Moderna Museet — La Più Grande Collezione d'Arte Moderna della Svezia
Moderna museet (the Museum of Modern Art — on the island of Skeppsholmen between Gamla Stan and Djurgården, in the building designed by Rafael Moneo (1998) — the most important collection of modern and contemporary art in Scandinavia): the Moderna museet has one of the finest collections of 20th-century art in the world, with particular strengths in Surrealism (including Salvador Dalí's 'The Enigma of William Tell' (1933) and a major collection of works by Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and René Magritte), post-war American painting (including Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn Monroe' series and key works by Robert Rauschenberg), and Swedish and Nordic modern art.
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Moderna Museet — Picasso, Dalí, and Swedish Modernism
Moderna Museet (Exercisplan 4, Skeppsholmen island, 1958 building rebuilt by Rafael Moneo 1998, free permanent collection, ¥100–150 temporary exhibitions, Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm) is Sweden's museum of modern and contemporary art — the permanent collection (world-class: Picasso's Guitar and Mandolin, 1924; Dalí's Enigma of William Tell, 1933; Rauschenberg's Monogram, 1959, the stuffed goat with the tire around its middle; and the most complete collection of Dada works outside New York's MoMA) is displayed in rotating portions; the building's relationship to the Skeppsholmen island (the museum from the water, from the archipelago boats) is architecturally significant.
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Fotografiska — International Photography Museum
Fotografiska Stockholm (Stadsgårdshamnen 22, Södermalm, the former 1906 customs house on the Södermalm waterfront, private museum opened 2010, ¥185 adults, Sunday–Wednesday 10am–11pm, Thursday–Saturday 10am–1am) is the world's most visited photography museum — 4 major exhibitions per year (25+ photographers presented simultaneously), the rooftop restaurant (one of the most spectacular dining views in Stockholm, across the water to Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace), and the late opening hours (the only museum in Stockholm open past midnight on weekends) make it Stockholm's most distinctive museum experience.
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Millesgården — Carl Milles's Sculpture Terraces
Millesgården (Carl Milles Väg 2, Lidingö island, 20 minutes by Metro + ferry or bus, ¥150 adults, May–September daily 11am–5pm, October–April Tuesday–Sunday) is the most poetically beautiful sculpture museum in Scandinavia — Carl Milles (1875–1955, Sweden's most important sculptor, the hand of god fountains and the meeting of the waters fountain in St Louis, Missouri are his internationally most known works) built his home and studio on the Lidingö cliff overlooking Stockholm; the terraced sculpture garden (the figures on bronze pedestals hovering against the sky above the water) represents the museum's formal language.
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Nationalmuseum — Sweden's National Art Collection
Nationalmuseum (Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2, 1866 building renovated 2013–2018, ¥0 permanent collection, temporary exhibitions ¥100–170, Tuesday–Sunday 11am–5pm, Thursday to 8pm) is Sweden's principal museum of art, applied arts, and design — the permanent collection (700,000 objects spanning 500 years of Swedish and European art: Rembrandt's Kitchen Maid, 1651; Rubens' Bacchus, 1638; Carl Larsson's Swedish domestic paintings; the 19th-century collection of Swedish landscape painting — the forerunners of Nordic Romanticism) is the most comprehensive in the country; the museum shop (the most complete selection of Swedish design products in Stockholm) is worth visiting independently.
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Artipelag — The Forest Gallery by the Baltic
Artipelag (Artipelagsvägen, Gustavsberg, 20km east of Stockholm, car or taxi, or boat from Nybroplan in summer, ¥150–200 depending on exhibition, Tuesday–Sunday 11am–5pm) is the most environmentally integrated private art museum in Scandinavia — the building (2012, Johan Nyrén architects, the roof covered in pine trees, the glass walls drawing the Baltic Sea archipelago into the interior) and the outdoor sculpture trail (3km through the Värmdö forest) surround the exhibition galleries; Artipelag commissions large-scale outdoor installations (the winter light installations are the signature seasonal program) that respond to the specific terrain.
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Fotografiska New York and the Museum's Global Expansion
Fotografiska (which opened its flagship in Stockholm 2010) has expanded to New York (Park Avenue South, 2019), Berlin (Oranienburger Straße, 2021), and Tallinn (Telliskivi Creative City, 2019) — the Stockholm original remains the most architecturally significant (the 1906 brick Art Nouveau customs building) and the largest (7,000m² exhibition space across 4 floors); the museum's commercial model (high ticket price, late hours, quality restaurant, photo-book shop) has proved exportable; the Stockholm building's basement level (the photography book archive and reading room) is the element that the international branches have not replicated.