Munich Art District: Pinakothek Museum Mile

Tour stops

1. 1. Pinakothek der Moderne

   Four collections under one roof. 🤩 Modern and contemporary art, works on paper, architecture and design, all in Stephan Braunfels's daylight-filled rotunda. The art holdings run from the classical modernists through to the present; the design collection is one of the largest anywhere. It is closed on Mondays, like most of the museums on this street, and cheap on Sundays.

2. 2. Museum Brandhorst

   Contemporary art, from one collection. 💥 Udo and Anette Brandhorst gave the state some 700 works, and this building was put up to hold them. Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly dominate — the Twombly rooms, built to his specification, are the reason many people come. The facade is 36,000 glazed ceramic rods, and the colour shifts as you walk past it.

3. 3. Alte Pinakothek

   European painting from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. 🕰️ Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens, Leonardo, Raphael. The Rubens holdings are among the largest in the world, gathered by the Wittelsbachs over generations rather than bought as a museum collection. The building is nineteenth-century and was rebuilt after the war; the scars on the brickwork were deliberately left visible.

4. 4. Glyptothek

   Glyptothek

5. 5. Staatliche Antikensammlungen

   More ancient treasures. 🏺 Facing the Glyptothek across Königsplatz, the Antikensammlungen hold Greek, Etruscan and Roman objects rather than sculpture. The Greek vases are the strength of it — one of the best collections of painted pottery anywhere — along with gold, bronze and glass. One ticket covers both museums if you visit on the same day.

6. 6. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus

   Home of the Blue Rider. 💙 Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, Paul Klee — the group that formed in Munich in 1911 and scattered when the war came. Münter hid a large number of their works in her cellar through the Nazi years and gave them to this museum in 1957, which is why the collection is what it is. The building is a nineteenth-century villa with a bright modern extension.

7. 7. Mandarin Oriental, Munich

   Luxury and art side by side. ✨ You do not have to be staying to walk into the lobby and look. The hotel shows work by local artists, changed periodically, and the building itself is a nineteenth-century ballroom converted. It sits between the Residenz and the Viktualienmarkt, which makes it a convenient marker rather than a detour.

8. 8. Zentrum Neue Technologien (ZNT)

   Unexpected art in a technology museum. 🤖 The Zentrum Neue Technologien sits inside the Deutsches Museum and covers nanotechnology, biotechnology and robotics. It hosts temporary installations where art and engineering overlap, changed periodically. Worth checking what is on before making the trip; the permanent displays are the reason most people come.

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