Málaga’s Art Museums
Building on its reputation as the birthplace of Picasso, Málaga is now home to a number of excellent art museums. Apart from the Picasso Museum, the best-known ones are the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga and the Centre Pompidou Málaga, but there are also several others worth visiting.
Picasso Museum
The Picasso Museum in Málaga cannot lay claim to having Picasso’s most famous works on display, but it is still very much worth visiting. The museum presents the various periods of the great artist’s life and work through representative paintings, drawings and sculptures. There’s a good audio guide that explains and provides context for some of the most important works. The museum is located in the city centre, near the Roman theatre. If you buy your ticket online, you’ll get a fixed entry slot, so you won’t have to spend ages queuing for a ticket.
To learn more about Picasso, you can visit his childhood home on Plaza de la Merced, where as well as learning about the artist’s early life and lifelong ties to Málaga, you’ll get to experience a faithfully restored bourgeois family home from the late 1800s.
Official website: https://www.museopicassomalaga.org/en
Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga
If you would like to learn more about Andalucian art, the Carmen Thyssen Museum is the perfect place to start. It has an excellent collection of art from the 13th century onwards, with the main emphasis on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the works are by Andalucian painters or other artists with ties to the region, and they range from Romantic landscapes to so-called Costumbrismo, with its scenes portraying everyday life and local customs in Andalucía. The museum also puts on special exhibitions.
Official website: https://www.carmenthyssenmalaga.org/en/
Museum of Málaga
The Museum of Málaga occupies the recently refurbished old custom house, and it houses the city’s fine art and archaeological collections. The oldest works come from the monasteries expropriated in the 1800s, but most of the art is again from the 1800s and 1900s. Many of the works depict Málaga’s relationship with the Mediterranean, ranging from idyllic coastal landscapes to dramatic shipwrecks. The collection is really well presented, with explanations of the social and historical context for the paintings on display.
Official website (in Spanish): https://www.museosdeandalucia.es/web/museodemalaga/informacion-general
Centre Pompidou Málaga
Situated beneath a colourful cube on Málaga’s new harbourfront, the Centre Pompidou Málaga was the first offshoot of the prestigious Paris museum when it opened in 2015. It presents a selection of works from its parent museum, including a “semi-permanent collection”, which changes every couple of years, as well as temporary exhibitions.
Official website: https://centrepompidou-malaga.eu/plan-your-visit/
Collection of the Russian Museum
This is another affiliate of a major overseas museum – this time the Russian State Museum in St Petersburg. Each year it presents a new selection of Russian works, as well as hosting temporary exhibitions. The museum is housed in the old tobacco factory, just southwest of the city centre.
Official website: https://www.coleccionmuseoruso.es/plan-your-visit/
Museum Jorge Rando
The Malagueño painter and sculptor Jorge Rando (1941–) is a leading exponent of Neo-expressionism. The museum dedicated to his art houses a large collection of his eclectic works in an attractive building just north of the city centre.
Entry is free of charge.
Official website: https://www.museojorgerando.org/en
Revello de Toro Museum
Félix Revello de Toro (1926–) is another local artist from Málaga. He is most famous for his paintings of women and his poster designs for local festivals including the Feria and Holy Week. The museum that houses his work is right in the city centre, between the cathedral and the Alcazaba.
Official website: https://www.museorevellodetoro.net/en/
Questions and answers
Málaga’s Picasso Museum doesn’t have any of the artist’s most famous works, but the nonetheless excellent collection traces his artistic development through different phases of his life.
It’s worth buying tickets in advance for the Picasso Museum to secure your preferred time slot and avoid a long queue.
It’s not normally necessary to buy tickets in advance for the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Málaga.
It’s not normally necessary to buy tickets in advance for the Centre Pompidou Málaga.