Museum of Modern Art
Encyclopedia
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan
in New York City
, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art
, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world. The museum's collection offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture
and design
, drawings, painting
, sculpture
, photography
, prints, illustrated books and artist's books, film
, and electronic media
.
MoMA's library and archives hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, as well as individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The archives contain primary source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art
. It also houses a restaurant, The Modern, run by Alsace
-born chef Gabriel Kreuther.
(wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr.) and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss
and Mary Quinn Sullivan
. They became known variously as "the Ladies", "the daring ladies" and "the adamantine ladies". They rented modest quarters for the new museum in rented spaces in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue (corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street) in Manhattan, and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash. Abby had invited A. Conger Goodyear, the former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery
in Buffalo, New York
, to become president of the new museum. Abby became treasurer. At the time, it was America's premier museum devoted exclusively to modern art, and the first of its kind in Manhattan to exhibit European modernism.
Goodyear enlisted Paul J. Sachs
and Frank Crowninshield
to join him as founding trustees. Sachs, the associate director and curator of prints and drawings at the Fogg Art Museum
at Harvard University
, was referred to in those days as a collector of curators. Goodyear asked him to recommend a director and Sachs suggested Alfred H. Barr Jr.
, a promising young protege. Under Barr's guidance, the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. Its first successful loan exhibition was in November 1929, displaying paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Seurat.
First housed in six rooms of galleries and offices on the twelfth floor of Manhattan's Heckscher Building, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the museum moved into three more temporary locations within the next ten years. Abby's husband was adamantly opposed to the museum (as well as to modern art itself) and refused to release funds for the venture, which had to be obtained from other sources and resulted in the frequent shifts of location. Nevertheless, he eventually donated the land for the current site of the museum, plus other gifts over time, and thus became in effect one of its greatest benefactors.
During that time it initiated many more exhibitions of noted artists, such as the lone Vincent van Gogh
exhibition on November 4, 1935. Containing an unprecedented sixty-six oils and fifty drawings from the Netherlands
, and poignant excerpts from the artist's letters, it was a major public success and became "a precursor to the hold van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination".
The museum also gained international prominence with the hugely successful and now famous Picasso retrospective of 1939–40, held in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago
. In its range of presented works, it represented a significant reinterpretation of Picasso for future art scholars and historians. This was wholly masterminded by Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, and the exhibition lionized Picasso as the greatest artist of the time, setting the model for all the museum's retrospectives that were to follow.
When Abby Rockefeller's son Nelson
was selected by the board of trustees to become its flamboyant president in 1939, at the age of thirty, he became the prime instigator and funder of its publicity, acquisitions and subsequent expansion into new headquarters on 53rd Street. His brother, David Rockefeller
, also joined the museum's board of trustees, in 1948, and took over the presidency when Nelson took up position as Governor of New York in 1958.
David subsequently employed the noted architect Philip Johnson
to redesign the museum garden and name it in honor of his mother, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. He and the Rockefeller family
in general have retained a close association with the museum throughout its history, with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
funding the institution since 1947. Both David Rockefeller, Jr.
and Sharon Percy Rockefeller
(wife of Senator Jay Rockefeller
) currently sit on the board of trustees.
In 1937, MoMA had shifted to offices and basement galleries in the Time-Life Building
in Rockefeller Center
. Its permanent and current home, now renovated, designed in the International Style
by the modernist architects Philip Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone
, opened to the public on May 10, 1939, attended by an illustrious company of 6,000 people, and with an opening address via radio from the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
.. In 1997 the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi
beat out ten other international architects to win the competition to execute the redesign of the museum, which after being closed in Manhattan for a time during the process (a temporary space was opened in Long Island City, Queens
) reopened in 2004.
Wish Tree, Yoko Ono
's installation in the Sculpture Garden (since July 2010), has become very popular with contributions from all over the world.
, Marcel Duchamp
, Walker Evans
, Helen Frankenthaler
, Alberto Giacometti
, Arshile Gorky
, Hans Hofmann
, Edward Hopper
, Paul Klee
, Franz Kline
, Willem de Kooning
, Dorothea Lange
, Fernand Léger
, Roy Lichtenstein
, Morris Louis, René Magritte
, Aristide Maillol
, Joan Miró
, Henry Moore
, Kenneth Noland
, Georgia O'Keeffe
, Jackson Pollock
, Robert Rauschenberg
, Auguste Rodin
, Mark Rothko
, David Smith
, Frank Stella
, and hundreds of others.
MoMA developed a world-renowned art photography collection, first under Edward Steichen
and then John Szarkowski
, which included photos by Todd Webb
, as well as an important film collection under Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. The film collection owns prints of many familiar feature-length movies, including Citizen Kane
and Vertigo
, but the department's holdings also contains many less-traditional pieces, including Andy Warhol
's eight-hour Empire
and Chris Cunningham
's music video for Björk
's All Is Full of Love
. MoMA also has an important design collection, which includes works from such legendary designers as Paul László
, the Eameses
, Isamu Noguchi
, and George Nelson
. The design collection also contains many industrial and manufactured pieces, ranging from a self-aligning ball bearing
to an entire Bell 47D1 helicopter
.
who served as curator between 1932-34 and 1946-54. The collection consists of 28,000 works including architectural models, drawings and photographs. One of the highlights of the collection is the Mies van der Rohe Archive.
ese architect
Yoshio Taniguchi
along with Kohn Pedersen Fox
, on November 20, 2004. From June 29, 2002 until September 27, 2004, a portion of its collection was on display in what was dubbed MoMA QNS, a former Swingline
staple factory in Long Island City, Queens
.
The renovation project nearly doubled the space for MoMA's exhibitions and programs and features 630000 square feet (58,528.9 m²) of new and redesigned space. The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the western portion of the site houses the main exhibition galleries, and The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building on the eastern portion provides over five times more space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher training workshops, and the museum's expanded Library and Archives. These two buildings frame the enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden.
MoMA's reopening brought controversy as its admission cost increased from US$12 to US$20, making it one of the most expensive museums in the city; however it has free entry on Fridays after 4pm, thanks to sponsorship from Target Stores. Also, all CUNY college students receive free admission to the museum by simply going to the information desk. The architecture of the renovation is controversial. At its opening, some critics thought that Taniguchi's design was a fine example of contemporary architecture, while many others were extremely displeased with certain aspects of the design, such as the flow of the space.
MoMA has seen its average number of visitors rise to 2.5 million from about 1.5 million a year before its new granite and glass renovation. The museum's director, Glenn D. Lowry
, expects average visitor numbers eventually to settle in at around 2.1 million.
lives in a rent-free $6 million apartment above the museum.
Vice Chairmen:
Life Trustees:
Honorary Trustees:
, in collaboration with Museum of Modern Art members Arthur Drexler and Elizabeth Shaw, created an iconic protest poster called And babies
which depicts US soldiers as "baby killers." The poster uses an image by photojournalist Ronald L. Haeberle
and references the My Lai Massacre
. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had promised to fund and circulate the poster, but after seeing the 2 by 3 foot poster MoMA pulled financing for the project at the last minute. MoMA's Board of Trustees included Nelson Rockefeller
and William S. Paley
(head of CBS), who reportedly "hit the ceiling" on seeing the proofs of the poster. Both were "firm supporters" of the war effort and backed the Nixon administration. It is unclear if they pulled out for political reasons (as pro-war supporters), or simply to avoid a scandal (personally and/or for MoMA), but the official reason, stated in a press release, was that the poster was outside the "function" of the museum. Nevertheless, under the sole sponsorship of the AWC, 50,000 posters were printed by New York City's lithographers union. On December 26, 1969, a grassroots network of volunteer artists, students and peace activists began circulating it worldwide. Many newspapers and television shows re-printed images of the poster, consumer poster versions soon followed, and it was carried in protest marches around the world, all further increasing its viewership. In a further protest of MoMA's decision to pull out of the project, copies of the poster were carried by members of the AWC into the MoMA and unfurled in front of Picasso's painting Guernica
(on loan to MoMA at the time) the painting depicts the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon innocent civilians. The poster was included shortly thereafter in MoMA's Information exhibition of July 2 to September 20, 1970, curated by Kynaston McShine.
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world. The museum's collection offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, drawings, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, prints, illustrated books and artist's books, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and electronic media
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
.
MoMA's library and archives hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, as well as individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The archives contain primary source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
. It also houses a restaurant, The Modern, run by Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
-born chef Gabriel Kreuther.
History
The idea for The Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1928 primarily by Abby Aldrich RockefellerAbby Aldrich Rockefeller
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, , was a prominent socialite and philanthropist and the second-generation matriarch of the renowned Rockefeller family...
(wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr.) and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss
Lillie P. Bliss
Lillie P. Bliss was an American art collector and patron. At the beginning of the 20th century, she was one of the leading collectors of modern art in New York...
and Mary Quinn Sullivan
Mary Quinn Sullivan
Mary Quinn Sullivan was born Mary Josephine Quinn in Indianapolis, Indiana to Thomas F. Quinn and Anne E...
. They became known variously as "the Ladies", "the daring ladies" and "the adamantine ladies". They rented modest quarters for the new museum in rented spaces in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue (corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street) in Manhattan, and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash. Abby had invited A. Conger Goodyear, the former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is an art museum located in Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. The gallery is a major showplace for modern art and contemporary art. It is located directly across the street from Buffalo State College.-History:...
in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, to become president of the new museum. Abby became treasurer. At the time, it was America's premier museum devoted exclusively to modern art, and the first of its kind in Manhattan to exhibit European modernism.
Goodyear enlisted Paul J. Sachs
Paul J. Sachs
Paul Sachs was Harvard associate director of the Fogg Art Museum, a partner in the financial firm Goldman Sachs and the developer of one of the early museum studies courses in the United States.-History:...
and Frank Crowninshield
Frank Crowninshield
Francis Welch Crowninshield , better known as Frank or Crownie , was an American journalist and art and theatre critic best known for developing and editing the magazine Vanity Fair for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.-Personal life:Crowninshield was born June 24, 1872 in Paris,...
to join him as founding trustees. Sachs, the associate director and curator of prints and drawings at the Fogg Art Museum
Fogg Art Museum
The Fogg Museum, opened to the public in 1896, is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums....
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, was referred to in those days as a collector of curators. Goodyear asked him to recommend a director and Sachs suggested Alfred H. Barr Jr.
Alfred Barr
Alfred Hamilton Barr, Jr. , known as Alfred H. Barr, Jr., was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City...
, a promising young protege. Under Barr's guidance, the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. Its first successful loan exhibition was in November 1929, displaying paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Seurat.
First housed in six rooms of galleries and offices on the twelfth floor of Manhattan's Heckscher Building, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the museum moved into three more temporary locations within the next ten years. Abby's husband was adamantly opposed to the museum (as well as to modern art itself) and refused to release funds for the venture, which had to be obtained from other sources and resulted in the frequent shifts of location. Nevertheless, he eventually donated the land for the current site of the museum, plus other gifts over time, and thus became in effect one of its greatest benefactors.
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
exhibition on November 4, 1935. Containing an unprecedented sixty-six oils and fifty drawings from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and poignant excerpts from the artist's letters, it was a major public success and became "a precursor to the hold van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination".
The museum also gained international prominence with the hugely successful and now famous Picasso retrospective of 1939–40, held in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. In its range of presented works, it represented a significant reinterpretation of Picasso for future art scholars and historians. This was wholly masterminded by Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, and the exhibition lionized Picasso as the greatest artist of the time, setting the model for all the museum's retrospectives that were to follow.
When Abby Rockefeller's son Nelson
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
was selected by the board of trustees to become its flamboyant president in 1939, at the age of thirty, he became the prime instigator and funder of its publicity, acquisitions and subsequent expansion into new headquarters on 53rd Street. His brother, David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
, also joined the museum's board of trustees, in 1948, and took over the presidency when Nelson took up position as Governor of New York in 1958.
David subsequently employed the noted architect Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
to redesign the museum garden and name it in honor of his mother, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. He and the Rockefeller family
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family , the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller , is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German origin that made one of the world's largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th...
in general have retained a close association with the museum throughout its history, with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund , , is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D...
funding the institution since 1947. Both David Rockefeller, Jr.
David Rockefeller, Jr.
David Rockefeller Jr. is an American philanthropist and an active participant in nonprofit and environmental areas. The eldest son of Margaret "Peggy" McGrath and David Rockefeller, he is a leading fourth-generation member of the prominent Rockefeller family, serving on many boards of the...
and Sharon Percy Rockefeller
Sharon Percy Rockefeller
Sharon Percy Rockefeller is the wife of former Governor of West Virginia and current U.S. Senator John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and served as that state's First Lady from 1977 to 1985....
(wife of Senator Jay Rockefeller
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
) currently sit on the board of trustees.
In 1937, MoMA had shifted to offices and basement galleries in the Time-Life Building
Time-Life Building
The Time-Life Building, located at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center in New York opened in 1959 and was designed by the Rockefeller family's architect Wallace Harrison, of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris.The Time & Life Building was the first of four buildings in Rockefeller...
in Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
. Its permanent and current home, now renovated, designed in the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
by the modernist architects Philip Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone was a twentieth century American architect who worked primarily in the Modernist style.-Early life:...
, opened to the public on May 10, 1939, attended by an illustrious company of 6,000 people, and with an opening address via radio from the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
.. In 1997 the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York which was reopened November 20, 2004.- Biography :...
beat out ten other international architects to win the competition to execute the redesign of the museum, which after being closed in Manhattan for a time during the process (a temporary space was opened in Long Island City, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
) reopened in 2004.
Wish Tree, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
's installation in the Sculpture Garden (since July 2010), has become very popular with contributions from all over the world.
Artworks
Considered by many to have the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world, MoMA's holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills. The collection houses such important and familiar works as the following:- The Starry NightThe Starry NightThe Starry Night is a painting by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. The painting depicts the view outside his sanitarium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New...
by Vincent van GoghVincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is... - The Sleeping GypsyThe Sleeping GypsyThe Sleeping Gypsy is an 1897 oil painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau. The fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night is one of the most recognizable artworks of modern times.Rousseau first exhibited the painting at the 13th Salon des Indépendants,...
by Henri RousseauHenri RousseauHenri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector... - I and the VillageI and the VillageI and the Village is a 1911 painting by the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall. It is currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.The work contains many soft, dreamlike images overlapping each other in a...
by Marc ChagallMarc ChagallMarc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J... - The Dream by Henri RousseauHenri RousseauHenri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
- Les Demoiselles d'AvignonLes Demoiselles d'AvignonHe followed his success by developing into his Rose period from 1904 to 1907, which introduced a strong element of sensuality and sexuality into his work...
by Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the... - The Persistence of MemoryThe Persistence of MemoryThe Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and is one of his most recognizable works. The painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934...
by Salvador DalíSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain.... - Broadway Boogie Woogie by Piet MondrianPiet MondrianPieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
- Campbell's Soup CansCampbell's Soup CansCampbell's Soup Cans, which is sometimes referred to as 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, is a work of art produced in 1962 by Andy Warhol. It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring in height × in width and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each of the canned soup...
by Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art... - Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi) by Paul GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
- Water LiliesWater LiliesWater Lilies is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet . The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life...
triptychTriptychA triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
by Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007... - The DanceThe Dance (painting)The Dance are two related paintings made by Henri Matisse between 1909 and 1910. The first, preliminary version is Matisse's study for the second version...
by Henri MatisseHenri MatisseHenri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter... - The Bather by Paul CézannePaul CézannePaul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
- The City Rises by Umberto BoccioniUmberto BoccioniUmberto Boccioni was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement , speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.-Biography:...
- Love SongLove Song (Giorgio de Chirico)The Song of Love is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico...
by Giorgio De ChiricoGiorgio de ChiricoGiorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement... - Number 31, 1950 by Jackson PollockJackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
- Vir Heroicus Sublimis by Barnett NewmanBarnett NewmanBarnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Early life:...
- Broken ObeliskBroken Obeliskthumb|270px|Broken Obelisk in front of [[Rothko Chapel]] in [[Houston]], [[Texas]].Broken Obelisk is a 1963 sculpture by Barnett Newman. It is the largest and best known of his six sculptures. It is made from three tons of Cor-Ten steel which acquired a rust-colored patina.Broken Obelisk was...
by Barnett NewmanBarnett NewmanBarnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Early life:... - Flag by Jasper JohnsJasper JohnsJasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
- Christina's WorldChristina's WorldChristina's World is a 1948 painting by American painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century...
by Andrew WyethAndrew WyethAndrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century.... - Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair by Frida KahloFrida KahloFrida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
- Painting (1946)Painting (1946)Painting is an oil-on-linen painting by the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon. It was originally to depict a chimpanzee in long grass ; Bacon then attempted to paint a bird of prey landing in a field. Bacon described the work as his most unconscious, the figurations forming without his intention...
by Francis Bacon - Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale by Max ErnstMax ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
Selected collection highlights
It also holds works by a wide range of influential European and American artists including Georges BraqueGeorges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
, Walker Evans
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work...
, Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...
, Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...
, Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.-Biography:Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880, the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. When he was six he moved with his family to Munich...
, Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Franz Kline
Franz Kline
Franz Jozef Kline was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement centered around New York in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended Girard College, an academy in Philadelphia for fatherless boys...
, Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Morris Louis, René Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
, Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...
, Joan Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
, Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland was an American abstract painter. He was one of the best-known American Color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was thought of as a minimalist painter. Noland helped establish the Washington Color School...
, Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
, Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
, Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
, David Smith
David Smith (sculptor)
David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, and hundreds of others.
MoMA developed a world-renowned art photography collection, first under Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen
Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...
and then John Szarkowski
John Szarkowski
John Szarkowski was a photographer, curator, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art.-Early life and career:...
, which included photos by Todd Webb
Todd Webb
Todd Webb was an American photographer notable for documenting everyday life and architecture in cities such as New York, Paris as well as from the American west. His photography has been compared with Harry Callahan, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, and the French photographer Eugène Atget...
, as well as an important film collection under Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. The film collection owns prints of many familiar feature-length movies, including Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
and Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
, but the department's holdings also contains many less-traditional pieces, including Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's eight-hour Empire
Empire (1964 film)
Empire is a silent, black-and-white film made by Andy Warhol. It consists of eight hours and five minutes of continuous slow motion footage of the Empire State Building in New York City. Abridged showings of the film were never allowed, and supposedly the very unwatchability of the film was an...
and Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk....
's music video for Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
's All Is Full of Love
All Is Full of Love
"All Is Full of Love" is a song by Björk, released as the fifth and final single from her album Homogenic. The version of the song used in the video is actually the original version of the song, while the version on Homogenic is a remix by Howie B...
. MoMA also has an important design collection, which includes works from such legendary designers as Paul László
Paul László
Paul László or Paul Laszlo was a Hungarian-born modern architect and interior designer whose work spanned eight decades and many countries...
, the Eameses
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles Ormond Eames, Jr and Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Eames were American designers, who worked in and made major contributions to modern architecture and furniture. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art and film.-Charles Eames:Charles Eames, Jr was born in...
, Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi
was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...
, and George Nelson
George Nelson (designer)
George Nelson was a noted American industrial designer, and one of the founders of American Modernism. While Director of Design for the Herman Miller furniture company both Nelson, and his design studio, George Nelson Associates, Inc., designed much of the 20th century's most iconic modernist...
. The design collection also contains many industrial and manufactured pieces, ranging from a self-aligning ball bearing
Ball bearing
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...
to an entire Bell 47D1 helicopter
Bell 47
The Bell 47 is a two-bladed, single engine, light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. Based on the third Model 30 prototype, Bell's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young, the Bell 47 became the first helicopter certified for civilian use on 8 March 1946...
.
Architecture and Design
MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design was founded in 1932, as the first in the world dedicated to the topic. The department's first director was Philip JohnsonPhilip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
who served as curator between 1932-34 and 1946-54. The collection consists of 28,000 works including architectural models, drawings and photographs. One of the highlights of the collection is the Mies van der Rohe Archive.
Exhibition houses
At various points in its history, MoMA has sponsored and hosted temporary exhibition houses, which have reflected seminal ideas in architectural history.- 1949: exhibition house by Marcel BreuerMarcel BreuerMarcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
- 1950: exhibition house by Gregory AinGregory AinGregory Ain was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium-cost housing.- Biography :...
- 1955: Japanese exhibition house
- 2008: Prefabricated houses planned by:
- Kieran Timberlake Architects
- Lawrence Sass
- Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier
- Leo Kaufmann Architects
- Richard Horden
Renovation
MoMA's midtown location underwent extensive renovations in the early 2000s, closing on May 21, 2002 and reopening to the public in a building redesigned by the JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York which was reopened November 20, 2004.- Biography :...
along with Kohn Pedersen Fox
Kohn Pedersen Fox
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates , an architectural firm responsible for several world-renowned buildings, provides architectural, interior and urban design as well as programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors...
, on November 20, 2004. From June 29, 2002 until September 27, 2004, a portion of its collection was on display in what was dubbed MoMA QNS, a former Swingline
Swingline
Swingline is a division of ACCO Brands that specializes in manufacturing staplers and hole punches. The company was formerly located in Long Island City, Queens, New York, United States, but is now headquartered with its parent company ACCO in Lincolnshire, Illinois.- History :Swingline was founded...
staple factory in Long Island City, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
.
The renovation project nearly doubled the space for MoMA's exhibitions and programs and features 630000 square feet (58,528.9 m²) of new and redesigned space. The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the western portion of the site houses the main exhibition galleries, and The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building on the eastern portion provides over five times more space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher training workshops, and the museum's expanded Library and Archives. These two buildings frame the enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden.
MoMA's reopening brought controversy as its admission cost increased from US$12 to US$20, making it one of the most expensive museums in the city; however it has free entry on Fridays after 4pm, thanks to sponsorship from Target Stores. Also, all CUNY college students receive free admission to the museum by simply going to the information desk. The architecture of the renovation is controversial. At its opening, some critics thought that Taniguchi's design was a fine example of contemporary architecture, while many others were extremely displeased with certain aspects of the design, such as the flow of the space.
MoMA has seen its average number of visitors rise to 2.5 million from about 1.5 million a year before its new granite and glass renovation. The museum's director, Glenn D. Lowry
Glenn D. Lowry
Glenn D. Lowry is the current Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He became the sixth director of the Museum in 1995 and heads a staff of around 750 people...
, expects average visitor numbers eventually to settle in at around 2.1 million.
Finances
Before the economic crisis of late 2008, the MoMA’s board of trustees decided to sell its equities in order to move into an all-cash position. Museum Director Glenn D. LowryGlenn D. Lowry
Glenn D. Lowry is the current Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He became the sixth director of the Museum in 1995 and heads a staff of around 750 people...
lives in a rent-free $6 million apartment above the museum.
Officers and the Board of Trustees
- Honorary Chairman – David RockefellerDavid RockefellerDavid Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
- Honorary Chairman – Ronald S. Lauder
- Chairman Emeritus – Robert B. Menschel
- President Emerita – Agnes GundAgnes GundAgnes Gund , is an American philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education. She is founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation and President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council. She is also Chairman of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art...
- President Emeritus – Donald B. Marron
- Chairman – Jerry I. SpeyerJerry SpeyerJerry I. Speyer is an American real estate tycoon. He is one of two founding partners of the prominent New York real estate company Tishman Speyer...
- President – Marie-Josée KravisMarie-Josée DrouinMarie-Josée Kravis is an economist and philanthropist. She is from Montreal, Quebec, and is the third wife of financier Henry Kravis.-Background:...
Vice Chairmen:
- Sid R. BassSid BassSid Richardson Bass is an American investor and businessman.-Life:He is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Business School. His father, Perry Richardson Bass , built an oil fortune with uncle, Sid Richardson . Bass took control of the business in 1968. His investments include oil and gas...
- Leon D. Black
- Mimi Haas
- Richard E. SalomonRichard E. Salomon-Biography:He graduated with a BA from Yale University in 1964 and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1967. From 1982 to 2000, he was a managing director to the investment firm Spears, Benzak, Salomon & Farrell. He was then the director of Mecox Ventures, another...
- Director – Glenn D. LowryGlenn D. LowryGlenn D. Lowry is the current Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He became the sixth director of the Museum in 1995 and heads a staff of around 750 people...
- Treasurer – Richard E. SalomonRichard E. Salomon-Biography:He graduated with a BA from Yale University in 1964 and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1967. From 1982 to 2000, he was a managing director to the investment firm Spears, Benzak, Salomon & Farrell. He was then the director of Mecox Ventures, another...
- Assistant Treasurer – James Gara
- Secretary – Patty Lipshultz
Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees:- Wallis AnnenbergWallis AnnenbergWallis Huberta Annenberg is an American socialite. She is the daughter of the late American Billionaire, Ambassador Walter Hubert Annenberg...
- Sid R. BassSid BassSid Richardson Bass is an American investor and businessman.-Life:He is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Business School. His father, Perry Richardson Bass , built an oil fortune with uncle, Sid Richardson . Bass took control of the business in 1968. His investments include oil and gas...
- Lawrence B. Benenson
- Leon D. Black
- Clarissa Alcock Bronfman
- Donald L. Bryant, Jr.
- Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
- Paula Crown
- David Dechman
- Glenn Dubin
- Joel S. Ehrenkranz
- John Elkann
- Laurence D. Fink
- Kathleen Fuld
- Howard Gardner
- Anne Dias Griffin
- Agnes GundAgnes GundAgnes Gund , is an American philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education. She is founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation and President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council. She is also Chairman of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art...
- Mimi Haas
- Alexandra A. Herzan
- Marlene Hess
- Jill Kraus
- Marie-Josée KravisMarie-Josée DrouinMarie-Josée Kravis is an economist and philanthropist. She is from Montreal, Quebec, and is the third wife of financier Henry Kravis.-Background:...
- Ronald S. Lauder
- Thomas H. Lee
- Michael Lynne
- Donald B. MarronDonald MarronDonald B. Marron is a financier, private equity investor and entrepreneur, notable as the chairman and chief executive officer of brokerage firm Paine Webber from 1980 through the sale of the company in 2000, as well as the founder of private equity firm Lightyear Capital and of Data Resources...
- Philip S. Niarchos
- James G. Niven
- Peter NortonPeter NortonPeter Norton is an American programmer, software publisher, author, and philanthropist. He is best known for the computer programs and books that bear his name. Norton sold his PC-Software business to Symantec Corporation in 1990....
- Maja Oeri
- Michael S. OvitzMichael OvitzMichael S. Ovitz is an American talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as President of the Walt Disney Company from October 1995 to January 1997....
- Richard D. Parsons
- Emily Rauh Pulitzer
- David Rockefeller, Jr.David Rockefeller, Jr.David Rockefeller Jr. is an American philanthropist and an active participant in nonprofit and environmental areas. The eldest son of Margaret "Peggy" McGrath and David Rockefeller, he is a leading fourth-generation member of the prominent Rockefeller family, serving on many boards of the...
- Sharon Percy RockefellerSharon Percy RockefellerSharon Percy Rockefeller is the wife of former Governor of West Virginia and current U.S. Senator John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and served as that state's First Lady from 1977 to 1985....
- Richard E. SalomonRichard E. Salomon-Biography:He graduated with a BA from Yale University in 1964 and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1967. From 1982 to 2000, he was a managing director to the investment firm Spears, Benzak, Salomon & Farrell. He was then the director of Mecox Ventures, another...
- Anna Marie Shapiro
- Anna Deavere Smith
- Jerry I. SpeyerJerry SpeyerJerry I. Speyer is an American real estate tycoon. He is one of two founding partners of the prominent New York real estate company Tishman Speyer...
- Ricardo Steinbruch
- Edgar Wachenheim III
- Gary WinnickGary WinnickGary Winnick is an American financier with a global investment career spanning three decades. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Capital Group, a diversified private investment firm founded in 1985...
Life Trustees:
- Celeste Bartos
- Eli BroadEli BroadEli Broad is an American businessman from Detroit, Michigan who resides in Los Angeles, California.-Life and career:An only child, Broad was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents. His father was a housepainter, his mother was a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit when he...
- Douglas Cramer
- Gianluigi Gabetti
- Barbara Jakobson
- Werner H. Kramarsky
- June Noble Larkin
- Robert B. Menschel
- Peter G. Peterson
- Gifford Phillips
- David RockefellerDavid RockefellerDavid Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
- Joanne M. Stern
- Jeanne C. Thayer
- Joan TischJoan TischJoan Tisch is heir to the Tisch family fortune and is listed on the 2007 Forbes 400 list as the 78th richest American, with a net worth of approximately $4.2 billion dollars....
Honorary Trustees:
- Lin Arison
- Mrs. Jan Cowles
- Lewis B. Cullman
- H.R.H. Duke Franz of BavariaFranz, Duke of BavariaFranz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern , styled as His Royal Highness The Duke of Bavaria, is head of the Wittelsbach family, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria...
- Maurice R. Greenberg
- Wynton MarsalisWynton MarsalisWynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
- Richard E. Oldenburg*
- Mrs. Milton Petrie
- Lord Rogers of Riverside
- Ted Sann
- Gilbert Silverman
- Yoshio TaniguchiYoshio TaniguchiYoshio Taniguchi is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York which was reopened November 20, 2004.- Biography :...
- David Teiger
- Eugene V. Thaw
Chief Curators
- Klaus BiesenbachKlaus BiesenbachKlaus Biesenbach is the current Director of MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York City and Chief Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City...
Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large from 2009 - Barry BergdollBarry BergdollBarry Bergdoll is a Professor of architectural history in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.-Education:...
, Chief Curator of Architecture and Design from 2007 - Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art from 2010
- Connie Butler, Chief Curator of Drawings from 2005
- Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography from 1991
- Rajendra Roy, Chief Curator of Film from 2007
- Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture from 2008
- Christophe Cherix, Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books from 2010
Controversies
In 1969 the Art Workers Coalition (AWC), a group of New York City artists who opposed the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, in collaboration with Museum of Modern Art members Arthur Drexler and Elizabeth Shaw, created an iconic protest poster called And babies
And babies
And babies is an iconic anti-Vietnam War poster. It is a famous example of "propaganda art" from the Vietnam conflict that uses the now infamous color photograph of the My Lai Massacre taken by U.S. combat photographer Ronald L. Haeberle in March 1968...
which depicts US soldiers as "baby killers." The poster uses an image by photojournalist Ronald L. Haeberle
Ronald L. Haeberle
Ronald L. Haeberle is a manufacturing supervisor and former United States Army photographer who is most widely known for the photographs he took of the aftermath following the My Lai Massacre in March 1968...
and references the My Lai Massacre
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children , and...
. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had promised to fund and circulate the poster, but after seeing the 2 by 3 foot poster MoMA pulled financing for the project at the last minute. MoMA's Board of Trustees included Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
and William S. Paley
William S. Paley
William S. Paley was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.-Early life:...
(head of CBS), who reportedly "hit the ceiling" on seeing the proofs of the poster. Both were "firm supporters" of the war effort and backed the Nixon administration. It is unclear if they pulled out for political reasons (as pro-war supporters), or simply to avoid a scandal (personally and/or for MoMA), but the official reason, stated in a press release, was that the poster was outside the "function" of the museum. Nevertheless, under the sole sponsorship of the AWC, 50,000 posters were printed by New York City's lithographers union. On December 26, 1969, a grassroots network of volunteer artists, students and peace activists began circulating it worldwide. Many newspapers and television shows re-printed images of the poster, consumer poster versions soon followed, and it was carried in protest marches around the world, all further increasing its viewership. In a further protest of MoMA's decision to pull out of the project, copies of the poster were carried by members of the AWC into the MoMA and unfurled in front of Picasso's painting Guernica
Guernica (painting)
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...
(on loan to MoMA at the time) the painting depicts the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon innocent civilians. The poster was included shortly thereafter in MoMA's Information exhibition of July 2 to September 20, 1970, curated by Kynaston McShine.
See also
- List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
- Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
- Rene d'HarnoncourtRene d'HarnoncourtRene d'Harnoncourt was an art curator, and a Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1949 to 1967....
- Dorothy Canning MillerDorothy Canning MillerDorothy Canning Miller was an American art curator and one of the most influential people in American modern art for more than half of the 20th century...
- John D. Rockefeller, Jr.John D. Rockefeller, Jr.John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...
- Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumSolomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
- Talk to Me (exhibition)Talk to Me (exhibition)Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects is an exhibition put on by the Museum of Modern Art from July 24 to November 7, 2011. Created by the Department of Architecture and Design, it was widely reviewed and draw large numbers of visitors...
Further reading
- Allan, Kenneth R. "Understanding Information," in Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice. Ed. Michael Corris. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 144-168.
- Bee, Harriet S. and Michelle Elligott. Art in Our Time. A Chronicle of the Museum of Modern Art, New York 2004, ISBN 0-87070-001-4.
- Fitzgerald, Michael C. Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.
- Geiger, Stephan. The Art of Assemblage. The Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Die neue Realität der Kunst in den frühen sechziger Jahren, (Diss. University Bonn 2005), München 2008, ISBN 978-3-88960-098-1.
- Harr, John Ensor and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
- Kert, Bernice. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family. New York: Random House, 1993.
- Lynes, Russell, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art, New York: Athenaeum, 1973.
- Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
- Rockefeller, David. Memoirs. New York: Random House, 2002.
- Schulze, Franz. Philip Johnson: Life and Work. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Staniszewski, Mary Anne. The Power of Display. A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art, MIT Press 1998, ISBN 0-262-19402-3.
- Wilson, Kristina. The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925-1934. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
External links
- The Museum of Modern Art Online Retail Store
- Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: Patron of the modern
- New York Times, 2007: Donors Sweetened Director's Pay At MoMA, Prompting Questions Controversy over the compensation package of MoMA's Director, Glenn D. Lowry.
- Taniguchi and the New MOMA
- Museum Conservation Lab Renovation