Talk:Museum of Modern Art

Every art museum has one or two pieces that are the anchors of their collection. For instance, at the MoMA, people who know very little about other art make a beeline for Starry Night. Do people know the major pieces of the other collections? It would be worth adding.

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Non-neutral title

It seems to me that the only reasonable thing to do with this page is to move it to New York Museum of Modern Art and make the current Museum of Modern Art a disambiguation page. New York's is not the only museum with this name, so it should not be on this page. Unless somebody can provide a good argument why not, I will move the page and edit all the pages that link to it to link to New York Museum of Modern Art where that is the intended meaning. (unsigned)

• There is no "New York Museum of Modern Art", and no apparent need for disambiguation. I don't think we have any articles on any other institution that calls itself simply "The Museum of Modern Art". The museum of modern art in San Francisco calls itself the "San Francisco Museum of Modern Art". The museum of modern art in London calls itself the "Tate Museum". If disambiguation were needed, it should be done in parentheses ("Museum of Modern Art (New York)"), lest we leave an impression that there is an institution called "The New York Museum of Modern Art". Though frankly it's probably better left alone. - Nunh-huh 03:15, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

• "Museum of Modern Art (New York)" might not be such a bad idea. Some people might not be aware of the distinction when they look up MoMA at Wikipedia.

• From a non-US point of view (UK) it seems essential to rename it, as soon as I opened the page I went to this talk page to suggest it, only to find the discussion already in progress. Museum of Modern Art should redirect to Museums of modern art. Timffl 20:01, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

• MOMA refers to itself exclusively either as "The Museum of Modern Art" or "MOMA". If there another institution (within the US or internationally, of comparable renown/size) that refers to itself as "The Museum of Modern Art" without any other qualification, we should indeed disambiguate as Museum of Modern Art (New York), and change this page into a disambig page. However, my research doesn't turn up any institutions that fit this criteria (see below). Therefore, we should not disambig. Similarly, we should not redirect to Museums of modern art, as "The Museum of Modern Art" only refers to a single entity within this group. To resolve any ambiguity without unnecessary redirection, I propose including the standard inline "disambiguation" text at the header of the article, stating "This article refers to The Museum of Modern Art, based in New York City. For a list of other modern art museums, see Museums of modern art." This should clear up any confusion for casual Wikipedia users, with the additional benefit of increasing traffic to the articles about other museums of modern art. -- Docether 21:00, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Fine print : As indicated here, "MOMA" is a trademark, used in connection with the Museum of Modern Art since the late 1960s. However, I haven't been able to find out if "The Museum of Modern Art" is also a trademark, which would definitively settle the matter ... so we have to infer from common usage. As noted above, MOMA refers to itself exclusively either as "The Museum of Modern Art" or as "MOMA", without qualifiers. It never refers to itself as "The New York Museum of Modern Art," and outside sources use this formulation only rarely (and probably incorrectly). Though catalogues of artists' works often use the "Museum of Modern Art, New York" form, the city is not actually intended to be read as part of the museum's title, and is a standard inclusion in this kind of reference (as in, for example, "State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow").[1]. So ... the common usage when referring to this institution is simply "The Museum of Modern Art". Perhaps more importantly, the phrase "the Museum of Modern Art", when indicating an institution, always (as far as I can see) refers to this one. Docether 21:00, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

It should be added here that it is a fact that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York was the first such museum ever founded to collect solely modern art under any title, and was the inventor of the whole concept of modern art museums. Indeed, all other museums have followed its example--its influence has been enormous. By rights, the Museum of Modern Art holds this title exclusively to itself. Further discussion is unnecessary.

Formatting suggestions

Hello, I would like to propose some organizational edits to the MoMA page, and also to propose to add more images- this is a major art museum, so perhaps it should have more than one image presented. Anyone have any to offer? Any comments on the addition of a content box and headings? Below are four examples, which would go after the introduction:

Collection

Painting is allready represented in this article, but there is a diversity of art media at MoMA, so we should show that without too long of a list.

The Museum's Architecture

Under this might be included all the building / facility related info, of which there is alot already in the article, and potentially alot more.

Historic Exhibitions

Two off the top of my head to write about are below, and there are more:

The International Style: Architecture Since 1922, curators: Philip Johnson, Henry-Russell Hitchcock Jr. 1932.

Deconstructivist Architecture, curators Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley. 1988.

Role as a Museum

Maybe here where we discuss the affiliation with P.S.1, difference to the Met., Louvre, etc.

Please tell me what you thinkDavidrowe 03:14, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, there definitely should be a little section on PS1 - I'll add one - AKeen

Design Collection

I'm adding the Eameses, Noguchi, and some others to the list of designers whose works are in MOMA's collection. All can be confirmed at moma.org. R 16:37, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Photography Curators

There were photo curators besides Steichen and Szarkowski. Beaumont Newhall may have been the first; Peter Galassi is the current one; there may have been others.

Modern Art

What about modern art in other countries? Has anyone seen the Istanbul Modern. www.paulcooklin.com

The Istanbul Modern is an interesting museum (and a great location, right on the Istanbul docks .. you can see Russian ships unloading cargo literally next to the museum windows). In fact, it has its own page here on Wikipedia. -- Docether 13:45, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Takin' it to the Street

Anybody know MOMA's actual street address? Trekphiler 09:16, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

11 West 53rd St (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues). -- Docether 14:26, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Edits by 82.66.141.162

User 82.66.141.162 has made some major additions to the MOMA article, alleging CIA sponsorship of / involvement with the MOMA. I've removed this text.

I'm not in a position to judge whether this text is well-founded or not. I've removed it because, honestly, it's just not within the scope of this page. This page is a brief overview of the museum, its collection, and its history, and this text is far too narrowly focused. Secondly, regardless of their accuracy, controversial edits like this must be well-sourced, with a wide range of references. This text needs to be much better-sourced if it's to be included in Wikipedia. I suggest creating a separate page for this text, under its own title, and hashing out the quality issues (and NPOV issues) there.

Best, -- Docether 20:52, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Disambiguation page

I´ve noticed the disambiguation page states only "For the São Francisco Museum of Modern Art...". I don´t think this seems adequate. There are thousands of museums all over the world which are named "Museum of Modern Art", like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, etc. Dornicke 19:48, 16 June 2007 (UTC)