RESEARCH : The difference between spirituality and religion

http://www.the-open-mind.com/7-differences-between-religion-and-spirituality-1/
http://www.mindvalleyacademy.com/blog/spirit/differences-between-religion-and-spirituality
https://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2012/05/31/what-difference-between-religion-and-spirituality

Religion is learning  from someone elses experience, spirituality is having your own experience.

Religion is belief  in someone else experience, spirituality is having your own experience.

People tend to think of spirituality as something very strange and mysterious and can struggle to differentiate it from religion. This perhaps stems from modern-day society having a fear of being manipulated and have a lack of knowledge when it comes to non-material subjects.

Spirituality is simply your own conscious self recognizing that you are more than just a body, that you are a soul with infinite potential.

Spirituality reminds us that we are not separate, there are no borders, no races and no cultural divides.

1. There are no rules to Spirituality

As opposed to following a specific ideology or a set of rules spirituality allows you to listen. Listen to your intuition and do what is right for yourself and others around you. It truly sets you free to be the best you can be and to be a good person with no promise of punishment or reward. The reward is simply your own inner happiness.

2. Spirituality is based only on love and not fear

Dotted throughout religion there is lots of fear. Fear of the consequences of your actions, fear of what might happen after you die if you don’t live your life accordingly.

Well, with spirituality there is only Love, it encourages you to focus all of your energy only on the good, and to act only based on love.

It shows you How to Stand Despite Being Afraid, how to move on doing what you feel it’s right despite the consequences that may come. It shows you how to act on love and not on fear, it shows you how to control fear and use the best of it.

3. Religion tells you the truth – Spirituality lets you discover it

As opposed to telling you in black and white how the universe was created and why we are here, Spirituality lets you discover these questions and answers for yourself.

It empowers you to find your own truth in all things and sets no limits to how deep you can go in understanding all there is to know.

4. Religion segregates, Spirituality unites

Through our world there are many religions and they all preach that their story is the right story.

Spirituality sees the truth in all of them and unites them because the truth is same for all of us despite our differences and uniqueness.

It focuses on the quality of the divine message they share and not on the differences in details of the story they speak.

5. Walk your own path

Instead of learning only from ancient stories, spirituality encourages you to make your own path and create your own stories. This sets you on a journey of enlightenment and self-discovery to which the only limits can be set by yourself.  If you look at religion it all stems from a deep spirituality. Jesus and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) for example all had deeply profound spiritual journeys before they embarked on their own journeys.



 "To me, religions are like languages: no language is true or false; all languages are of human origin; each language reflects and shapes the mindset of the civilization that speaks it; there are things you can say in one language that you cannot say or cannot say as well in another; and the more languages you know, the more nuanced your understanding of life.... In the end, however, the deepest language of the soul is silence."  Rabbi Rami Shapiro, 2017

RESEARCH: butterfly as symbolism and metaphore in religion and philosophy

Monarch Butterfly Spiritual Meaning

Monarch Butterfly Spiritual Meaning – Monarch butterflies are beautiful creatures. They radiate inspiration, beauty and tenderness. They fly gracefully but silently. Watching them fly entertains our senses. But Monarch butterflies have deeper meaning then just being a beautiful creature. They are messengers of the spiritual and angelic world.

A Sign From The Angels – one of the most popular signs from the angels are butterflies. Seeing a Monarch butterfly is a sign from your guardian angels. They want to remind you of their presence. Your guiding Celestial Beings sent the Monarch butterfly your way as a sign that you are on the right path. And your angels are guiding you and protecting you.

A Sign Of Rebirth And Transformation – a common Monarch Butterfly Spiritual Meaning is that they are symbols of rebirth, change and transformation. Therefore, seeing this beautiful creator is a sign that you need a change. You have to make the right changes in your life. You are the only one who can transform your own life. Find a new beginning. And live your life as you have been reborn.

