Reykjavik Art Museum

The city art museum is not one building but three, and they are unalike enough to be worth treating separately. Hafnarhus, a converted warehouse on the old harbour, shows contemporary work and holds the collection given by the painter Erro. Kjarvalsstadir, a low modernist pavilion in a park, is built around Johannes Kjarval, the painter who taught Icelanders to look at their own lava and moss. Asmundarsafn is the white domed house the sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson built for himself, with his work standing in the garden around it, which is open and free to walk through.

What you actually see

• Hafnarhus - contemporary exhibitions in a harbour warehouse, with the Erro collection.
• Kjarvalsstadir - the Kjarval holdings and changing shows in a park pavilion.
• Asmundarsafn - the sculptor's domed studio house and the work kept inside it.
• The sculpture garden - the free outdoor collection in the grounds around the dome.

When to go

Year-round, and genuinely useful on the wet, dark days that Reykjavik supplies in quantity. The ticket covers all three houses on the same day, so plan an order: harbour first, then the park pavilion, then the dome. Late afternoons are quieter than the mid-morning hours when cruise passengers are in town.

Honest expectations

The three houses are spread out, and doing all of them in a day means either a fair walk or a bus, which is more of an undertaking in winter. The collections are modest by the standards of larger European cities. Contemporary shows at Hafnarhus vary widely in how much they give a casual visitor.

Nearby

The old harbour, the Laugavegur shopping street and the Laugardalur park area are all within reach on foot.