Reykjavík Art Museum

Lonely Planet review

The Reykjavík Art Museum is split over three sites - Hafnarhúsið, Ásmundarsafn and Hafnarhúsið. One ticket admits you to all if you visit on the same day.

Hafnarhúsið is a former warehouse now converted into a severe steel-and-concrete exhibition space. Pride of place is usually given to the distinctive, disturbing comic-book paintings of Erró (Guðmundur Guðmundsson; 1932-), a political artist who has donated several thousand works to the gallery. The rest of the industrial interior holds temporary installations: fluorescent paintings of moss, a kaleidoscopic coffin and children's toys made from fish bones were recent offerings. The café has great harbour views.

Jóhannes Kjarval (1885-1972) was a fisherman until his crew paid for him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He's one of Iceland's most popular artists, and his unearthly landscapes can be seen inside the angular glass-and-wood Kjarvalsstaðir, alongside changing installations.

There's something immensely tactile about Ásmundur Sveinsson's monumental concrete creations - see for yourself in the garden (admission free) outside the rounded, white Ásmundarsafn. Duck inside the museum for smaller, spikier works in wood, clay and metals, exploring themes as diverse as folklore and physics. Ásmundur (1893-1982) designed the building himself; getting into the spirit of things, the council later added an igloo-shaped bus stop in front.

Buses 14, 15, 17, 19 and S2 pass close by.