If there’s one thing I enjoy doing in my spare time, it's visiting art museums. I simply love to see what other artists are doing around the world and learn about their stories.
I reckon contemporary and modern art especially showcase the current culture of a place. It usually embraces or challanges traditions, ways of thinking, religion, history, struggles, beauty, artistry... And that's so useful to soak up when you want to understand a new place and their people.
On top of that, it's great to get inspiration for my own art and creativity too.
Many times I've chosen to visit a specific city or a destination, because there is a museum I would like to visit there. But, sadly, it seems like usually the most famous the museums are, the more underwhelming they tend to be. Whereas the lesser known museums usually have positively surprised me.
In this blog post I've compiled a list specifically on contemporary and modern museum in Europe, starting with the most underrated museums, and which, in my opinion, deserve more love.
Additionally, (cus I'm a bit of a hater) I've compiled a list of some of most overrated museums in Europe. But, I'm not saying don't visit them, I'm just saying to manage your expectations if you do. Visit at your own risk my friend.
Most underrated
These are museums that, personally, really positively surprised me. I thought they had interesting art collections, great buildings or architecture (and obvs cafes), or other reasons which I think are overall definitely worth a visit.
1. Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville, Spain
Instagram: @caac_sevilla Website: www.caac.es
I admit, Seville, the capital and largest city of Andalusia, in Spain, wasn't a place which I associated with contemporary art, until I went to the CAAC. The place is wild.
I must rank the CAAC as number one underrated because of its uniqueness, the incredible and diverse art is has, the eccentric building and how it truly showcases the old vs the new in society, art, and architecture.
I weirdly think about this museum from time to time (maybe it’s my Roman Empire?), and I’m not sure why, but I can’t get it out of my head.
Overall, Seville is known to be a pretty historic city, you can feel the history when walking around the Old Town, or by the palace. And the CAAC museum from the outside has the same feeling, like you go back in time to a world of Don Quijote, and somehow also into a Gorgio de Chirico painting. The museum has these surreal long towers. However, the inside brings you right up into modern times.
When I went (in September 2022) I entered the exhibitions though a church door, and into a chapel where I was greeted by some of the most raunchiest contemporary art I had seen for a while. It's such a contrast to the building and the city itself. But just goes to show, we are all living in a modern, raunchy world hey.
But. the most surprising thing was, there was nobody there. Most rooms were empty and I saw just a handful of visitors throughout. The quietness adds to the experience. At times peaceful and at others slightly creepy. Def worth a visit.
2. Tate Modern, London, UK
Instagram: @tate Website: www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern
If you think of London art, the Tate Modern should righteously pop into your mind.
Disclaimer, I know, I know, the Tate Modern is famous and world recognised, yes, why is it underrated you may ask. Well I think the hype is real.
It deserves more love for housing so much amazing art, and especially for having such a big percentage free and accessible to the public.
Their collections are just to vast it's incredible and the building is as iconic as it gets.
I don’t think there’s another art museum which has such a large range of art open to the public. I appreciate this even more now living in the Netherlands, where there aren't art museums with "free" areas.
Oh, what a privilege it was when I lived in London, to just pop into the Tate when I had some spare time, and see absolutely iconic artwork. Maybe there's also an emotional connection there for me - I was young romantic girl in a big city :') - but I think everyone can enjoy a trip to the Tate.
Final note, the Tate organisation is pretty cool, even though they might feel commercial due to they're big scale. Their other museums, like the Tate Liverpool, are great to visit too.
3. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Instagram: @stedelijkmuseum Website: www.stedelijk.nl/nl
Hosting interesting art, and somewhat sadly overseen.
I feel like even though the Stedelijk museum is incredibly central in Amsterdam, right next to the Van Gogh museum, it doesn’t get the recognition I think it deserves.
From the outside you can see the flocks of tourist, and queues, next door to it at the Van Gogh museum (which is actually a pretty cool place, no hate here!), but maybe that's why the Stedelijk gets overlooked?
Overall I found the collections and exhibitions very diverse, insightful and original.
I learnt a lot about artists I had never heard of before from all over the world, and there was an exhibition focusing on artists from past Dutch colonies which gave me a better understanding of Dutch history and culture.
4. Madre Museum, Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum, Napoli Modern Art, Italy
A hidden gem of a museum.
Instagram: @museomadre Website: www.madrenapoli.it
In the historical heart of Naples, the three floors of the 19th-century Palazzo Donnaregina host the Madre · Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina.
From the moment you enter the experience is colourful, vibrant and full of quirky art. It's a great space with unique contemporary art featured in their temporary exhibitions as well as their permanent art collection.
What else I liked? The entrance was only €6,00 (I think you can also get it cheaper on certain days and times), so it's very affordable.
5. Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, Krakow, Poland
Instagram: @mocak Website: https://en.mocak.pl
MOCAK really surprised me. The building is sleek and modern, like a James Bond villain's polish glass mansion. It also big and kind of eerie, but in a good way.
The art collection and temporary exhibitions were not so extensive, but they were very interesting. And when I visited there was an exhibition about food and art, featuring many different artists and styles.
