

The exhibit's 87 paintings, many of which will be shown for the first time in Spain, include Diego Velazquez's "The Infanta Margarita in a Blue Gown" and "Portrait of a Girl," Bartolome Murillo's "Don Justino de Neve" and Francisco de Goya's "Duchess of Alba."

An important collection of Paul Gauguin's most important works recently went on show.


Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein, on show at the Prado

And earlier this year, two high-profile exhibitions by Salvador Dali and Roy Lichtenstein, at the refurbished Reina Sofia Museum, unveiled the design of the award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel.

The two new exhibition spaces, in stainless steel and crystal, are be covered by a blade-like roof.

The space between the glass-clad buildings is open to the street, featuring a tree-filled atrium, which acts as a nucleus to the site.

Nouvel's other changes to the museum, which will be unveiled in 2005, include two new conference halls. They have space for 450 and 200 people respectively.

He has also designed a huge new library, called the National Museum of Art of the Reina Sofia, which is expected to hold 250,000 volumes and is intended to provide a resource for those who want to research modern art.

It is hoped that this will be finished in November this year.

In total, the Reina Sofia has gained 26,892 sq m or 55 percent more thanks to the EUR 79.3 million project.

The new rooms were built on the site of the 18th hospital designed by Jose Hermosilla and Francisco Sabatini.

Nouvel modestly said the new extensions were "built in the shadow of the Sabatini".

But the eagerly-awaited changes to the Prado, which has the world's largest collection of Goya, Velazquez and El Greco paintings, will be the highlight of this ambitious extension programme.


One of the Prado's most famous treasures is Las Meninas

It was to have have been completed by Spring 2005, but its architect Rafael Moneo announced last week the work will not be finished until Spring 2006.

Beset by delays, Moneo said the latest hold-up was due to the "complexity" of the work.

Ironically, although it is Spain's most visited museum, and home to works by the country's greatest masters, less than 10 percent of its 15,000 works of art are actually on display.

One of its most famous treasures is Las Meninas (The Ladies in Waiting) by Velazquez.

The museum is currently too short-staffed to provide guides for its 1.8 million annual visitors.

And simple lack of space stops the museum's full treasures from being enjoyed by visitors.

However, when the work is finally finished the Prado will double its space as, under the guidance of Moneo, it absorbs the cloisters of a monastery and other neighbouring buildings.

He will link the existing building by 19th century architect Juan de Villanueva and a stunning contemporary complex.

Moneo, one of Spain's leading architects who beat of stiff competition from the likes of Sir Norman Foster to win the design brief, said: "The expansion falls within the framework of a project which envisages the Prado as a campus, a cluster of buildings headed by the one designed by Villaneuva."

This 'campus' will include the original building facing the Paseo de Prado, the Cason de Buen Retiro, which is to house 19th century art and the last remaining building of the Palacio de Retiro.

The Thyssen, which displays the vast private collection built up by the late Baron Heini Thyssen-Bornemisza and his father, is absorbing three neighbouring buildings in a project designed by Nouvel.

The government was footing the EUR 150 million bill in the hope of increasing the galleries' three million visitors a year. But after the extensions are completed visitors may face a difficult walk between them.

Work is due to start on redesigning the Paseo del Prado in 2005 and will last for several years.

Meanwhile, barriers are already up in the Glorieta de Atocha, which lies beside the Reina Sofía, as work starts on a new road tunnel.

Updated October 2004


For more information:

http://museoprado.mcu.es
http://museoreinasofia.mcu.es
www.museothyssen.org



Source: http://www.expatica.com/source/site_...g+masterpieces