A Sign From The Spiritual Realms – if someone you cared for died recently, then the Monarch butterfly might be a sign. The souls of diseased ones often communicate with us through butterflies. Because butterflies easily travel between worlds. Hence, they became the messengers of the spiritual world. A loved one of yours who passed away recently wants to send you a sign that his/her spirit lives on. It is usually a sign of well being.

Carrier Of The Spirits – butterflies are often depicted as vessels for diseased ones to make themselves sensed in the physical world. Spiritual creations can put their soul essence into the butterfly. And send it to you as a message. That the afterlife is real.

A Sign Of Spiritual Transformation – if you are on a spiritual path, the monarch butterfly is an important sign. It is a sign that you achieved the transformation that you seek in yourself. And you are on the right path toward Spiritual Enlightenment. Be ambitious, and continue your path toward spiritual wisdom. Your spirit guides are close. And they protect you on your path.

Monarch Butterfly Spiritual Meaning – these beautiful colorful creatures have numerous meanings. They can be a sign from your angels, spirit guides and even diseased loved ones. So, next time you see a Monarch Butterfly, admire it. And find out its message for you.

https://spiritualexperience.eu/monarch-butterfly-spiritual-meaning/

Meaning of a Blue Butterfly

Meaning of a Blue Butterfly – There might be different reasons for you to discover the symbolism of the blue butterfly. Maybe it came into your life to help you. It came to bring some joy and happiness. If you started to meet this little colorful creature more often. Then it might be a sign. This sign could come from your angels to send you some encouragement. Or it came from the spiritual world. As the messenger from a diseased relative or friend.

Spiritual Meaning of a Blue Butterfly

The Meaning of a Blue Butterfly is complex. It is often a sign of life. They symbolize change and rebirth, regardless of their color. Blue butterflies represent love. Blue is one of the fresh colors. So, due to their colors, blue butterflies send us a vibration of joy and happiness. Looking at them or holding them can calm us or help us meditate. Due to their rarity, seeing one of these butterflies means also luck.

Blue butterflies are sacred in many cultures. Also, their beautiful and colorful form turns them into mysterious and spiritual creatures. They look like they belong to a different world from ours, a dreamy fantasy world. They are also gentle and feminine creatures. Due to their beauty and gentle wings. The Meaning of a Blue Butterfly can also symbolize a carefree life, with no stress or responsibilities. Their way of flying and walking on flowers and plants is seen as a dance of joy. Seeing a butterfly always makes us smile and feel happy and careless.

Spiritual Meaning of a Blue Butterfly

If you spot a butterfly or you feel that you need it in your life could mean the you need a change in your life. With the blue butterfly in your life, the change can be easy and positive. If you struggle and feel overwhelmed, you need a change. When you realize that, keeping this beautiful creature closer to you, can make it happen faster and easier. You can keep a picture of a blue butterfly some place where you often see it. If you see it more often, you will get more strength to change things in your life. Your courage will raise. Your life will be filled with happiness and joy. The stress will disappear.

There is another Meaning of a Blue Butterfly. They are considered wish granters. So next time you see one, you should make a wish. Or maybe you have already made a wish. And the appearance of this little, colorful creature is just enforcing the fact that your wish will come true in the near future.

https://spiritualexperience.eu/monarch-butterfly-spiritual-meaning/

Contemporary artwork Proposal Draft 2

Opportunity: International exhibition

Working title : Halakh/To know

Artist statement

The nature of digital technology erodes the limits of beurocratic process, conventions, physicallity, gender, geographic location, culture and language. This allows exploration for transending the boundaries of the physical, digital and the spiritual, and focusing on the transendental concerns of the  human experience, transformation and divine guidance. 

Sculpture details

Halakh is a virtual artwork accessed via a geolocation augmented reality mobile phone application. The application is free and available from the app store and will enable visitors to view and interact with the work.

The artwork will be realised by installing the artwork within major institutions around the world using geolocation placement. 

Initially particpants undertake a pilgramage to the geolocation sites, where the augmented reality experiences can be undertaken

To achieve this use a geolocation AR interface allows users to find the nearest location of the artworks. With a distance to artwork included.
While in this mode the user can choose which artwork/experience that they are journeying to. In essence the participant needs to undergo a pilgrimage.

