Madrid's Reina Sofia museum says it will stage a major Pablo Picasso exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of his famed Guernica painting, a universal symbol of the cruelty of war.

Pity and Terror in Picasso - the Path to Guernica will open on April 4 and last five months to celebrate the anniversary of the painting itself, as well as its arrival at the museum 25 years ago.

"Close to 150 masterpieces by the artist will be on show, coming from the (museum's) collection and that of more than 30 institutions from around the world," the Reina Sofia said in a statement.

Works of art from the Picasso Museum and Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, Tate Modern in London, MoMA in New York or the Beyeler Foundation in Basel will be on display.

Guernica is one of the most well-known works by Picasso, who was born in Spain in 1881 and died in France in 1973 at 91.

He created it as a commission for Spain's struggling Republican government to represent the country at the 1937 World Fair in Paris.

At the time, Spain was waist-deep in a bloody civil war pitting the Republicans against the troops of future dictator General Francisco Franco.

The painting was inspired by the town of Guernica in the Basque Country of northern Spain, which was bombed on April 26, 1937, a spring market day, by German air forces.

Hundreds died in what set a precedent for a new kind of wartime strategy during World War II - the aerial bombing of civilians.

The painting was transferred to Madrid in 1981 from New York's Museum of Modern Art, where it had been deposited on a long-term loan by Picasso until democracy was restored in Spain.

The Reina Sofia, a vast former hospital, now displays Guernica on its own in a custom-built gallery.