Museum of Modern Art

The Museum That Wrote the Story of Modern Art

There is a plain reason many people who study art history feel they already know MoMA: this museum decided, in the 1930s, how the story of modern art should be told, and much of the world followed. Its first director, Alfred H. Barr Jr., drew a famous diagram in which Impressionism led to Cubism and Cubism led to abstraction, and the museum has been collecting, arguing about and revising that story ever since.

Today the Museum of Modern Art holds roughly 200,000 works from the late nineteenth century to the present and welcomes millions of visitors, with 2.84 million recorded in 2023. On a good day, you can see Van Gogh, Picasso, Warhol and Frida Kahlo in an hour, and then watch a rare film in the basement.

About the Museum

MoMA was founded in November 1929, just days after the stock market crash, by three women: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan. They believed that New York needed a museum that showed living art, at a time when the city's major institutions collected mainly older work. The museum opened in rented rooms in a Fifth Avenue building, and Barr, only 27, became its first director.

The permanent home on West 53rd Street opened in 1939 in a crisp, white International Style building by Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone, a sign that the museum's ideas were about architecture and design as much as painting. Later decades added the Sculpture Garden by Philip Johnson, a tower and new wings, and a major renovation by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi reopened in 2004.

In 2019, an expansion designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro increased gallery space by about a third and rethought how the collection is displayed, mixing media and periods in the same rooms. In 2010 the museum formally merged with MoMA PS1, an experimental contemporary art centre in Long Island City, Queens.

The Collection

MoMA's holdings are divided into six curatorial departments: Architecture and Design, Drawings and Prints, Film, Media and Performance Art, Painting and Sculpture, Photography, plus the museum's library and archives. It was the first museum to collect design objects, photography and film as art forms in their own right, and that breadth is still its signature.

Everyday objects, such as a Helvetica poster or an early Apple computer, appear in the same galleries as paintings and sculptures, and they show how modern life is shaped by design as well as fine art.

What Can You Explore?

Galleries are on floors two through five, arranged in loosely chronological groupings that mix media.

• Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night (1889). Painted from memory during the artist's stay at an asylum in Saint-Rémy, it is one of the most reproduced images in Western art. Expect a crowd, and try to see it early.
• Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). The painting that broke with perspective and opened the door to Cubism.
• Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory (1931). Melting clocks in a dream landscape, one of Surrealism's most familiar images.
• Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans (1962). Thirty-two canvases that helped define Pop art.
• Claude Monet, Water Lilies. A vast triptych that fills a room with the reflections of a garden pond.
• Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. Key figures from painting and abstraction.
• Architecture and design. Furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, posters, typefaces and objects from cars to chairs, including an iconic helicopter displayed as a piece of industrial design.
• Photography. Prints by Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman and others in changing displays.
• Film and media. Its film department is among the world's most important, with a large archive and regular screenings in the museum's theatres.
• The Sculpture Garden. An open-air garden designed by Philip Johnson, with works by Rodin, Matisse and Picasso, and it is a good place to rest between floors.

Museum Architecture & History

The building tells the story of modern architecture in miniature. The 1939 façade, with its stark lines and large windows, was a manifesto for the International Style. Taniguchi's 2004 design gave the museum a large, calm atrium with slender, well-proportioned galleries, while the 2019 project by Diller Scofidio + Renfro opened the ground floor to the street, adding free-to-visit spaces and a new circulation route.

Glass walls and street-level galleries make the museum feel more like a public space than a fortress. The Sculpture Garden, a green pocket in the middle of Midtown, is a calm spot to pause between floors.

Online Collections & Research

MoMA's website contains a large portion of the collection, with images, artist biographies and audio content. The museum's library and archives hold one of the world's most important collections of documents on modern art and design, and researchers can consult them by appointment. MoMA also offers online courses, videos and podcasts.

Visitor Experience

MoMA can be seen in two to three hours, though film buffs and design fans can easily spend more.