 Once the initial site has been reached the map reveals the AR experience and participant are taken on a realitive gps guided walk. This augmented experience is guided along the path by an avatar,  and as checkpoints are reached, the visualisation shifts through chromatic hue, saturation and contrast dramatically altering the visual experience.. An audio element of osillating theta wave frequencies and spacial audio of glossolalia accompanies the work and can be listened to through mobile devices and headphones.As the participant moves within the location of the app, the spacial audio component orientates to the paths origin

The application will be hosted by the artists server as well as google play store and apple store and made publicly accessible in kind by the artist. There are no physical space requirements for the artwork as the application is triggered by virtual geolocation markers (refer to image 4). Meaning, that the artwork alters depending on the location of the participant. 

A marketing campaign will be included to raise awareness of the works existance due to the nature of augmented reality. In that it is invisible to the naked eye and requires active engagement. This can be provided in kind by the artist and include social media, online news media and printed media publications. Your page in the Swell catalogue would feature detaisl about how to experience the work, however perhaps consider a small billboard, or stand, or other structure that not only functions as instruction but doubles as a ‘physical’ sculpture.

Dimensions (mm) H x W x L:   Global

Footprint of Installation (mm x mm): global

Weight (kg): 0 

List materials used:

geolocation augmented reality application for iOS, andriod and windows

Sculpture Sale Price incl GST (if applicable) and 33% commission: NA

Individual Sculpture Pricing where individual works are for sale: NA

Artworks to be installed .. AR artworks each starting at different locations within the gallery

Ghosts at GOMA - temporality, ephemerality of the human condition. 

transformation walk - text based AR, words that once reached change the filter on the camera view (transformation through journey) 

Follow sound, tounges that you follow for a journey (spacial audio)

Images detailing the proposed project 

Image source: Geolocation based audmented reality interface URL: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fa/e7/58/fae758f1ce677ee08c3a38b97bab4ba5--location-based-service-smartphone-features.jpg. (Accessed 13 July 2017)

Visualisation of artwork onlocation at Turbine Hall, viewed on a mobile device.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2841/12081546355_e7be685149_b.jpg

Visualisation of artwork onlocation at Vatican, viewed on a tablet.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vatican.JPG

locations for the artwork placement are to be confirmed.

http://au.complex.com/style/2012/10/worlds-100-best-art-galleries/carmichael-gallery

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/museum-galleries/

This map indicates the location of GPS data points where 3d augmented reality objects will be located

Visualisation of the 3d model to be used in the Habel project

ARTIST RESEARCH: Marina Abramović - The Lovers, The Great Wall Walk

The Lovers, The Great Wall Walk 1988
1h 5' ,
Collection: Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Germany)
URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaso0j9x098 viewed 14 August 2017

In 1988, Ulay and Abramovic decided to end their relationship and to mark this with a performance, which became the legendary endpoint of their collaboration. After years of negotiations with the Chinese authorities, the artists got the permission to carry out 'The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk', in which they started to walk from different ends of the Chinese Wall in order to meet in the middle and say good-bye to each other. Abramovic started walking at the eastern end of the Wall, at Shan Hai Guan, on the shores of the Yellow Sea, Gulf of Bohai, walking westward. Ulay started at the western end of the Wall, at Jaiyuguan, the south-western periphery of the Gobi Desert, walking eastward. After they both continuously walked for 90 says, they met at Er Lang Shn, in Shen Mu, Shaanxi province. Here, they embraced each other to go on with their life and work separately from then on.
(from youtube description)

After six years of wrestling with the Chinese authorities, the project finally became reality for Ulay/Abramovic in 1988, at a time when they were already living separately and had gone through several years of crisis in their relationship, as they disclosed in an interview with Paul Kokke in 1997. Ulay stressed that in a way, this project was a symbol of a long-term relationship and collaboration that had spanned twelve years, a symbol of a strong magnetic relationship, but also of the end of their road together, for the "Great Wall Walk" was the first that they carried out separately, each of them alone. The Chinese chronicler alludes to this point at the end of the video tape when she asks the open question: "Did they ever truly find each other?"

