Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCS)

The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, known as MAMCS, is the city's museum of art from about 1870 to the present, at 1 Place Hans-Jean-Arp on the left bank of the River Ill in Strasbourg, Alsace. It is strong on artists tied to the city, Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Gustave Doré. It suits visitors with two hours in Strasbourg, and it is about a kilometre from the station.

The museum was founded in 1973 and moved into its own building in November 1998. The Paris architect Adrien Fainsilber, also known for the Cité des Sciences in Paris, designed it as a metal and glass structure opening onto a long central nave. A terrace looks across the Ill toward the Petite France quarter. The City of Strasbourg runs it.

The square outside carries the name of Jean Arp, born in Strasbourg. His work and that of Sophie Taeuber, his wife, gives the collection a strong local thread, since both worked on the decoration of the Aubette building on Place Kléber in the 1920s. Gustave Doré, the Strasbourg-born illustrator and painter, is shown through his large canvases, among them Le Christ quittant le prétoire.

The wider collection includes Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso and Max Beckmann. Contemporary works rotate through the galleries, and three or four temporary exhibitions open each year, often on 20th-century movements or living artists. Some rooms close while exhibitions change.

A full-price ticket costs €9 and a reduced ticket €5, with reduced or free rates for young visitors; special exhibitions can cost more. The museum is closed on Monday and some public holidays. From Tuesday to Friday it opens 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00, with a lunchtime closure; at weekends it opens 10:00 to 18:00 without a break. Last entry is about 30 minutes before closing.

Allow 90 minutes to two hours, or half a day with a walk along the Ill to the old town. Weekend afternoons suit a visit because there is no midday break. The building is fully accessible and has a café-restaurant, a bookshop and a cloakroom.

The museum is within walking distance of Strasbourg station, about a kilometre away, and a tram stops at Musée d'Art Moderne. The Barrage Vauban, a covered 17th-century dam with a rooftop terrace, is about 300 metres away, Petite France about 700 metres and Strasbourg Cathedral about 1.5 kilometres.