Museum of Modern Art

Why go

MoMA brings familiar modern paintings into a broader account of how visual culture changed. Its holdings include Van Gogh, Picasso and Warhol alongside photography, design and moving images, allowing a visit to extend beyond famous canvases. Comparing a small selection of works can reveal very different approaches to representing everyday life, imagination and modern society.

What to look for

• The collection includes Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
• Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans bring commercial packaging into the collection.
• Photography, design and film broaden the visit beyond painting.

The full story

MoMA’s collection treats modern art as more than a sequence of painting styles. Architecture, design, illustrated books, photography, film and electronic media sit within the institution’s scope, reflecting the many forms through which modern visual culture developed. This breadth changes how a celebrated canvas is understood: it belongs to a museum also concerned with images and objects encountered outside traditional fine-art settings. Photography became a dedicated department in 1940 under Beaumont Newhall, with later direction by Edward Steichen and John Szarkowski. The museum also staged experimental exhibition houses, including designs by Marcel Breuer and a Japanese house by Junzo Yoshimura. Those projects showed that a home could be examined as a modern design object. Looking beyond the famous paintings therefore has a concrete payoff: it reveals how the museum brought everyday media and built environments into its account of art.

Useful to know

• Check the current gallery guide for works that are the main reason for visiting.
• Select painting galleries or a photography, design or film focus before connecting the museum’s different floors.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.