Modern & Contemporary Art
Dedicated to twentieth- and twenty-first-century art — Impressionism through digital practice. MoMA, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou define the contemporary canon.
13 museums in this category
Quick answer
World Museum Guide lists 13modern & contemporary art worldwide — leading institutions include Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou — each with a full guide to admission, opening hours, and must-see highlights, so you can pick the right one for your trip.
Visiting tip
Allow time to experience the architecture, not just the art. Contemporary museums are often spatially generous.
Leading institutions
All modern & contemporary art
Paris, France
Centre Pompidou
Designed by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini, the Centre Pompidou turned the museum building inside out — exposing pipes, ducts, and escalators on its colourful facade. It opened in 1977 and remains one of the most influential pieces of late twentieth-century architecture.
Bilbao, Spain
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, with an exhibition of 250 contemporary works of art.
Brumadinho, Brazil
Inhotim
One of the world's largest open-air contemporary art museums — a 5,000-acre botanical garden and art complex in Minas Gerais with pavilions by artists including Tunga, Hélio Oiticica, and Adriana Varejão.
Humlebæk, Denmark
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Louisiana opened in 1958 in a 19th-century villa at Humlebæk, 35 kilometres north of Copenhagen on the coast of the Øresund strait. The museum grew organically over decades, with interconnected whitewashed gallery wings threading through the landscape of the clifftop park — creating one of the most harmonious relationships between art, architecture, and nature of any museum in the world.
FreeDoha, Qatar
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opened in 2010 in Doha's Education City, housed in a former school building redesigned by French architect Jean-François Bodin. It holds the world's largest specialised collection of modern and contemporary Arab art.
FreeMexico City, Mexico
Museo Jumex
Latin America's leading private contemporary art museum in Polanco — the Colección Jumex spans Pop Art, Minimalism, and contemporary Latin American artists in a David Chipperfield building.
New York City, United States
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world.
Hobart, Australia
Museum of Old and New Art
MONA — David Walsh's subterranean museum on the Berriedale peninsula, accessible by ferry from Hobart. Provocative contemporary art, antiquities, and Australia's most debated private collection.
Tokyo, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Founded in 1952, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT) was Japan's first national art museum. Its current building by Yoshiro Taniguchi opened in 1969 in Kitanomaru Park beside the Imperial Palace moat and was renovated in 2002.
San Francisco, United States
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Founded in 1935, SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast dedicated to modern art. Its 2016 expansion — designed by Snøhetta — nearly tripled its size to 170,000 square feet of gallery space, making it one of the largest modern art museums in the United States.
FreeLondon, United Kingdom
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art created from 1900 to the present day. It is part of the Tate group, together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives.
FreeLos Angeles, United States
The Broad
A contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, housing the Eli and Edythe Broad collection — Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room, Basquiat, Koons, and post-war American art.
FreeNew York City, United States
Whitney Museum of American Art
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney founded the museum in 1930 with her own collection of works by then-overlooked American artists. The museum moved into Renzo Piano's stepped building beside the High Line in 2015.
Common questions
What is a modern & contemporary art?
Dedicated to twentieth- and twenty-first-century art — Impressionism through digital practice. MoMA, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou define the contemporary canon.
Which modern & contemporary art should I visit first?
Allow time to experience the architecture, not just the art. Contemporary museums are often spatially generous. Our guides cover 13 modern & contemporary art on World Museum Guide.
How many modern & contemporary art are in the directory?
World Museum Guide lists 13 modern & contemporary art across 48 countries — with admission, hours, masterworks, and visit routes.