This is a vaguely-defined question, but I'd be curious to hear what you think.

In the broadest sense, I consider modern art to be anything after about 1880 to the present. But the precise definition doesn't really matter.

London has the Tate Modern.
Paris has the Pompidou Center.
Amsterdam has the Van Gogh museum.
Madrid has the Prado.
Bilbao has the Guggenheim.

What are some other notable museums and places to see?

If you were to pick one city for its modern art, which would it be?

Amsterdam also has the Stedelijk Museum; well known for its collection of modern art.

There is the Saatchi Gallery in London, too.
The Pompidou has the largest MA collection on the planet. The city of Paris also has a MAM and there is also the Centre Cartier, so I guess that would be my pick, although I have been known to take the Eurostar to London for a day trip to the Tate Modern, because I simply LOVE that place.

I can't believe you left out Barcelona but many of its Modern art masterpieces are not in museums: There's Parc Guell that's an Antonio Gaudi spectacular and there's Sagrada Familia Church that's still under construction.

If you're limiting yourself to Modern Art I think you should remove Madrid's Museo del Prado from your list.

Madrid: Centro de Arte de la Reina Sofia houses Picasso's Guernica.

One city for its modern art: Barcelona

While relatively small and not housing all high profile work, the Guggenheim in Venice is amazing and was Peggy Guggenheim's place in the modern art world.

There is also the Picasso Museum in Paris. Rodin (1840 - 1917) almost fits your dates and the Museum in Paris is a treat http://www.rodinmuseum.org

Doesn't the Jeu de Paume in Paris show modern art? Also, the Musee d'Orsay, with impressionist & post impressionist art, fits the dates.

I greatly enjoyed the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, very impressed by their collection.

The Impressionists at the D'Orsay would fit.

The Louisiana Museum in Denmark.

I just returned from Venice and really enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.I'm not a great fan of modern art,but the combination of the art with the natural beauty of Venice is stunning.

Peggy Guggenheim's museum for certain. She had a personal relationship with several of the artists, too.

don't forget about Munich's museum, Pinakothek der Moderne. I believe it opened its doors the last time I was in Munich (and I took one look at the lines and thought, erm, maybe next time).

http://www.pinakothek.de/pinakothek-der-moderne/

I agree that Museum Ludwig in Cologne is quite interesting, I think. It has a nice selection of works by Gerhard Richter, if I remember right.

I know that you're asking about Europe, but I think that it's important to recognize that the center of gravity shifted to the US in the 1950s with the emergence of Abstract Expressionism.

So, in that sense, MoMA in NYC is extremely important.

And a bit of a digression:

In a way, personally I think that this had something to do with the War. Undoubtedly WW II contributed to the even more rapid ascent of the US. If you think about art at the turn of the century, there're many important movements in Europe (the -isms -- (Post-)Impressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, Dada(ism), Expressionism, etc.). Paris was an important art center.

Germany also saw some very important art movements (Expressionism, Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke).

Then there's the Art Deco movement. And subsequently, the Bauhaus and Modernism (Le Corbusier, Mies, etc.).

In music one had the Second Viennese School.

I would say that at the beginning of the 20th century there wasn't much of interest happening in the US. But fast forward 50 years and the landscape changes significantly.

The Beyeler Foundation in the suburbs of Basel, the Leopold Collection in Vienna, the Guggenheim in Venice (I suppose). The d'Orsay contains Quite a bit of art after 1880. The Neue Deutsche Galerie (?) in Berlin, a beautiful Mies van der Rohe building, exhibits 20th century art, as I believe does the Neue Pinakothek (sp?) in Munich.

I think that the museum in Berlin is the Neue Nationalgalerie:

http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/nng/s.html

Didn't get a chance to see the stuff there -- when I was there last year, it was doing an exhibition on the art from the former DDR.

Yes, it's a Mies building.

Never been to the Guggenheim in Venice either. Apparently Peggy G was, at one point, married to Max Ernst. She started collecting modern art quite early on, if I remember right.

Again, not in Europe, but I think that DIAeacon would be interesting to visit (for work by Americans like Serra and Donald Judd). It's been on my list of things to do for a very long time.

Just about anywhere in Berlin.

Sorry for that face -- it's supposed to be DIA (semi-colon) Beacon.

http://www.diabeacon.org/bindex.html

By the way, lots of interesting architecture in Berlin as well, as commonly acknowledged.

There was a recent article on the diversity in architecture for the Embassies in Berlin.

By the way, lots of interesting architecture in Berlin as well, as commonly acknowledged.

There was a recent article on the diversity in architecture for the Embassies in Berlin in NYT.

In Malaga, (Spain), where Picasso was born, his family donated part of their heritance to make a museum following Picasso´s wishes. Nowadays is a reallity and can be visited more than 200 Picasso´s works related to painting, ceramics, etc. Some of them never seen before, as has been ever belonged to the family.

www.museopicassomalaga.org

Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh