Museum of Modern Art
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View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. |
The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an
art museum located in
Midtown Manhattan in
New York City on 53rd Street between
5th and
6th Avenues. It is one of the leading museums of
modern art in the world. The Museum of Modern Art is often considered a rival to the nearby
Metropolitan Museum of Art, although the latter is a "universal museum", where modern art is only one area of specialism among many.
The Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1929 by a triumvirate of patrons:
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller,
Mary Sullivan, and
Lillie P. Bliss. At the time, no New York museum was devoted exclusively to modern art. Under the guidance of its first director,
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. First housed in six rooms of galleries and offices in Manhattan's Hecksher Building, the museum moved into three more temporary locations within the next ten years. MoMA's permanent and current home, designed in the
International Style by the
modernist architects
Philip L. Goodwin and
Edward Durell Stone, opened to the public on
May 10,
1939.
Considered by many to have the best collection of modern masterpieces in the world, MoMA's holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills. The collection houses such important and familiar works as:
The Starry Night by
Vincent van Gogh,
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by
Pablo Picasso,
The Persistence of Memory by
Salvador DalÃ,
Broadway Boogie Woogie by
Piet Mondrian,
Water Lilies triptych by
Claude Monet,
Dance by
Henri Matisse,
The Bather by
Paul Cézanne,
Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair by
Frida Kahlo |
Inside the MoMA building. |
It also holds works by leading American artists such as
Jackson Pollock,
Cindy Sherman,
Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Jasper Johns,
Edward Hopper,
Andy Warhol,
Chuck Close,
Georgia O'Keefe and
Ralph Bakshi. MoMA developed a world-renowned
art photography collection, first under
Edward Steichen and then
John Szarkowski, as well as an important film collection under the
Museum of Modern Art Department of Film and Video. 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.
MoMA's Midtown location underwent extensive renovations in the 2000s, closing on
May 21,
2002 and reopening to the public in a building redesigned by the
Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi 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. 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 to all on Fridays after 4 p.m., thanks to sponsorship from
Target Stores.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 Lowry, expects average visitor numbers eventually to settle in at around 2.1 million.
["Build Your Dream, Hold Your Breath." 6 August 2006 The New York Times.[1]]Official site
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Museum of Modern Art official siteGuides
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Insecula**
Modern Art: The Museum of Modern Art**
Contemporary Art: Museum of Modern Art*
Art Mobs: MoMA Audioguides (unofficial exhibit audioguides)
Images
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Flickr MoMA Group
