Germany Guide
Munich
The Pinakothek der Moderne
Address: Barer Strasse
Opening time: Tues, Wed & Fri– Sun 10am–6pm, Thurs 10am–8pm
Price: €9.50
Website: www.pinakothek.de
The baton of art history is again picked up by the third of the museums, the Pinakothek der Moderne, which gathers its somewhat disparate collections of classic modern and contemporary art, design and architecture around a striking central rotunda. Stephan Braunfels' clean modern architecture won much praise at the time of the museum's debut, though the building isn't perhaps quite as pleasing as the earlier Kunstmuseum in Bonn, and the layout's complexity means you'll need to hang on to your floorplan if you're to navigate the museum successfully.
All the same, it's a rewarding place to visit. Make a beeline for the Sofie and Emanual Fohn Collection on the first floor, which kicks off the museum's impressive selection of modern art with works by artists ridiculed as degenerate by the Nazis, including Kokoschka, Franz Marc and Jawlensky. There follows a gallery devoted to the Expressionist collective Die Brücke – where the highlights include Emil Nolde's gorgeous Nordermühle – and a roomful of works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Pride of place goes to Munich's own Expressionists of Der Blaue Reiter group, with works by Franz Marc, Kandinsky and others which even pre-World War I were strongly advocating abstraction, and there is considerable space devoted to Max Beckmann, including a scowling 1944 self-portrait. Close by there's a Picasso portrait of a seated Dora Maar from 1940 and a typically big, vivid postwar canvas, The Painter and His Model, from 1963.
From 2009 the east wing of the first floor will again display the museum's permanent collection of contemporary art, including room installations by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Fred Sandback as well as major works by Andy Warhol, Arnulf Rainer and Blinky Palermo. The museum's ground floor is devoted to architecture and to a rotating selection of the graphic works of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung. The basement is a temple to applied design, with everything from a streamlined 1930s Tatra car to classic modern furniture by Isamo Noguchi, Arne Jacobsen and Verner Panton. The labelling is somewhat hit-and-miss, however, and in the basement's further reaches there's a general feeling of a department store on a quiet day.