11 W. 53rd Street
(212) 708-9480
Inside Tips 
Events
at MoMA
Known as "Moma"
or "the Modern" to native New Yorkers, the Museum of
Modern Art is one of the city’s greatest cultural treasures.
This world renown museum houses some of the finest works of art
from the 20th century including pieces from van Gogh,
Picasso and Monet.
The Museum was opened in
1929 with the works of four artists Cezanne, van Gogh, Gaugin
and Seurat. They were all relatively unknown artists in the
United States and the creators of the museum were taking quite a
risk. Fortunately, the exhibition was a huge success and the
Museum of Modern Art was born.
Since then, the museum has
maintained a reputation as the most comprehensive collection of
modern art in existence. The museum owns over 100,000 paintings,
drawings, sculptures and other works by the greatest artists of
the 20th century. Most of the works are on display on
the second and third floor of the museum, but the first floor is
noteworthy because of the 110-ft high atrium that meets visitors
entering on 54th street. Underneath the atrium that
contains trees fountains and a sculpture garden.
The best way to see the
works is to take the self guided tour. Starting with
postimpressionism, the tour will take you through the second and
third floor galleries. After postimpressionism, the tour moves
on to cubism, dadaism, and surrealism, ending with the Mexican
art of the 30’s. The strongest points of the museum on the
second floor include the exhibits on dadaism, the School of
Paris, and surrealistic drawings. Other highlights include the
museum’s Department of Photography, which includes over 15,000
prints.
The third floor continues
with Mexican art and then moves into European art and abstract
expressionism, pop art and other modern pieces. This floor is
comprised mostly of drawings, prints and illustrated books. Some
of the notable pieces from the third floor include works from de
Kooning, Jackson Pollack and Roy Lichtenstein.
The fourth floor houses
the museum’s collection of architecture and design. MOMA is
one of the few art museums that has a section dedicated to
architecture. There are over 60 models on display along with
over 1,000 photos and drawings. Two of the features architects
are Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. The design
section of the museum displays items like housewares, a Formula
One race car, and a Bell-47 helicopter.
MOMA is also known for it’s
collection of movies and film. The museum owns over 10,000
films, 4 million stills and has recently become known as one of
the best venues in the city to see classic and foreign films.
The movies are run in the afternoon and evenings and are
included free with the museum’s admission.
October 1999 through
February 2001, the entire Museum will be devoted to MoMA2000,
a multi-disciplinary series of exhibitions drawn entirely from
MoMA's world-renowned collection. MoMA2000 explores the
diversity of modern art and proposes fresh ways to look at and
think about modern art. It comprises three major exhibitions: ModernStarts,
Making Choices, and Open
Ends, that each focus on a distinct historical period: 1880
to 1920, 1920 to 1960, and 1960 to the present, respectively.
Each cycle will be interspersed with work from other periods,
creating a dialogue between various historical moments.
