The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, has the largest digital audience of any museum, reaching more than 30 million people worldwide. During its closure, Aesthetica selects five online strands to explore from home. New exhibitions, archive material and informative documentaries delve into the history of art.
MoMA has a wide range of audio clips available on the website. Each insight delves into the collection and special exhibitions – offering perspectives from leading names in contemporary art. In one podcast, artists and writers reflect on Donald Judd’s works in light of a recent retrospective. In another, MoMA’s department of security shares personal stories about works on view. Light and space artist James Turrell speaks about creating all-encompassing works, whilst activists look at art’s potential to spark change.
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a trailblazing female photographer who was committed to telling the human story through raw, honest and intimate portraits. She utilised the power of photography to raise public awareness of the effects of the Great Depression and global inequities. Towards the end of her life, Lange noted that “all photographs – not only those that are so called ‘documentary’ – can be fortified by words.” MoMA hosts the first exhibition of Lange in over 50 years. Opens 30 April.
Spanning the last 150 years, MoMA’s evolving collection contains almost 200,000 works from around the world. It includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, architecture, design, film and media and performance art. Their website features more than 86,000 artworks and over 26,000 artists. Audiences can browse all the works that would usually be on view from home, as well as learn about the latest additions to the collection. Users can search, filter and view any work online, for free.
MoMA shares its exhibition history – charting shows from the museum’s founding in 1929 to the present. Highlights include the landmark photography exhibition The Family of Man, which took the form of a photo essay celebrating the human experience. Opening in 1955, it was organised by Edward Steichen as a declaration of global solidarity in the decade following World War II. Viewers can also explore William Eggleston’s controversial 1976 show, which changed the game for colour photography.
An expansive selection of video content delves into art, design, film and architecture. The Artist Stories strand presents interviews with living artists such as Sheila Hicks, Richard Serra and Arthur Jafa. Observational documentary series At the Museum provides insights into curation and exhibition, whilst How To See explores the work of seminal names Joan Miró, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Rauschenberg. Curators and family members feature in high-quality, informative clips.
Lead image: Dorothea Lange. Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona. November 1940. Gelatin silver print, 19 15/16 × 23 13/16″ (50.7 × 60.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase.
2. James Turrell, Meeting.
3. Dorothea Lange. Tractored Out, Childress County, Texas. 1938. Gelatin silver print, 9 5/16 x 12 13/16″ (23.6 x 32.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase.
4. Donald Judd. Untitled. 1969. Clear anodized aluminum and blue Plexiglas; four units, each 48 × 60 × 60″ (121.9 × 152.4 × 152.4 cm), with 12″ (30.5 cm) intervals. Overall: 48 × 276 × 60″ (121.9 × 701 × 152.4 cm). Saint Louis Art Museum. Funds given by the Shoenberg Foundation, Inc. © 2020 Judd Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
5. Garry Winogrand shot of Coney Island bathers, New York, 1952, from Edward Steichen’s groundbreaking exhibition, The Family of Man. Photograph: Fraenkel Gallery/Garry Winogrand.
6. Sheila Hicks, Pillar of Inquiry/Supple Column, 2013–2014.
