Students in the “Contemporary Spanish Art” course are visiting the Prado and Reina Sofía museums in Madrid

Twenty-seven students enrolled in the “Contemporary Spanish subject , which is offered as part of the Degree History and the Degrees History and Journalism, and in International Relations and History, at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Navarra, took a field trip to Madrid on March 20 and 21 to examine in person the works studied in class.

During the first workshop the Prado Museum on a tour that spanned from May 2 and 3 and Goya’s Black Paintings to the pictorial modernism of the late 19th century in the landscapes of Carlos de Haes, Darío de Regoyos, and Aureliano de Beruete, alongside the painters of Academicism and Romanticism, the great history paintings and Sorolla’s Valencian beaches, not to mention the sculptures by José Álvarez Cubero and Josep Llimona.

The next day, the group to the Reina Sofía National Art Museum to contact avant-garde contact of the first half of the 20th century, such as Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, through the works of artists such as Picasso, Juan Gris, María Blanchard, José Gutiérrez Solana, Dalí, Magritte, Óscar Domínguez, Maruja Mallo, and Ángeles Santos, joined by socially conscious painters such as José María López Mezquita and Ramón Casas.

This activity allows us to put into internship active methodology in which the students themselves are responsible for explaining the works, following group preparation work to the trip. In turn, “it offers an introduction to two distinct museographic approaches, given that the Prado opts for a historical and chronological exhibition, while the Reina Sofía adopts a thematic and political narrative,” notes Professor Javier Azanza, manager subject activity manager . But in both cases, “the analysis of the artwork is not conducted in a decontextualized manner, but rather is fully integrated into the speech of both museums,” concludes Azanza, who expressed his gratitude to the students for their commitment to the project their work the semester.