Art Museum Ranking – the Best 30 – in the world

A personal ranking of modern art museums visited by the site owner. There may be well-known museums or lesser-known museums. The ranking criteria includes “Impact”. If you are looking for an extraordinary space to reset, which is the theme of this site, please read the article. If you would like to go, please visit.

This page is “Ranking [World Edition]”. Please enter “Ranking [Japan Edition]” from the Top Page. Furthermore, Japanese modern art museums are also included in the “Ranking [World Edition]”.

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Ranking (#1~#30)

#1 : Chichu Art Museum (Naoshima Island, Japan)
“Island of Art” floating in the Seto Inland Sea. Step into the building and get intoxicated with the amazing space appears in front.
(Feb 10 2019)(Mar 27 2022 updated)

#2 : Chinati Foundation (Marfa, Texas, USA)
Marfa, Texas, USA. In a symbol of the town of art, walking the installations lined up in vast space, overwhelmed by a museum never experienced before. (Oct 29 2023)

#3 : Humburger Bahnhof Museum (Berlin, Germany)
Surprising at the special structure of the old station building in Berlin. Intoxicated by the excellent space with Japanese conceptual artworks.
(described on Feb 10 2019)(latest update on Apr 20 2024)

#4 : Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebaek, Denmark)
A suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. Museum like an ordinary house in a quiet residential area. After marvel at the radical works, the seascape appears in front.(described on Jun 22 2024)

#5 : Contemporary Art of Ibiza (Ibiza, Spain)
Ibiza, Spain. Finding the Museum in the land of “Club Heaven”. Full of aesthetic sense, and it makes me wonder if I am in a private residence.
 (Feb 10 2019)(Mar 20 2020 updated)

#6 : Punta della Dogana (Venice, Italy)
Venice, Italy. Tadao Ando renovated the building that was once used as a customs office in a modern style. Admiring the harmony between the brick walls and the contemporary artworks. (Feb 10 2019)(Mar 29 2020 updated)

#7 : Benesse House (Naoshima Island, Japan) 
”Island of Art” floating in the Seto Inland Sea. Enjoy the unrealistic feeling at the annexed hotel and the night museum. 
(Feb 10 2019) (Apr 29 2022 updated)

#8 : Enoura Observatory (Odawara, Japan)
Probably a museum, but not like museum in the suburbs of Odawara city in Japan. Experience a new form of contemporary art. 
(Feb 10 2019)(Apr 12 2020 updated)

#9 : Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Fort Worth, TX, USA)
Fort Worth, Texas, USA.  Impressed with musuem building consisting of the familiar bare concrete structure by Tadao Ando and the high quality of the artworks. (described on Jul 26 2020)

#10 : Joan Milo Museum (Barcelona, Spain)
Barcelona, ​​Spain. Unusual in this city full of tourists, in a place with relatively few people, putting in a luxurious space where only Milo’s artworks are exhibited. (Feb 10 2019)(Apr 18 2020 updated)

#11 : Kolumba Museum (Koln, Germany)
Cologne, Germany. The space with white ceiling, white walls, and a white floor, admire the exquisite balance of antique art and modern paintings. (Feb 10 2019)(Apr 5 2024 updated)

#12 : Berardo Collection Museum (Lisbon, Portugal)
Lisbon, Portugal. At the end of the western part of Europe, surprising to find a textbook-like place in the Museum of Contemporary Art. 
(Feb 10 2019)(May 1 2020 updated)

#13 : ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (Aarhus, Denmark)
3 hours by train from Copenhagen, Denmark. Admired the scale of the art museum in a local city, got stuck in the permanent installation exhibition area.(Apr 13 2024)

#14 : National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Canada)
Ottawa, eastern Canada. Settling in a modern and huge museum and feeling the importance of space in the museum. 
(Feb 10 2019)(May 2 2020 updated)

#15 : Safnasafnid The Fork & Outsider Art (Akreyri, Iceland) 
Aqueiri, northern Iceland. Like a model for a privately running museum in a remote area, amazing at the existence of museum. 
(described on Feb 10 2019)(latest update on May 3 2020)