Overall, I had thought perhaps polish modern art would be more conservative, reflecting Poland's more traditional values and religious ties, but it was in fact the opposite. I saw original themes, very forward-thinking and rebellious art, it was very refreshing.
What else I liked? Again, it was another very affordable museum. I think tickets were around 4 euros. The café is also nice, very modern, like the rest of the building, but they were playing Bad Bunny which surprised me even more and got me twerking over my cappucino.
More special shout outs:
These are some more museums around Europe which I think are just great and worth a visit too:
England:
Barcelona:
Netherlands:
Most overrated
This is a little list of museums which, in my personal opinion, don't live up to the hype and don't do the job of making a memorable or valuable experience.
1. Any Moco Museum (Amsterdam, Barcelona)
Pricey, commercial, mainstream.
Instagram: @mocomuseum Website: https://mocomuseum.com
If you've been to Amsterdam or Barcelona in the last few years, you've probably seen the Moco museum advertised at the airport, on the streets, or on Instagram.
Indeed, their marketing team does do a good job at making it look exciting and interesting (just peep their nstagram page with over 400k followers), but, personally, after both my visits to the museums, I was left quite underwhelmed.
I found the collections mainstream (think the typical stuff from Banky, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, KAWS, Jeff Koons...), and even though it's nice to see come iconic art work in person, I can't help but think Moco is only serving up what is popular at the moment, and what gives Instagram aesthetics.
They do not seem to showcase smaller, independent or local artists. Or that they host art from artists which are not Instagram famous or already celebrities. There's not much to really learn in a Moco museum.
Overall, when you visit it feels like a private company and a money marker, probably because it is. Are they in it for the love of art? I highly doubt it.
I especially found the experience of the Amsterdam Moco museum unimpressive except for an interesting painting exhbition from musicain Robbie WIlliam on mental health.
Unfortunately, the building itself is so narrow and it gets so crowded which makes it very hard to walk around. Overall, it's pretty small and you can complete all the rooms in less than 30 minutes.
I must admit, I did somewhat enjoy my time, but it felt more like a space to take pics while you catch up with a friend as you walk around the art, rather than a space focused on bringing interesting art to the public. It lacks depth.
2. Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Instagram: @Guggenheim Website: www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus
Unfortunately it didn't live up to the big big hype I had for it.
I would like to first say that the Guggenheim Bilbao is one of the most overrated museums I’ve visited unfortunately, and this was so so sad for me because I had dreamt for a very long time of going there. It looked so iconic, majestic.
I had planned to go to the city of Bilbao with the main aim of finally visiting the museum. And maybe that was also the issue, I had too big expectations for it.
To clarify, when I visited it was during covid. And perhaps that's the reason my experience wasn't great, or perhaps that's just the Guggi. I don't know.
When I first arrived to the Guggenheim I was happy to see the outside was as I had pictured it. The architecture itself was fabulous, I was blown away. I had got there at sunset and the scale of the building, and the monuments around it, with the big spider contrasting rather surreally with the river and the orange sky - I couldn't wait to enter it the next day!
However, when I came back the next morning, there was a demonstration of cleaners outside, throwing leaflets, into the air. I picked one up of the floor, they were asking for fair pay - well that's the first big red flag. For the amount you pay you think they would at least pay (I think around 20 euros) you would think they would at leat pay their cleaners fairly, especially during a global pandemic (smh).
The second red flag was but crowded it was. They forced you to follow a strict path around the museum, again I imagine this might have been just a Covid thing, but it was not enjoyable at all. It felt controlling, restrictive and hard to take time to enjoy the art.
To summarise, I got the impression that the Guggenheim is a business, with a number one interest in profit, not fair pay and not costumer experience.
So were there any positives? The building itself is very cool, as well as the monuments outside, and I did like how you can enter the smaller Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao included in your museum ticket - that museum was underrated for sure!
3. Museum Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Instagram: @boijmans Website: www.boijmans.nl
You have to give it to the Depot, the building itself is very, very cool. You do get taken back by the giant glass mirrored circular bowl, reflecting Rotterdam. And with trees sticking out at the top of it. It's extremely hard (perhaps impossible?) to not take your phone out and take a selfie in the reflection.
Why then was I disappointed, you may ask? Well, because inside there wasn't really much art.
And what else didn't I like? Th tickets were around 20 euros, too pricey in my opinion for the experience you get.
Overall, the museum focuses more on the backend of the art world, presenting information around storage. As a concept I thought was somewhat interesting, however, in reality, I felt they didn’t highlight a lot of artwork, which was disappointing when that's what I personally was more curious about seeing.
I would rate Depot on the same level as Moco, in the sense that they can both be fun experiences, but they are:
1) At a higher price point (not inclusive for all)
2) Don't have much original art
3) Are geared towards Instagram culture - you can feel a lack of depth
In the photo above you can see example of a room, which was only visible from the glass window. You could not enter it. Apparently it's purpose was to showcase what art storage looks like... but what if I'm actually more interested in the art itself?? Very weird.
Your thoughts
I would love to hear your thoughts, do you agree with the list? Do you think I'm talking rubbish? Are you intrigued to visit any of the museums, or avoid some of them?
Are there museums you think I really need to add to my list of must-visits or that I should go check out? Let me know here or let's chat on Instagram!