Museums you've visited (or want to see)

[Wanderer]

Where's Spineur? Did he not survive the transition to the new server? 

...but then go to Saint Louis les Francais (San Luigi dei Francesi), and you will admire these masterpieces...

Indeed I went... four times in five days!

Santa Maria del Popolo, on the other hand, another treasure chest of great art (including a couple more breathtaking Caravaggios), proved more difficult to visit: I managed to get in on the third try. In addition to the fact that every self-respected Roman church has its own opening hours, the Franciscans who run it don't allow access if there's a mass going on. (Understandable, but... hint: there's always a mass going on.) So, a word to the wise: Santa Maria del Popolo may be deceptively centrally located, but don't leave it to the last moment otherwise you may not get in (and that would be a shame).
The Caravaggio in Sant'Agostino had been sent to Milan for an exhibition; they were kind enough to mount a full-size replica in its place for the unsuspecting visitor, though (I knew it was gone, but appreciated the gesture nonetheless).

Since that last post of mine back in March, other museums I managed to visit this year, some for the first time, include:

Berlin
the usual suspects on Museumsinsel:
Altes Museum,
Neues Museum,
Bode-Museum, (truly deserted at the time and hosting a splendid exhibition of works from the ethnographic collection - African sculpture -  intermingled with the primarily medieval European sculpture of the museum's collection, an amazing juxtaposition)
Pergamonmuseum, (half of it, the better half - the Pergamon altar and its sculptures - closed for renovations)
Alte Nationalgalerie (plus exhibition Rodin – Rilke – Hofmannsthal)

Brücke-Museum (hosting a 50-year anniversary exhibition of the museum's substantial holdings)
Gemäldegalerie
Sammlung Boros
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Museum für Naturkunde

Dresden
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Galerie Neue Meister
Grünes Gewölbe
Kupferstich-Kabinett

Leipzig
Museum der bildenden Künste

Vienna
Kunsthistorisches Museum (bonus: they had the Klimtbrücke installed for the centenary celebrations)
Albertina (temporary exhibitions on Keith Haring, Florentina Pakosta and Martha Jungwirth)
Belvedere (new hanging of the collection - photography allowed this time - and an impressive temporary exhibition: Beyond Klimt)
Leopold Museum (hosting a spectacular centenary exhibition on Egon Schiele, as well as exhibitions on the Heidi Horten collection, VIENNA 1900
Klimt – Moser – Gerstl – Kokoschka, SCHIELE – BRUS – PALME, Zoran Mušič and Anton Romako)
Museum moderner Kunst (among the highlights, a comprehensive Bruno Gironcoli retrospective)
Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste
Museum für angewandte Kunst
Weltmuseum
Secession
Naturhistorisches Museum

[pjme]

I was recently in the French alps - Vercors region . Mountains, ibex, vultures, clean air....I spent a day in Grenoble and visited le Musée - excellent collection!

http://www.museedegrenoble.fr/

A superb Zurbaran:


and a beautiful Vuillard



P.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Speaking of oddball museums, check out the American Toby Jug Museum in Evanston, IL:

https://www.tobyjugmuseum.com/

We caught this as part of Open House Chicago, which happens one weekend in October, when over 200 notable architectural sites open their doors to the public for free.

https://openhousechicago.org/

[Mandryka]

The Museum of Everything, in a former barber's shop on Chiltern Street in London's West End.

http://www.musevery.com/#main

It is a museum dedicated to outsider art, and IMO is interesting and thought provoking. Recommended.

[ritter]

Visited the Balthus exhibition that just opened at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza here in Madrid.

It's actually very well laid out, covering the whole of the painter's career (who, although he did evolve along the years, was also very coherent throughout). I must say I think there's much to admire in Balthus's art, e.g. his incorporation of the techniques  of the old masters, and—to an extent—his independent path (even if de Chirico and, later on, Matisse are not too far away). But, strangely, I honestly feel little love for his work, which I find unsettling without any real reason ("effect without cause"?).

Here one of the more notable paintings, The Card Game (which is in the Thyssen's permanent collection):

[Brian]

For its 200th birthday, the NYT sent a reporter who's been to the Prado many, many times back - to see every single room, walk down every single hallway, and try to catch every single artwork in the place. The question: How much would he find that he didn't expect to find, or didn't know about? The answer: a lot.

