Hamburger Kunsthalle

The Kunsthalle is one of the most important museums in Germany, with astonishing holdings through 700 years of European art history. There are star turns from the Elders Cranach and Holbein, Baroque big-hitters Tiepolo and Canaletto, and a lustrous line-up of Dutch Golden Age artists such as Rembrandt, Pieter de Hooch, and Anthony van Dyck. The 19^th-century French and German collection is also particularly strong, featuring Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Éduouard Manet, modernist pioneer Max Liebermann, and Caspar David Friedrich in all his Wanderer above the Sea of Fog glory. The Kunsthalle’s contemporary gallery features leading examples of Pop art, Arte povera, minimalism and conceptualism, as well as specially commissioned pieces, such as Jenny Holzer’s LED Ceiling Snake, a ticker-tape of characteristic truisms between the Kunsthalle’s old building and new wing. Alongside the permanent collection, the Kunsthalle’s exhibition program is excellent, with thematic as well as period- and artist-specific shows, and a strong run in exhibitions of women artists to offset all those Old Masters.