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Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, established and incorporated in 1929. It is privately supported. Among its founders was Mrs. John D. Rockefeller; Alfred H. Barr, Jr., was its first director. Operating at first in rented galleries, the museum specialized in loan shows of contemporary European and American art. A start toward the permanent collection was made with the Lillie P. Bliss bequest, which included nine CEzannes and the Daumier Washerwoman. A permanent building was erected by Philip L. Goodwin in 1939 on ground donated by the Rockefellers, with a new wing added in 1964 designed by Philip Johnson. The building was renovated and expanded again (1984) by Cesar Pelli and Associates.
MoMA has outstanding departments of photography and architecture, a reference library, and a film library. There are annual circulating exhibits, an art lending service, and art classes for nonprofessionals. The museum publishes a monthly Art Calendar and a quarterly Bulletin, as well as books on individual arts and artists in connection with exhibitions. In 1999 the museum agreed to merge with P.S. 1, a contemporary art space in Long Island City, Queens, giving MoMA a greater connection to avant-garde art. In 1997, Yoshio Taniguchi was selected as architect for an expanded building that will double MoMA's space; in preparation for this work MoMA's collection was moved to a temporary home in Long Island City in 2002. Housed in what was previously a factory building reconfigured by the architect Michael Maltzan, the museum was dubbed MoMA QNS.
See catalog of paintings in the permanent collection by H. Frank (1973); S. Hunter, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1984).
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