What is your favourite museum in the world and why?
Or perhaps one that you can highly recommend after discovering on your travels?
Perhaps you have more than one favourite or it’s a museum that you have been meaning to visit or perhaps it’s somewhere you discovered purely by chance when you visited a particular location.
One of my favourite museums is the Munch in Oslo. I had wanted to see The Scream for as long as I can remember!
Edvard Munch bequeathed a large portion of his work to the city before his death in 1940, and this museum is the result.
At Munch you will find three versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream – a painting, a drawing and a print. One of these is always on display, while the other two rest in the dark. This is the painting version as shown above in my photo. The other versions are displayed on rotation.
I’m greedy that way and won’t pick a favorite. There are ones I like for different reasons, just like with books.
I saw a Munch exhibit in San Francisco several years ago and came away thinking that dude was dark! Hard to tell for sure, though, because the curation of exhibits can certainly give different impressions even of one artist, style, etc.
@Maggie8K yes unfortunately his childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and his constant dread of inheriting a mental condition that ran in the family. Very sad but I love his work.
I can see why it’s compelling to explore darkness. I tend to enjoy a mix. I find Botero fun, for instance. I read that he just died. I didn’t even realize he was still alive!
The museums in Russia were amazing — specifically in St. Petersburg. They’re among ones I loved. But I saw them only once. Some museums change more than others over time, so hard to tell whether I’d love them the same if I went repeatedly.
We saw the Munch exhibition at Musee d’Orsay in Paris last fall. It not only showed many of his paintings, but shared his life story so one could understand him better.
We have visited so very many museums over the years, that it would be hard to pick a favorite. Seeing museums is one of the reasons we travel and house sit.
Hi @Mary.Willmon yes it’s definitely hard to choose a favourite… Musee d’Orsay is another of my favourites, oh and the Louvre!
One of the drawbacks for me with museums like the Louvre or Musée d’Orsay is how popular they are. It diminishes the experience for me when there are throngs of people at every turn. I was once at the Louvre toward closing and it was practically empty. That was an amazing experience.
I’ve also been to museums when my employers or organizations I belonged to rented out parts for events, when various parts had few people. That’s also very cool.
I remember this book I read as a kid, where two siblings ran away from home and secretly stayed at a museum. I loved that, LOL.
The Salvador Dalí museum/s in Figueres, Spain.
It was INCREDIBLE!
And when I say incredible, I mean I absolutely do not believe how one man did all that.
So many different media! The breadth and scope of his work is breathtaking. Every time you turn a corner, there’s something else that will surprise and delight.
There’s an equally amazing museum of Dalí’s jewelry designs. Everything is lit exquisitely and every piece is truly a work of art.
We were there all day, and we could have still done another lap through the museums, but we had deadlines and reservations. Definitely a detour from our route, but 1000% worth it.
I really loved the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp, Welcome in Museum Plantin-Moretus | Museum Plantin-Moretus
It is basically the printshop and home as it was four centuries ago, in the same place, with all the inventory.
When I was there I started listening to a visitor who was there with two granddaughters. He was explaining to them how it all was done, how he had learned to set type in lead when he was in typographer school in the old days. And it is amazing to realize how so many of the books that I have read were produced in this way.
Sounds brilliant! I visited his house about 45years ago in that area but don’t remember it being brilliant. However, no doubt it’s changed in all that time. I must return as love Dali
I’ve been to lots of museums and art galleries over the years but I’m afraid I have to plump for the V & A in London as being my favourite museum. There’s so much variety and they usually have some very different exhibitions - I loved the David Bowie exhibition for instance.
@Samox24 , the Munch Museum is a fascinating structure with a panoramic view of Oslo but it’s also study in misery.
Smithsonian, Washington, DC: National Portrait Gallery - Fascinating styles uniquely capture the personalities of famous Americans
Anywhere there’s a Laurie Anderson Exhibit: I saw one at the Hirschhorn. I also recommend her wonderful film, Heart of a Dog.
Bayernhof Museum of automated musical instruments in Pittsburgh, PA . Just as interesting is the life of the eccentric museum creator and collector of these contraptions.
Land of Lost Content, Craven Arms, Shropshire - unfortunately, the owners decided to retire and it’s now closed. It was a great collection of British memorabilia from times past.
You just reminded me of the Nethercutt museum! It’s in southern California. There were all the old cars, and also, a huge collection of mascots. (Hood ornaments) and a whole mess of automatic playing instruments.
https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1999/10/03/nethercutt-collection-visiting-706/
Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington, USA is absolutely amazing!
The best exhibition I ever saw was the collection of kimonos by Itchiku Kubota, who used an ancient stitching-dying technique called Tsujigehana.
Years ago, a friend showed me the catalog from the Smithsonian show called, To Dye For, that I had missed. I was so taken that when the show moved to the Canton, Ohio Museum of Art, I put my, then, 10-yr old daughter in the car and drove the nine hours from Pennsylvania to see it. She was not impressed – she endured it, but I was astounded.
His collection, called Symphony of Light, is a series of kimonos hung side by side that together form one continuous mural of the changing seasons. It’s now at his museum in Yamanashi, Japan, about 73 miles from Tokyo. I hope to get there to see it again one day.
You can scroll through the kimonos here:
https://thekubotacollection.com/collection/symphony-of-light
Wow! There are so many great museum’s in the world, but a few standout. One of my faves is the Academy of Sciences at home in San Francisco, they have permanent exhibits as well as visiting exhibits.
I discovered some very unique and bizarre museum when I lived I n Switzerland 20 years ago. In Lausanne they had an anatomy and physiological museum, and also an art museum with paintings made by people with mental health problems. Here’s an article that talks about some of Europe’s odd museum’s.