The original manifestation of their symbiotic relationship, planned as the ultimate encounter, becomes a farewell at the end of the road. The conclusion of Ulay/Abramovic’s joint oeuvre of Performances is not only a symbol reflecting their time together but also the beginning of two new and different paths that they will follow separately and that find their analogy in the hike as a tabula rasa, an inner catharsis for new experiences (Haberer 2015)



Marina Abramović is a Yugoslav performance artist based in New York. Her work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Active for over three decades, Abramović has been described as the "grandmother of performance art." She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on "confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body." (kickass 2016)


Kickass 2016. "Lovers Abramović & Ulay Walk the Length of the Great Wall of China from opposite ends, Meet in the Middle and BreakUp" Accessed 25 September 2017. URL: http://kickasstrips.com/2015/01/lovers-abramovic-ulay-walk-the-length-of-the-great-wall-of-china-from-opposite-ends-meet-in-the-middle-and-breakup/

Haberer, Lilian 2015. "The Lovers, The Great Wall Walk 1988"  Accessed 25 September 2017. URL:http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-oeu.asp?ID=ML000044&lg=GBR

location of artwork placement

This post contains the 20 locations, an image, brief description and the gps data used in triggering the placement of the artwork. All twenty of them are respected leaders in their field of work, with an extraordinary and profound task of collecting, preserving and exhibiting the most important artworks created by the biggest names in the art world throughout time.Being home to the vast majority of the world’s most valuable paintings, sculptures, and artifacts, art museums are a chest of knowledge, providing a unique chance to navigate through the history of creative expression throughout the ages.

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Brandhorst, Munich

The Brandhorst Musem is a rather new but highly respectable German museum of contemporary art. It was opened in 2009 by the German state of Bavaria in order to house and showcase incredible contemporary art collection of Anette Brandhorst and her husband Udo Fritz-Hermann, heirs of Fritz Henkel, founder of the famous German chemical company. Brandhorst’s extraordinary collection, which was donated to the state after the death of Anette Brandhorst, includes a comprehensive selection of groundbreaking artworks created by artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Alex Katz. The museum’s unique two-storey building, with its multi-colored facade composed of thousands ceramic louvres glazed in different colors, houses three separate exhibition areas which are connected by stairs.

Featured image: Courtesy of Brandhorst Museum.

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Centre George Pompidou, Paris

The Centre George Pompidou has amazed and delighted visitors ever since it opened in 1977. Designed inside out, the architectural team ensured that the building itself was just as much of a conversation piece as the works inside. The dynamic and vibrant arts center organizes cutting-edge exhibitions, hands-on workshops, dance performances, cinemas and other entertainment venues. This ultra-contemporary artistic hub designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers displays France’s national collection of art dating from 1905 onward that is is housed on the 4th and 5th floor, as well as 100,000 international works by fauvists, cubists, surrealists, pop artists, contemporary artists and much more. South of the museum on place Igor Stravinsky, there are fanciful mechanical fountains of skeletons, hearts, treble clefs and a big pair of ruby-red lips, created by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Featured image: Centre George Pompidou, via Brianna Sommer

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Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Designed by Frank Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was hailed as the most important building of its time when it was opened in 1997. Gehry’s use of cutting-edge computer-aided design technology enabled him to translate poetic forms into reality. The resulting architecture is sculptural and expressionistic, with spaces unlike any others for the presentation of art. Located in Basque city of Bilbao in northern Spain, this spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone features exhibitions organized by the Guggenheim Foundation and by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, as well as selections from the permanent collection of the Guggenheim museums.  As part of the permanent collection visitors can see an installation by Fuyiko Nakaya, Louise Bourgeois‘ sculpture Maman, Jeff Koons’ kitsch whimsy sculpture Puppy, among others.