[André]

As of May there will be a Gauguin exposition in Ottawa. Some 40 works. It will then travel to London's National Gallery. I love these traveling exhibitions.

[Artem]

Would love to visit that one if I happened to be in either of the cities, Ottawa preferably.

[Wanderer]

Museums visited in the last six months. Temporary exhibitions in parentheses.


Paris, March 2019

Musée du Louvre
Musée Jacquemart-André (Hammershøi, le maître de la peinture danoise)
Musée Bourdelle
Centre Pompidou - Musée National d'Art Moderne
Musée du Luxembourg (Les Nabis et le décor - Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis...)
Musée de l'Orangerie (Franz Marc / August Macke. L'aventure du Cavalier bleu)
Musée Maillol (La Collection Emil Bührle)
Musée Rodin
Musée Gustave Moreau
Musée d'Orsay (Le "Talisman" de Sérusier, une prophétie de la couleur)
Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
Fondation Louis Vuitton (La Collection de la Fondation. Le parti de la peinture & La Collection Courtauld. Le parti de l'impressionisme)
Beaux-Arts de Paris (Léonard de Vinci et la Renaissance italienne)


Naples, February 2019

Museo Archaeologico Nazionale di Napoli
Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte (Depositi di Capodimonte. Storie ancora da scrivere)
Pio Monte della Misericordia
Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro
Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano (Rubens, van Dyck, Ribera. La collezione di un principe)


Florence, February 2019

Gallerie degli Uffizi (Flora Commedia. Cai Guo-Qiang agli Uffizi)
Galleria dell'Accademia
Museo del Bargello
Cappelle Medicee
Opera di Santa Croce
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
Cappella Brancacci
Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Palazzo Vecchio
Palazzo Pitti


Rome, February 2019

Musei Capitolini
Musei Vaticani (Winckelmann. Capolavori diffusi nei Musei Vaticani)
Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Galleria Colonna
Palazzo Barberini (La stanza di Mantegna)
Galleria Corsini
Braccio di Carlo Magno (Pilgrimage of Russian Art - From Dionysius to Malevich)
Galleria Spada
Palazzo Altemps
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Galleria Borghese (Picasso. La scultura)
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
Villa Poniatowski
Complesso del Vittoriano (Pollock e la Scuola di New York)


Munich, January 2019

Alte Pinakothek (Florenz und seine Maler: von Giotto bis Leonardo da Vinci)
Pinakothek der Moderne (Die Irrfahrten des Meese, RESET. PIPILOTTI RIST – HIMALAYA GOLDSTEINS STUBE)
Schackgalerie (ERZÄHLEN IN BILDERN. EDWARD VON STEINLE UND LEOPOLD BODE)
Museum Brandhorst (Cy Twombly: In the Studio)
Lenbachhaus (Phantastisch! Alfred Kubin und Der Blaue Reiter)
Kunstbau (Weltempfänger - Georgiana Houghton, Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz)
Residenz
Haus der Kunst (Jörg Immendorff: Für alle Lieben in der Welt, Kapsel 09: Raphaela Vogel, Kapsel 10: Khvay Samnang)
Museum Villa Stuck (Thomas Hirschhorn »Never Give Up The Spot«)


Vienna, November 2018

Kunsthistorisches Museum (Bruegel, Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and other Treasures)
Naturhistorisches Museum (Krieg. Auf den Spuren einer Evolution)
Weltmuseum
Albertina (Claude Monet, Niko Pirosmani)
Belvedere (Egon Schiele. Wege einer Sammlung, DER KREMSER SCHMIDT. ZUM 300. GEBURTSTAG, DONNA HUANCA. PIEDRA QUEMADA)
Kunstforum Wien (Faszination Japan: Monet · Van Gogh · Klimt)
Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien zu Gast im Theatermuseum

[JBS]

I am visiting Washington DC for a few days.  Today's museums

Museum of American History
National Archives
Museum of African American History and Culture

All of them are part of the Smithsonian, and therefore no admission charged.

