Looking for a European art break without the crowds? Forget queuing at the Louvre or the Uffizi. You will find a fresh perspective on everything from medieval to modern art in places like Lille, Verona, and Zurich.
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich may be known as a financial centre, but it has a creative side. The Kunsthaus Zürich became the biggest art gallery in the country when its David Chipperfield-designed extension opened in 2021. Its collection spans 800 years of art and includes old masters, Swiss artists such as Giacometti, and works by Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Warhol, along with contemporary artists.
The area around the Kunsthaus is now the Zurich Gallery Mile, best explored during the Zurich Art Weekend (12–14 June), held a week before the more famous Art Basel. Galleries offer special exhibitions, guided tours, and talks, alongside performances, art walks, screenings, and parties.
In Zurich-West, a brewery built in the 1890s became an arts centre in the 1990s. The Löwenbräukunst-Areal now houses several modern and contemporary galleries, including a branch of Hauser & Wirth.
Near Lake Zurich, the Museum Rietberg showcases non-European art in three historic villas (one where Wagner wrote Tristan and Isolde), a modern extension, and surrounding parkland. Current exhibitions focus on Indian paintings, Japanese woodblock prints, and Chinese lacquerware.
Day trip: In Baden, 15 minutes away by fast train, the Museum Langmatt reopened this month after two years of renovation. The art nouveau villa displays about 50 French impressionist masterpieces by Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and more.
Lille, France
Paris is the undisputed art capital of France, but Lille has excellent galleries with lower prices and a fraction of the crowds, and it can be reached even more quickly by Eurostar from London (just 1 hour 20 minutes). The Palais des Beaux-Arts, in a beautiful 19th-century building, houses perhaps France's richest art collection after the Louvre, with works by Rodin, Van Dyck, Rubens, Delacroix, Goya, and Courbet (entry is just €7 versus the Louvre's €22).
LaM, a modern and contemporary art gallery that is a 30-minute bike, Métro, or bus ride from the city centre, reopened in February after an extensive renovation. The inaugural exhibition is a Wassily Kandinsky retrospective (until 14 June), while the permanent collection includes work by Modigliani, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, and Louise Bourgeois. Its sculpture garden contains 10 monumental pieces by Alexander Calder and more.
Day trip: In Roubaix, 10 minutes away by fast train, an art deco former swimming pool is now La Piscine museum. The old showers and changing rooms now display ceramics (some by Picasso), paintings, textiles, jewellery, and sculpture, all lit through stained-glass windows. In nearby Lens, the Louvre-Lens museum – a satellite gallery of the Louvre – has 250 artworks arranged chronologically from the third century BC to the mid-19th century.
Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw's art scene had a huge boost in 2024 with the opening of the Museum of Modern Art (MSN Warsaw). The bright white building stands in contrast to Stalin's menacing Palace of Arts and Science next door and showcases Polish and international artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Sarah Lucas and Wolfgang Tillmans.
Other modern galleries include the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, which has 20th-century and contemporary art from painting to installation, video, and performance. It has staged exhibitions by artists including Marlene Dumas and Luc Tuymans and is currently showing the American abstract artist Barbara Kasten (until 7 June). The Ujazdów Castle now houses the Centre for Contemporary Art, with a diverse programme of exhibitions, talks, films, and outdoor events in the surrounding park.
Warsaw is not just about modern art. The National Museum, founded in 1862, is one of the oldest museums in the country. Its six permanent art galleries range from antiquity through medieval art to the 19th century. One highlight is Jan Matejko's enormous Battle of Grunwald (1878), one of the best-known paintings in Poland. A temporary exhibition of 30 paintings by the Krakow-born artist Olga Boznańska (1865–1940), who also has work in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, runs until 5 July.
At the Royal Castle, the two most prized paintings in the Lanckoroński Gallery are by an old master: The Girl in a Picture Frame and The Scholar at the Lectern by Rembrandt.
Day trip: Łódź, a couple of hours away by train, has a trio of galleries covering 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century art respectively: the Herbst Palace Museum, MS1, and MS2.
Verona, Italy
Fair Verona, the home of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, is overshadowed as an artistic centre by its neighbour Venice. But this romantic city has more to offer than Juliet's balcony. The Palazzo Maffei, a 17th-century baroque building on Piazza della Erbe, opened as a gallery in 2020. It is laid out like a cabinet of curiosities, displaying an incredible private collection of art from antiquity to today, with a strong focus on modern masters including Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky, and Magritte.
GAM, the modern art gallery, is in the Palazzo delle Ragione, one of the oldest public buildings in Italy (built in the mid-1100s). The collection spans from the early 19th century to the present day, focusing on the Italian avant garde. As well as the artworks, visitors can see the palace's beautiful Cappella dei Notai and ascend the Torre dei Lamberti, the tallest building in Verona.
The Castelvecchio museum, housed in the 14th-century castle, displays Veronese and Venetian paintings from the medieval period to the 1700s, with work by Bellini, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Rubens.
The Palazzo della Gran Guardia hosts temporary exhibitions – most recently the photography exhibition Human. The VisitVerona website has an events calendar with all upcoming exhibitions.
Day trip: Book ahead to see the Giotto frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, 45 minutes away by fast train. The crowds here mean the city's other attractions, such as the art gallery inside the Eremitani Museum next door, are often empty.
Oslo, Norway
Modern art lovers will find much to admire in the Norwegian capital. Edvard Munch has his own 13-storey museum, Munch, displaying three versions of The Scream and other renowned works including The Sun, Madonna, The Dance of Life, and Love and Pain. The museum also showcases paintings by Munch's contemporaries and holds temporary exhibitions – currently Paula Rego (until 2 August). Outside is Tracey Emin's 9-metre high sculpture The Mother.
The National Museum, which opened in 2022, is the biggest gallery in the Nordic countries. It has a room devoted to Munch, with its own versions of The Scream and Madonna. The pioneering female artist Harriet Backer also has her own room, with many more Norwegian artists displayed alongside Berthe Morisot, Matisse, Picasso, and others.
The Astrup Fearnley Museum, designed by Renzo Piano (the architect behind the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Whitney in New York), has a leading collection of contemporary art plus temporary exhibitions.
Day trip: Munch owned a villa at Ramme, 40 minutes from Oslo, from 1910 until his death in 1944. The property has been restored, and visitors can now book a guided tour, visit an underground art gallery displaying his work and that of other Norwegian artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, and follow an outdoor culture trail along the fjord.