Featured images: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, via Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is an internationally renowned art museum and one of the most significant architectural icons of the 20th century. Founded on a collection of early modern masterpieces, the Guggenheim Museum today is an ever-evolving institution devoted to the art of the 20th century and beyond. The museum has one of the largest collections of Wassily Kandinsky‘s paintings in the world and features many modern masters such as Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Robert Delaunay, Marc Chagall and Fernand Léger. Today, it shows much more contemporary art, and has even done encyclopedic exhibits of the traditional arts of China and Africa. An ongoing series of exhibitions draws on the permanent collection of more than 6,000 works as well as loans from other institutions.

Featured image: Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao, via Guggenheim Museum

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Hamburger Bahnhof

Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart (Museum for the Present) is a  renowned contemporary art museum, part of the Berlin National Gallery, and the largest of six buildings housing its extensive holdings. It was opened in 1996 in a former railway station building, after Erich Marx, Berlin entrepreneur, donated his exceptional private collection of contemporary art to the city of Berlin. Since then Hamburger Bahnhof museum, considered as one of the world’s leading exhibition spaces for contemporary art, has been exhibiting modern and contemporary art through variety of temporary and permanent exhibitions, with works of great artists like Beuys, Kiefer, Rauschenberg, Haring and Warhol being on permanent display. Over the years the Hamburger Bahnhof expanded significantly, especially after Friedrich Christian Flick offered his comprehensive contemporary art collection, comprising of works by artists of the latter half of the twentieth century, as a long-term loan to the museum in 2004.

Featured images: Hamburger Bahnhof Installation View

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Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Located in the former Winter Palace of Russian Tsars, the Hermitage Museum is a palace marvel of Baroque architecture. The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 225 paintings from the Berlin. Today, it boasts over 2.7 million exhibitions and displays a diverse range of art and artifacts from all over the world. Among pieces spanning from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century, the collection includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, a unique collection of Rembrandts and Rubens, many French Impressionist works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissarro, numerous canvasses by Van Gogh, Matisse, Gauguin and several sculptures by Rodin. The experts say that if you were to spend a minute looking at each artwork on display in the Hermitage, you would need 11 years before you’d seen them all.

Featured images: The Large Italian Skylight Room. Courtesy of Hermitage.

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The Louvre, Paris

Located in a former royal palace on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, The Louvre is certainly the world’s largest and most famous museum and a historic monument and landmark of the city. Housing one of the most impressive art collections in history, it is a must-visit for anyone with a slight interest in art. The collection was first established in the 16th century as the private collection of the King Francis I. Among the first works he ever purchased was Michelangelo’s famous Mona Lisa. After the French Revolution in 1793, the museum became a national art museum and the collection was opened to the public. It now holds over one million works of art, of which about 35,000 are on display. This impressive and diverse collection spans from the Antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century.

Featured images: The Louvre Pyramid, via ArchDaily

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Moderna Museet Stockholm

Moderna Museet (or the Museum of Modern Art) Stockholm is a state funded contemporary art museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen, a setting of natural beauty in central Stockholm. Opened in a former drill hall in 1958 and later moved to its new building, the museum collects and exhibits all forms of contemporary art. Moderna Museet houses one of the world’s finest collections of Swedish and international modern and contemporary artworks, from the early twentieth century to today, including pieces by Dali, Picasso, Rauchenberg, Duchamp and Matisse. The museum’s first-class collection comprises of over five thousand paintings, sculptures and installations, some 25,000 drawings, prints and watercolors, and almost 100,000 photographs dating back to 1840. In addition to permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, Moderna Museet Stockholm also organizes various learning activities and children workshops relating to contemporary art. In 2009, Moderna Museet expanded to a new branch in the city of Malmö.

