New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is the place to be if you want to learn about modern and contemporary art. For nearly a century, the museum has played a major role in the collection of modern architecture, design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and digital media.




MoMA was founded by art patrons Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, who sought in the late 1920s to challenge the conservative policies of traditional museums and to establish an institution devoted exclusively to modern art. Currently located in midtown Manhattan, the museum receives about seven million visitors each year, making it one of the most popular art destinations in the world.




In 2019, MoMA reopened after a four-month closure with the addition of a new building, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, adding some 40,000 additional square feet to its exhibition space. It also revamped its approach to showing its collection—which now includes nearly 200,000 artworks spanning the last 150 years—rotating it every few months and creating mini-exhibitions devoted to specific artists, eras mediums, or ideas. Below, MoMA’s assistant director for curatorial affairs, Heidi Hirschl Orley, suggests works of interest currently on display from the museum’s holdings.