MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MOMA)

This incredible museum with its collection of 200,000 works is a must for lovers of modern and contemporary art.

At the beginning of 2005, the MoMA returned to its walls, a house that had been extensively revisited and modernized for three years by Yoshio Taniguchi. It was above all the end of a long wait that had seen the extraordinary collection of MoMA divided into a MoMA Qns (temporary annex in Queens), a MoMa Berlin and well-kept safes. The three rings are brought together and the memory of the 20th century art of the MoMA collection can once again be delivered to a crowd eager for its evocative power. Because it is the first museum of modern art in the world! The only one able to exhibit all of its collections (150,000 works) or to offer an exhaustive exhibition of Picasso's or Matisse's works. Able to present original and strong exhibitions on political art or to organize a 150-year retrospective of photography. In short, one of the first museums to take modern art and related arts such as photography, industrial design and film seriously. Built on a piece of land that belongs to the Rockefellers, MoMA is run by the Rockefellers and the richest families in New York. The museum has imposed certain private collections for the economic benefit of their owners. He also fired Luis Buñuel from the film department for political reasons. In a constantly lively street, a crowd of all ages rushes in front of the facade with its large glass panels. The museum, which receives nearly 3 million visitors each year, has just undergone a major renovation in order to save space: it has invested part of the neighbouring buildings, including 53W53, a new skyscraper designed by Jean Nouvel, of which it now occupies the ground floor. The other new section, built on the ruins of the building that housed the American Folk Art Museum, is dedicated to temporary exhibitions. Almost the entire 53rd Street block now belongs to MoMA. You feel more comfortable, less rushed, you can even get lost. The collections have not changed, their configuration has simply been redesigned. The chronological (and therefore logical) path that used to exist does not exist at plus  ; from now on, works by renowned artists are mixed with more contemporary pieces. It is a strange mixture, which questions, and that is the whole idea of this change. Here are some works not to be missed during your visit: Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Andy Warhol's Gold Marylin Monroe, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, Jasper Johns' Flag, Paul Gauguin's La Graine d'Areoi, Claude Monet's Les Nymphéas, Henri Matisse's La Danse, Paul Cézanne's Le Baigneur, Piet Mondrian' Broadway Boogie Woogie, Monument to Balzac by Auguste Rodin, Bicycle wheel by Marcel Duchamp, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, Autoretrado con pelo cortado by Frida Kahlo, Painting 1946 by Francis Bacon, Shimmering Substance by Jackson Pollock, Vir Heroicus Sublimis by Barnett Newman, Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein. As for painting, we find everything from postimpressionists to cubists, from dadaists to surrealists, Picasso, Kandinsky, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Ensor, Redon, Klee, Mondrian, German expressionists, futurists, Dali, De Chirico, Balthus... American and Anglo-Saxon artists are not to be forgotten: Pollock, Gorky, Rothko, Bacon, de Kooning, Frank Stella. Pop art too: Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, Oldenburg.

The interior garden houses sculptures (Rodin, Matisse, Barnett Newman). The collection dedicated to drawings and photography is exceptional, with a selection of photographs by the great American and European masters. Let us not forget either the original drawings by architects (Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier). For once, the museum shop deserves a visit, with its surprisingly designed everyday objects. As the repository of the world's largest collection of modern painting, MoMA holds 10,000 films in its archives. The acquisition of this huge Celluloid collection began in 1935, with the sending of a museum emissary to the Hollywood moguls. Thanks to Harry Warner, Samuel Goldwyn, Harry Cohn, Walt Disney, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Mack Sennett, then D. W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin, MoMA has built up a remarkable archive collection, the preservation of which is one of the main tasks of its film department. The museum has two underground cinemas (460 seats and 217 seats) that act as New York's de facto film library and present the films on an alternating and permanent basis, with festivals and retrospectives dedicated to major American and foreign directors. The museum ticket gives you the right to watch the films of the day. Unlike some contemporary art museums in France, the works on display are for the most part very accessible to the general public. Temporary exhibitions are more for connoisseurs. Faced with some of these most incongruous works, you may remain perplexed for a few minutes. Go to MoMA with an open mind, be ready to be confused and questioned. Admission is not free, but every Friday evening, MoMA is free from 5:30 pm to 7 pm.