Featured image: Moderna Museet Installation View

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MOCA Los Angeles

Founded in 1979, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, or MOCA, is a widely praised, ground-breaking museum with one the most renowned permanent collections, which is steadily growing and today consists of almost seven thousand pieces of primarily American and European contemporary artworks. From its opening MOCA has been extremely committed to collection, preservation and presentation of all-media artworks dating back to 1940, and its work, especially its inventive programming based on multi-disciplinary approach,  has been so influential that it defined museums of contemporary art we know today. The museum is housed in three separate and unique facilities in greater Los Angeles, with its main branch located on Grand Avenue, the Geffen Contemporary in the Little Tokyo and MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Featured image: MOCA Los Angeles Installation View

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Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, or simply MACRO) is a renowned municipal museum active since 1999. The museum is situated in two separate venues, the first in a former slaughter house in Testaccio, and the second, larger one in a former brewery in Salario district. The MACRO’s permanent collection includes an overwhelming selection of some of the most significant artists of the Italian art scene since the 1960s, with a respectable addition of artworks created by influential international artists. The collection is so elaborate that its sheer size prompted the expansion to the second venue in 2010. With its cutting edge modern interior design and highly innovative approach to representation of contemporary artworks, MACRO is an extremely active museum of rather daring kind, rarely seen anywhere else in the world.

Featured image: MACRO Installation View

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Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai

The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai was founded in 2005 as the non-profit, independent contemporary art institution focused on the promotion of domestic and international contemporary artists. The museum organizes diverse exhibitions that include both established and emerging contemporary Chinese artists, as well as retrospective exhibitions of the world’s leading artists and designers. MOCA Shanghai’s exhibiton space of 1,800 square meters is situated on the ground floor and first level of the museum which are connected by a sweeping steel ramp. ‘MOCA on the Park’ is a restaurant situated on the museum’s third floor, used for opening ceremonies and private events and populated by various artworks created by renowned contemporary artists. In addition to exhibitions, MOCA Shanghai successfully organizes various seminars, talks, and educational programs throughout the year, for both adults and children.

Featured image: MOCA Shanghai Installation View

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Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Opened in 1995 and situated in Metropolitan Kiba Park, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), is dedicated to systematic research, collection, preservation and showcasing of post-WWII artists and designers from Japan and abroad. The museum holds almost five thousand pieces created by renowned contemporary artists, exhibited on rotation in its permanent collection gallery which occupies museum’s two floors, while three more floors of gallery space are used for temporary exhibitions. MOT’s building, made of stone, steel and wood, and featuring highlights such as V-shaped structural support, water and stone promenade and beautiful sunken garden, is a work of art in its own right. Many of the exhibitions utilize MOT’s extremely high ceilings and the opportunity to show large-scale works, while the Atrium, which is part of the collection exhibition space, is used to showcase spectacular installations which are displayed over the course of one year.

Featured image: MOT Installation View

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Museu Inhotim, Brumadinho

Located in Brumadinho in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Inhotim Museum is a home to one of the most important contemporary art collections in Brazil. Conceived in the mid-1980s by the businessman Bernardo de Mello Paz, this parcel of private land in the middle of the jungle was transformed into a unique place that blends art and nature. This incredible art-studded wonderland of tropical vegetation provides the perfect setting and working conditions for high-carat artists from all over the world. It holds work by both famous Brazilian artists, such as Cildo Meireles or Miguel Rio Branco, and international ones including Chris Burden, Matthew Barney, Paul McCarthy or Olafur Eliasson. Apart from the extensive contemporary art collection, the museum has a remarkable botanical collection containing rare species from every continent.

Featured image: Museu Inhotim, via inhotim.org

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The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

Located in a remodeled 18th-century hospital in Madrid, The Reina Sofia Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) was founded in 1992. Many of its artworks were initially transferred from the nearby Prado, and it’s now a treasure-house of contemporary and modern art. Two of the floors are devoted to temporary exhibits, while the other two are for the permanent collection which also covers Abstract, Pop, and Minimal Art movements. It holds some of the most important pieces of Spanish and international modern and contemporary art such as Picasso’s Guernica and Woman in Blue, Miró‘s enigmatic Portrait I, Dali‘s Landscapes at Cadaqués, Solana’s The Gathering at the Café del Pombo, Bacon‘s Reclining Figure, and a serene sculpture by Henry Moore. Additionally, the museum has a library specializing in the 20th century with over 10,000 volumes and approximately 1,000 periodicals.