Only saw half or a third of each because of time limits and crowds. It seems like every high school in the Midwest has picked this week for their spring tour, resulting in the museums being packed with teenagers.  Almost all are well behaved, but lines are long and exhibits crowded with adolescents. Having to have security checks at each museum does not help.

The Archives were a disappointment because the chief display is the Rotunda, with the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Of the three, only the Constitution has not faded to the point of being completely unreadable.

The Museum of African American History was the most interesting, and also the newest. The floor of cultural exhibits includes a large segment devoted to music, with artifacts connected to various musicians, especially clothes and instruments.  The trumpets of both Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong are displayed, for instance. Most dramatic object in the exhibit was Chuck Berry's red Eldorado Cadillac.

Tomorrow's visits are to be the Newseum, the National Portrait Gallery,  and a couple of Civil War related sites. 

[Florestan]

I am visiting Washington DC for a few days.  Today's museums

Museum of American History
National Archives
Museum of African American History and Culture

All of them are part of the Smithsonian, and therefore no admission charged.

Wait a minute! You mean that in the uber-capitalist USA ther are museums free of charge?

Take that, socialist Europe, where you often have to pay to visit even a rather small church.

[Christo]

Take that, socialist Europe, where you often have to pay to visit even a rather small church.

Come on, I rarely ever pay any entrance fee - for very practical reasons (something with money) I learnt the trick never to spend any on entrance fees when I was a student and still had no difficulty in staying for a week in Venice (church hostel) and see (almost) everything I wanted. If you don't like the fuss and fees of Florence, you go to the cathedral of neighbouring Prato, switch on the lights and discover - for yourselves, all alone - some of the most beautiful frescos (Fra Lippo Lippi and much more). After that, you can have the whole town of Pistoia for yourself, with again some of the most beautiful churches ever. But neither in Berlin, where I spent four days with my boy (12) early this month and did exactly the same: saw museums, churches, palaces (Potsdam) and we greatly enjoyed them, all for free. ASO: no money needed, except for those crowded places that you wanted to avoid anyhow. 

[Florestan]

Come on, I rarely ever pay any entrance fee - for very practical reasons (something with money) I learnt the trick never to spend any on entrance fees when I was a student and still had no difficulty in staying for a week in Venice (church hostel) and see (almost) everything I wanted. If you don't like the fuss and fees of Florence, you go to the cathedral of neighbouring Prato, switch on the lights and discover - for yourselves, all alone - some of the most beautiful frescos (Fra Lippo Lippi and much more). After that, you can have the whole town of Pistoia for yourself, with again some of the most beautiful churches ever. But neither in Berlin, where I spent four days with my boy (12) early this month and did exactly the same: saw museums, churches, palaces (Potsdam) and we greatly enjoyed them, all for free. ASO: no money needed, except for those crowded places that you wanted to avoid anyhow. 

Come on --- do you really want me to believe you that you paid nothing in Venice, Florence or Berlin museums? Sorry, I don't buy it (pun).

[Christo]

Come on --- do you really want me to believe you that you paid nothing in Venice, Florence or Berlin museums? Sorry, I don't buy it (pun).

Not a penny, during a couple of visits (except for the occasion I wanted to see Uffizi, but that has been the only one IIRC).

[Florestan]

No penny, during a couple of visits (except for the occasion I wanted to see Uffizi, but that has been the only one IIRC).

How on earth did you manage it?

And: there is a difference between managing not to pay the official admission price, and officially not being asked to pay anything.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

How on earth did you manage it?

And: there is a difference between managing not to pay the official admission price, and officially not being asked to pay anything.

I recall that in New York if you want to enter the Metropolitan Museum there is a "suggested donation." Somehow not calling it an admission fee has some favorable legal or tax implication. They depend on the fact that few have the nerve to decline to make the "suggested donation."

[Florestan]

I recall that in New York if you want to enter there is a "suggested donation." Somehow not calling it an admission fee has some favorable legal or accounting implication. They depend on the fact that few have the nerve to decline to make the "suggested donation."

I  certainly would have the nerve not to pay anything which is not mandatory, and anyway less that suggested. Donation? Yes, I donate my time. 

[JBS]

Wait a minute! You mean that in the uber-capitalist USA ther are museums free of charge?