#16 : Lisson Gallery (London, UK)
London, England. Feeling the energy of advanced artworks in a place that can be called as small museum rather than gallery. 
(Feb 10 2019)(May 4 2020 updated)

#17 : The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Los Angeles, USA. Experiencing the interest, esoteric and fun of contemporary art in the California atmosphere. 
(Feb 10 2019)(May 5 2020 updated)

#18 : Guggenheim Bilbao Museum (Bilbao, Spain)
Museum in Basque country, dedicated to activate the town. The heterogeneity of the building and the space inside are full of extraordinary. 
(Feb 23 2020)

#19 : Dali-Theatre Museum (Figueres, Spain)
Figueres, a suburb of Barcelona, ​​Spain. Checking if there is a correlation between Dali’s artworks expresses the unreal space and the place where Dali grew up. (Feb 10 2019)(May 10 2020 updated)

#20 : de Young Museum (San Francisco, CA, USA)
San Francisco, USA. The city itself is like a museum, and feeling the background of the hippie culture. 
(Feb 10 2019)(May 16 2020 updated)

#21: Mexico Museum of Modern Art (Mexico City, Mexico)
Mexico City, The museum city, surrounded by colorful artworks, feeling the power of Mexican Art. 
(Jul 24 2021)

#22 : Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden)
Stockholm, Sweden. In the Scandinavian design kingdom, surprised to find an unexpected artwork. 
(Feb 10 2019)(Sep 7 2024 updated)

#23 : Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum (Niteroi, Brazil)
Brazil, Niterói. When seeing a special building that seems to have been designed by an UFO enthusiast, I raise a surprise voice.
 (Jan 31 2021)

#24 : The Museum of Modern Art / MOMA (New York City, USA)
New York City, USA. At the world’s previledge of modern art museums, encountered artworks generating heat for the first time. 
(Feb 10 2019)(Jun 6 2020 updated)

#25 : LACMA (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Los Angeles, USA. Encountering a variety of artworks at the largest museum on the west coast. 
(Feb 10 2019)(June 13 2020 updated)​

#26 : National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Tokyo. Experiencing Japanese modern and contemporary art in a spacious and quiet space. 
(Feb 10 2019)(Jun 20 2020 updated)

#27: Latin American Museum of Art (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 
Buenos Aires, Argentina. Find the best museum in South America in a beautiful city called ”Paris in Europe” and feel the energy of Latin American art. (Sep 26 2021)

#28 : MAMAC (Nice, France)
Nice, France. Overlaying the color of the Nice sea with International Klein Blue. (Feb 10 2019)

#29 :  Nakamura Keith Haring Collection (Yamanashi, Japan)
Keith Haring Museum in Yamanashi. Feeling the 80’s while watching the artworks of the pioneer of street art. 
(Feb 10 2019)(Aug 23 2020 updated)

#30 :  Branton Museum of Art (Austin, Texas, USA)
Austin, Texas, USA. After appreciating the fulfilling Latin American artworks, come across a sight that feels the friendliness of the people of Texas. (Apr 25 2021)

Runner-Up (It is not ranked, but strongly recommend to visit)

Museum of Modern Art, Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand)
Suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand. Interested in many Buddhist-based artworks exhibited in modern architecture. 
(Nov 23 2019)

Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Tel Aviv, Israel. Wandering through a maze-like building, losing track of where I am and superimposing this situation on Israel’s complex history. 
(Sep 27 2020)

Towada Art Center (Towada city, Aomori, Japan)
Towada City, Aomori Prefecture. Experience the contemporary art by overturning the stereotypical concept of museum architecture.
(Mar 5 2023)

Tate Modern (London, UK)
London, one of the world’s three major modern art museums. Explore the vast space, huge number of artworks, thinking the British collection mania.
(Apr 9 2023)

Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas, USA)
Dallas, Texas, art museum with natunal history. At the entrance, greeted by the staff, and in the exhibition room, greeted by the staff when having eye contact and feel the friendliness of the people here. (Jun 11 2023)

Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori, Japan)
Aomori city in Japan. Step into the space unified in white color and go down to the basement, Chagall appears in the vast space and filled with a sense of fulfillment. (Jun 24 2023)

Artizon Museum (Tokyo, Japan)
The center of Tokyo. When entering a modern building and see a rich collection of abstract paintings, I have the illusion that I am in an overseas museum. (Sep 2 2023)

Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art (Roswell, New Mexico, USA)
UFO incident city, Roswell, New Mexico, USA. Entering the gallery-style museum, overwhelmed by the space filled with artworks.
(Sep 16 2023)

Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (Chiba, Japan)
Art museum surrounded by greenery. In the Mark Rothko Room, admire the colors of the indistinct rectangular outline, meditate and get rid of distractions. (Sep 30 2023)

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Ishikawa, Japan)
Kanazawa. Inside the museum, which was the first to adopt the concept of a box-shaped museum, found artwork by James Turrell and looked up at the blue sky. (Ot 15 2023)

Hara Museum ARC (Gunma, Japan)
In the north part of Tokyo. Stroll through the relaxing space at the foot of the mountain and encounter a space that combines Japanese and contemporary art. (Mar 3 2024)

Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
A gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Visiting an exhibition by an artist never heard of, amazed by the excellent works and space.
(Mar 16 2024)

Boros Collection (Berlin, Germany)
Berlin, Germany. Step into a building with a strange atmosphere, admire contemporary art in a special space, and remember the history that once unfolded in this place. (May 11 2024)

Others (Worth to Visit)

Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR, USA) 
Portland, Oregon. Amazed at the good taste of contemporary art space and inferred the influence of a liberal environmental city. 
(Nov 27 2021)

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene, OR, USA)
At the university-affiliated art museum, encountered a tasteful artworks, and wonders whether this is the influence of a city where hippie culture remains. (Jan 9 2023)

El Paso Museum of Art (El Paso, Texas, USA)
Border town, El Paso, Texas, discover an empty and quiet space, feel the underlying strength of the art culture of the American South.
(Aug 18 2023)

MOCA Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan)
Taipei, Taiwan. The contrast between the historic red brick building and the contemporary art on display makes me imagine the hidden history of this place. (Jun 9 2024)

New National Gallery (Berlin, Germany)
Berlin, Germany. After gazing out the modern art in chronological order, enter the cafe and sip a coffee while seeing the chandeliers and wallpaper.
(Jul 6 2024)

Art Factory Jonan island (Tokyo, Japan)
A warehouse district in the south part of Tokyo. After passing through a maze of carbon paper blocks, find a space paved with more than 10,000 bricks, and meditate in a quiet, empty space. (Feb 17 2024)

Museum Ludwig  (Cologne, Germany)
Cologne, Germany. At the museum next to the Cologne Cathedral, seeing artworks from the 1900s and think back to the 1960s, when pop art flourished.
(Sep 15 2024)

Artist / Artworks

On Kawara / Date Painting
In front of the “Date Painting” by On Kawara, a pioneer of conceptual art born in Japan, I ponder my own memories of the past.
(Mar 25 2023) (Aug 14 2023 updated)

Prada Marfa (Texas USA)
”Prada” store in Texas, USA. At the sunsets, filled with a sense of accomplishment as seeing the art that shines in the silence and melts into the wilderness. (Aug 5 2023)

Women of the Revolution / Anselm Kiefer
Peeking into the exhibition room, feeling an extraordinary atmosphere and be overwhelmed by the power that fills the space, unable to move.
(Nov 12 2023)

Tatsuo Miyajima_Digital Counter
MOCA Tokyo. Facing a large digital counter board, meditating while taking in the clarity of the numbers and the vague shadows reflected on the floor.
(May 25 2024)

(described on Feb 10 2019)
(latest update on Sep 15 2024)

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