Featured images: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, via theculturetrip.com

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Colloquially called The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been collecting and exhibiting work by living artists since its founding in 1870. Today, it holds over two million works from every category of art in every known medium from every part of the world during every epoch of recorded time is represented here and thus available for contemplation or study — not in isolation but in comparison with other times, other cultures, and other media. Some of their curatorial departments are Ancient Near Eastern Art, Arms and Armor, Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, The Costume Institute, European Paintings and Modern and Contemporary Art and many more. Located in three iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters, the museum also provides a comprehensive art history experience online.

Featured image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Betty Woodman Installation view, via David Kordansky Gallery

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MoMA, New York

New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, located in Midtown Manhattan and established in 1929, is widely considered as the world’s most influential modern and contemporary art museum, crucially important in developing and collecting modernist artworks, including painting, sculpture, photography, prints, books, films, architecture and design. The idea for the creation of MoMA was put to motion by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, daughter in law of John D. Rockefeller and Anson Conger Goodyear, American businessman and philanthropist. MoMA’s holdings of more than 150,000 pieces of art and approximately 22,000 films is probably the best and most comprehensive collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world. It includes some of the most legendary artworks created by a wide range of highly influential European and American artists such as Bacon, Dali, Cezanne, Ernst, Gauguin, Kahlo, Lichtenstein, Picasso, van Gogh, Warhol, Mondrian, Monet and Pollock.

Featured image: MoMA Inside View

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Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Palais de Tokyo (Site de création contemporaine) is a Paris-based museum of contemporary art situated in the western wing of the building of the same name which it shares with the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, located in the building’s eastern wing. Since its opening in 2002 Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum grew to become the meeting place for contemporary art lovers in Paris and one of the largest venues devoted to the art of our time in Europe, with its 22,000 square meters and three different levels of exhibition space, including its cavernous underground level. It is a truly vibrant place deeply committed to urban and graffiti art, that allows its audience to see cutting edge artworks in an up-to-the-minute, complex-free way.

Featured image: Palais de Tokyo Installation View

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Founded in 1935, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was the first museum on the West Coast dedicated to modern and contemporary art. With a goal to embrace the challenging and unexpected and encourage fresh ways of seeing, it showcases the most innovative art of its time. It collects and exhibits pieces by both modern masters and emerging talents. Presenting eight exhibitions each year in its main gallery, the program consists of solo, group and thematic shows, and represents a diverse range of art practices. Reflecting the Bay Area’s tradition of technological innovation and forward thinking, the museum was one of the first American art venues to recognize photography and film as art forms, and it championed architecture, design, and media arts before they were focuses of museum collecting.

Featured image: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, via San Francisco Chronicle

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Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington

Located beside the National Mall in Washington DC, Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was initially founded in the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. Part of the Smithsonian Institution, it holds important pieces of modern and contemporary art. Designed by  architect Gordon Bunshaft as an open cylinder elevated on four massive legs, the building itself is quite impressive. It is focused on exhibiting work from the post-World War II period, putting a special focus on art made during the last 50 years. Its collection includes Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Rothko and Bacon, and the sculpture garden features pieces by Rodin, Calderand Koons, among others.

Featured images: Installation view of Thom Browne Selects at the Smithsonian, via Arts Summary

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Tate Modern, London

Tate Modern is a Britain’s national museum of modern art, and one of the most visited modern and contemporary art galleries in the world. Founded in 2000 as a new and fourth branch in the Tate group of art museums, and located in the former Bankside Power Station on the south bank of the river Thames in London, Tate Modern holds the national collection of British art from 1900 until today, with an respectable collection of international modern and contemporary art. This rather comprehensive collection includes such treasures as Dali, Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Pollock, Judd and Beuys. The building still resembles the twentieth-century factory, both outside and inside, with five of its levels used as gallery space. The main collection is displayed in four wings, each with a different theme or subject.

http://www.widewalls.ch/10-contemporary-art-museums/

http://www.complex.com/style/2012/10/worlds-100-best-art-galleries/vitamin-creative-space

https://artreview.com/power_100/