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The Museum of Modern Art, also referred to as MoMA, is an prominent art museum in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. It is located on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. It is one of the most influential institutions in the development and collecting of modernist art. Its collection includes architectural works as well as designs, drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books, film and more. The MoMA library holds over 300,000 books as well as individual files of over 70,000 artists. Three ladies were credited for the founding of the Museum of Modern Art. They were Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr) and her two friends Lillie P Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan. They rented premises for the museum and opened it to the public on 7 November, 1929 - nine days after the Wall Street Crash. It occupied six rooms of galleries and offices on the 12th floor of Heckscher Building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Due to the initial opposition of Abby's husband to the museum - and to modern art itself - Abby had to find funds from other sources for the museum. As a result, MoMA had to shift location frequently, three times within its first ten years. Eventually, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr donated land for the construction of the museum building. Plus other gifts over time, he in effect became one of MoMA's greatest benefactors. MoMA gained prominence when it held a Vincent Van Gogh exhibition on 4 November 1935, displaying sixty-six oils and fifth drawings from the Netherlands, and also excerpts of the artist's letters. That exhibition generated great awareness of Van Gogh and increased the artist's influence on contemporary imagination. Another exhibition, a Picasso retrospective of 1939-40, earned MoMA international recognition, setting the model for future retrospectives held by the museum. Abby's son Nelson was selected by the board of trustees to be MoMA's president in 1939, at age 30. He was instrumental in the museum's publicity and expansion. His brother David Rockefeller joined the Museum's board of trustees in 1948, and took over the presidency when Nelson was elected Governor of New York in 1958. David employed Philip Johnson to redesign the museum garden and named it in honour of his mother, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The Rockefeller family continued to hold close association with MoMA throughout its history, with the Rockefeller Brothers Funds funding it since 1947. The premises of the Museum of Modern Art was designed in the International style by modernist architect Philip C. Johnson and Edward Durell Stone. It opened on 10 May 1939, with the attendance of an illustrious 6000-strong guestlist and included an opening address via radio from the White House by President Franklin Roosevelt. MoMA closed for renovations on 21 May, 2002. It reopened to the public in a building redesigned by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, on 20 November 2004. A controversy surrounding the reopening was the increase in admission fee, from $12 to $20, making it one of the most expensive museums in New York City. Nevertheless, visitor number rose, from 1.5 million the year before its renovation, to 2.5 million. The museum director expects the number to settle to around 2.1 million a year. How to reach the Museum of Modern ArtTake the E or V train to the Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street subway station. Walk west along West 53rd Street. The Museum of Modern Art is located on the right side of the street before the American Folk Art Museum. Museum of Modern Art, New York City Source: public domain |
Local Tours of New York City
Check out some of the Local Tours of New York City that you may want to pre-book for your trip.Explore other sights in Upper Midtown.
Return to Manhattan Travel Guide,
New York City Travel Guide,
or to United States Travel Guide
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