Dedicated to the pioneers of 20th and 21st century art
The Museum of Modern Art was created in 1929 with a founding mission, under its first director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., to help people “understand and enjoy the visual arts of our time”. America’s first modern art museum moved locations several times as its collection expanded, before settling in 1939 at the midtown Manhattan site it occupies today. That year, it gave Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” its US debut. The painting, which depicted the bombing of civilians in a Spanish town during the Spanish Civil War, was banned in Spain until 1981. MoMa’s support for new art made it one of the most important museums for modernism in America, and it still enjoys a global standing.
Spanning the late 19th century to today, the collections include paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, media and performance works, architectural models and drawings, and design objects, in addition to two million film stills and a library and archive housing over 320,000 items. Highlights of the collection include European masterpieces such as Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” (1889) and Henri Matisse’s “The Dance I” (1909). In 2000, MoMA PS1 became an official satellite venue in Queens with a focus on contemporary art and community engagement.