• Start at the top. Begin on the fifth floor and work down, which is the museum's suggested route.
• Go early or late. Mornings and Friday evenings are quieter than midday.
• Use the free Friday. The museum offers free evening entry to New York State residents on Fridays with advance registration.
• Look for the small rooms. Small, focused displays in the corners often contain the most memorable surprises.
• Watch a film. Screenings are included with admission and are often overlooked.

Planning Your Time

A good MoMA visit begins on the top floor with the collection galleries and works its way down, since the crowds tend to build on the lower levels through the day. On the fifth floor, see Van Gogh, Picasso and Dalí before the school groups arrive. Continue to the fourth floor for the postwar and Pop art rooms, then take a break in the Sculpture Garden, if it is open, before moving to the design and architecture rooms and any special exhibition.

Friday evenings, when New York State residents can register for free entry, are lively but very crowded. Mornings at opening and weekday late afternoons are calmer. Midtown is busy around the museum, and tourists cluster at The Starry Night, so consider seeing it first thing. Allow about three hours for the collection, and give yourself more time if you attend a film screening in the theatres.

Nearby and Next

MoMA sits on West 53rd Street, in the middle of Midtown, so it links easily with other big-name stops. Rockefeller Center and its Top of the Rock viewpoint are about five minutes east, St Patrick's Cathedral is close to them, and the Museum of Arts and Design and the Paley Center for Media are within a few blocks. Fifth Avenue's shops run past the museum's eastern side, and Central Park's southern edge is ten minutes north, which suits a picnic or a stroll after the galleries.

Visit

MoMA is open daily from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm, with extended hours on Fridays until 8:30 pm. It closes on Thanksgiving and 25 December, and hours vary on some holidays. Check the museum's website before your visit.

Tickets

• Adults: $30
• Seniors (65+): $22
• Students: $17
• Visitors under 16: free
• Free Fridays: New York State residents can register for free entry on Fridays from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Tickets are valid for the day, and booking online in advance is recommended. Some special exhibitions or events may cost extra. MoMA PS1 in Queens has separate hours and admission arrangements.

Getting There

MoMA is in Midtown Manhattan, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

• Subway: The E and M trains to Fifth Avenue/53rd Street stop next to the museum, and the B, D, F and M trains at 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center are also close.
• Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M50 lines run along nearby avenues.
• On foot: From Central Park's south edge, walk about 10 minutes.

Accessibility & Visitor Services

MoMA's building is largely level, and the atrium and galleries are served by lifts. The museum's official access page describes wheelchair and stool loans, captioning, and its programmes for blind and low-vision visitors and for people living with dementia, and staff at the information desk can help plan a route around the busiest rooms.

Who Is It For?

• Artists and art students, who can trace the whole history of modern movements.
• Graphic and product designers, thanks to the design collection.
• Photographers and filmmakers, drawn to the film and photography departments.
• Architects, who will find drawings, models and the building itself.
• Visitors to New York who want to see famous paintings in a compact space.

Things to Know

• Book the timed ticket: Same-day tickets are available, but advance booking avoids queues.
• Free Fridays need registration: New York residents must register for the free evening slot.
• The Sculpture Garden: It opens seasonally and depends on the weather.
• Photography: Photography without flash is generally allowed for personal use, but not in every special exhibition.
• Check the film programme: MoMA's theatres run regular screenings that are separate from museum admission.
• Use the Sculpture Garden: The garden is a free-flowing space between galleries and a reliable place to sit.
• Check the film schedule: The theatres show restorations and rarities that are hard to find elsewhere.

Explore the Museum of Modern Art

MoMA offers a fast, vivid tour of the art that made the modern world. Book your ticket, start at the top and take time to look at the objects that are less well known. Check the museum's website for the latest hours, exhibitions and free-entry programmes.

Visit the Museum of Modern Art

For current opening hours, tickets, accessibility services and exhibitions, visit the official MoMA website before you travel.

Looking for more? Browse all museums on Good Stuff Weekly.