Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Art academy in Maxvorstadt district, Munich, Germany.

The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich occupies a three-wing Neo-Renaissance complex designed by Gottfried von Neureuther and completed in 1886 on Akademiestraße near the Siegestor. Its light grey and cream stone facade has a rusticated ground floor with round-arched windows, two upper storeys with tall arched windows framed by pilasters, and a central balustraded balcony over a columned entrance portico; a bronze equestrian statue stands on a plinth before it. A deconstructivist extension by Coop Himmelb(l)au opened in 2005.

The institution was founded in 1808 under King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, building on a drawing school that began in 1770 under Elector Maximilian III Joseph. Over the 1800s, it grew into a major teaching center that trained many generations of artists in painting and sculpture.

The academy's name goes back to the 1770 "Zeichnungs Schule respective Maler und Bildhauer Academie". Its class-based teaching, with about 23 to 25 professor-led classes and 20 workshops, continues a model that produced students such as Kandinsky, Klee and Franz Marc. Since 1989 the AkademieGalerie in the Universität subway station shows student works made for that space.

The main historic building stands on Akademiestraße at the corner of Leopoldstraße, about 200 metres north of the Ludwig Maximilian University main building and close to the Siegestor. The 2005 Coop Himmelb(l)au extension is on Akademiestraße 4. The academy library, holding around 150,000 volumes, is for internal use only. The AkademieGalerie in the Universität subway station is publicly accessible.

Since 1989 the academy has run the AkademieGalerie in the mezzanine level of Universität subway station, showing works students make for that spot. The 2005 deconstructivist extension by Coop Himmelb(l)au was funded through the Foundation of the Munich Art Academy, started by Ben Willikens.