Take that, socialist Europe, where you often have to pay to visit even a rather small church.

James Smithson, whose bequest was the origin of the Smithsonian complex, specified that the public be admitted at no charge.

Today, the Newseum, the highlight being nothing to do with news per se, but a small section of the Berlin Wall (perhaps 20 feet long or so) and guard tower with accompanying searchlight. Also an exhibit showing every photograph that has won the Pulitzer Prize. Not being psrt of the Smithsonian, the ticket cost $25 per person.
Clara Barton Missing Soldier's Office, which she established immediately after the Civil War, to help families locate soldiers who had disappeared in the chaos of the war (at least half of those she located had died, many of them among those who died in Andersonville Prison).
The National Portrait Gallery and Gallery of American Art, one of those museums that requires at least a full day, possibly two, so I only looked through the galleries on early American art and the Presidential portraits.

[JBS]

Flying home now, so pictures here
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDyo5Gh
Grand finale at night

Trumpets belong to Armstrong and Gillespie, Cadillac to Chuck Berry, jacket to Miles Davis, at the African American Museum.

[Wanderer]

Recently visited museums (temporary exhibitions in parentheses).

Amsterdam, May 2019

Van Gogh Museum (Hockney - Van Gogh)
Collectie Six
Rijksmuseum (All the Rembrandts)
Stedelijk Museum (Maria Lassnig - Ways of Being, Pinball Wizard - The Work and Life of Jacqueline de Jong, Hybrid Sculpture, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca - You Are Seeing Things)


Den Haag, May 2019

Mauritshuis


Vienna, June 2019

Ernst Fuchs Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum (Mark Rothko, The Master of Heiligenkreuz, grey time – Fractions of the Museum, The Last Day)
Albertina (Rubens bis Makart. Die Fürstlichen Sammlungen Liechtenstein, Rudolf von Alt und seine Zeit. Aquarelle aus den Fürstlichen Sammlungen Liechtenstein, Die Neue Sachlichkeit, Hermann Nitsch. Räume aus Farbe, Sean Scully. Eleuthera)
Leopold Museum (Oskar Kokoschka, Olga Wisinger-Florian, Edmund Kalb, Vienna 1900 - Birth of Modernism)
Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Vertigo. Op Art and a History of Deception 1520–1970, Dorit Margreiter. Really!, Pattern and Decoration. Ornament as Promise, Christian Kosmas Mayer. Aeviternity)
Naturhistorisches Museum (MELTDOWN. A Visualization of Climate Change by Project Pressure, Nightwatch. A visual conjunction of art and astronomy)
Ephesos Museum
Gartenpalais & Stadtpalais Liechtenstein - DIE FÜRSTLICHEN SAMMLUNGEN
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (Kiki Smith. Procession, Talking Heads. Contemporary Dialogues with F.X. Messerschmidt, Fast & Fluid. The Fascination of the Oil Sketch)
Museum für angewandte Kunst (UNCANNY VALUES. Artificial Intelligence & You, Vienna Biennale for Change 2019)
Prunksaal der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek
Kunstforum Wien (Flying High: Women Artists of Art Brut)
Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien zu Gast im Theatermuseum (Off the cuff. A joint view on commedia dell'arte, Bosch & Kühn - Korrespondenzen)
Theatermuseum (Everybody dances. The Cosmos of Viennese Dance Modernism)
Kaiserliche Schatzkammer Wien
Haus der Geschichte Österreich
Papyrusmuseum der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek
Weltmuseum Wien (Nepal Art Now, The Elegance of Hosokawa , Korridor des Staunens, Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente)


Athens

National Archaeological Museum (Οι αμέτρητες όψεις του Ωραίου / The countless aspects of Beauty, Αδριανός και Αθήνα. Συνομιλώντας με έναν ιδεατό κόσμο / Hadrian and Athens. Conversing with an Ideal World)
Benaki Museum Peiraios 138 Annex (Δρόμοι της Αραβίας. Αρχαιολογικοί Θησαυροί από την Σαουδική Αραβία / Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures from Saudi Arabia)
Acropolis Museum


Archaeological Museum of Olympia
Archaeological Museum of Eleusis
Archaeological Museum of Agrinion