Lists - Museums

In some notebook, I have a list of the top museums in the world, based on my personal taste, which coincides with a preference for "modern Masters," essentially the tail end of Impressionism through Abstract Expressionism with some Pop Art thrown in for good measure. On the whole, I am unimpressed with contemporary art, though there are always some exceptions, particularly for current artists who display at least some evidence of craft, rather than a reliance on conceptual art. Anyway, these are museums I've really enjoyed, and in some cases have been able to return to again and again.

1. MoMA (NYC)
2. Musée d'Orsay (Paris)
3. The Hermitage (St. Petersburg)*
4. Metropolitan Museum (NYC)
5. Museo del Prado (Madrid) (On top of the Goyas and El Grecos and Velázquezes one might expect, they have many of the most important Hieronymous Bosch panels. I will simply have to find a way to go back some day.)
6. Tate Modern (London)
7. National Gallery (London)
8. Louvre (Paris)
9. Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid) (Can one rank a museum this high just for one painting (Guernica)? -- well I guess I just did)
10. Art Institute of Chicago
11. Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) (I would probably have ranked this higher but it was always under construction when I visited. Still has an stunning collection of Rembrandts and Vermeers.)
12. National Gallery of Art (DC)
13. Philadelphia Museum of Art
14. Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)
15. Courtauld Gallery (London)

* This is cheating a bit, since it is the only one I have not visited in person, but I have seen traveling exhibits drawn from the Hermitage as well as several catalogues. This is basically the only museum remaining on my "bucket list," except perhaps also the Uffizi, though honestly I can't see visiting Russia until Putin is out of the picture and perhaps not even then, depending on what happens after him.

It will take me a while to rank the next 15-20. I should note both Berlin and Vienna are great art cities collectively, but the individual museums were not in the top 10, mostly because I do have a preference for seeing at least some early 20th C. art mixed in with the older European Masters.

Honorable mention (for now):
Centre Pompidou (Paris)
Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
AGO (Toronto)
Tate Britain (London)
Whitney Museum (NYC)
St. Louis Art Museum (world's largest Max Beckmann collection!)
Guggenheim (NYC)
The Belvedere Museum (Vienna) (home to a major collection of Klimts)
Museum of Fine Arts (Vienna)
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid)
SF MoMA
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
J. Paul Getty Museum (LA)
Hirschhorn Museum (DC)
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)
Milwaukee Art Museum
Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin)
Pergamon Museum (Berlin) (far more of an archeological museum like the British Museum, but some amazing holdings)
British Museum (London)
Victoria & Albert Museum (London)
Phillips Collection (DC)
Corcoran Gallery of Art (DC)
Frick Collection (NYC)
Manchester Art Gallery
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston)
High Museum (Atlanta)
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen) (This would have been ranked higher, but virtually all the of French impressionist and Post-impressionist works were hidden away due to renovations on my one and only visit. So sad.)

Rome's modern art museum was indeed fairly disappointing, and the Italian art on display in various villas and museums was fantastic, though not quite a perfect fit to my preferences. However, actually visiting the Vatican Museum was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm so glad I went.

If I do make it to Florence one of these days, there is a reasonable chance that the Uffizi would crack the top 15, despite not having any modern art, much like the Louvre.

I just realized that I left out the Philadelphia Museum of Art with its major collection of cubist art. Whoops! I'll probably have to get that in there in the top 15, and maybe bump AGO down (done). Hmm. I've never seen the full Barnes Collection, though I saw the highlights when that was on tour. If the collection does end up opening down the street from the Philadelphia Museum, then I'll certainly make the trip. (For a very one-sided take on this issue, check out The Art of the Steal.) The Barnes Collection probably wouldn't quite crack the top 15, but would probably fall between 16-20 based on what I have seen of it.

After their recent expansions, the St. Louis Art Museum is very near to cracking the top 15 and the Cleveland Museum of Art is pretty close to the top 25 as well, though I might change my mind again after another tour of Europe...