INSTALLATION OF HIGHLIGHTS FROM MoMA’s COLLECTION
PRESENTS OVER 100 YEARS OF MODERN ART
To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection,
an Inaugural Exhibition at MoMA QNS, opens on June 29, 2002
NEW YORK, JUNE 2002––For the duration of its stay in its new home at MoMA QNS, The Museum of Modern Art will
exhibit key works of painting and sculpture from its permanent collection, frequently changing the selection on view.
More than 7,500 square feet of the building’s 25,000 square feet of exhibition space are devoted to this ongoing
display of highlights; the MoMA QNS industrial space provides a new context for familiar icons of modern art. The
inaugural installation, entitled To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection and opening June 29,
2002, presents works that range in date from the late nineteenth century to the present, spanning over 100 years of
creative achievement. The installation was organized by Kynaston McShine, Acting Chief Curator, and Anne Umland,
Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture.
Joan Miró’s monumental sculpture Moonbird (1966) marks the entrance to the galleries. The installation
presents such seminal works as Paul Cézanne’s The Bather (c. 1885), Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and The
Olive Trees (both 1889), Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), Henri Matisse’s Dance (1909), Henri
Rousseau’s The Dream (1910), Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory (1931), Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie
Woogie (1942–43), Jackson Pollock’s One (Number 31, 1950) (1950), and Andy Warhol’s 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans
(1962). The last gallery of the installation displays works by post–World War II artists, including John Baldessari,
Joseph Beuys, Chuck Close, Lucio Fontana, Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama,
Roy Lichtenstein, Piero Manzoni, Bruce Nauman, Chris Ofili, Blinky Palermo, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sigmar Polke,
Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, Richard Tuttle, and Christopher Wool. Overall, some 75 works are included in the
inaugural installation.
A 144-page book, To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, has
been published by the Museum to accompany the ongoing collection installation in MoMA QNS. The installation and
publication take their title from Dadaist Marcel Duchamp’s sculpture To Be Looked At (From the Other Side of the
Glass), with One Eye, Close To, for Almost an Hour (1918). The publication is intended as a handbook for the
various presentations of painting and sculpture that will be on view at MoMA QNS over the next three years.
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About the Curators
Kynaston McShine, Acting Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, co-directed the selection and installation of the
works in To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection with Anne Umland. He joined the
Museum as Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1968 and was appointed Curator in 1971 and Senior
Curator in 1980. He has been Acting Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture since 2001.
Anne Umland has been Associate Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern
Art since January 1999. She joined the Museum in 1988 as Assistant to the Director of Painting and Sculpture and
served as Curatorial Assistant (1990–94) before completing her Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York
University. She returned to the Museum as Assistant Curator in 1996. Ms. Umland has organized a number of
exhibitions for the Museum. Most recently, she co-directed Alberto Giacometti (2001) and was co-organizer of
Making Choices, the second cycle of MoMA2000. Her other exhibitions include Pop Art: Selections from The
Museum of Modern Art (High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1998–99), for which she also wrote the accompanying
catalogue; Projects: John Armleder/Piotr Uklanski (with Lilian Tone, 2000); Projects: Karin Davie, Udomsak
Krisanamis, Bruce Pearson, Fred Tomaselli (with Lilian Tone, 1998); Selections from the Collection (1997);
Projects: Karin Sander (1994); and Projects: Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1992). Ms. Umland has done much research
on the work of Joan Miró, about whom she has written several essays, and was the recipient of the Joan Miró
Grant from the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (1994–96). In addition to her Ph.D., Ms. Umland holds a B.A.
degree from Carleton College, and an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is a member
of the College Art Association.
Sponsorship
The inaugural installation is made possible by Monique M. Schoen Warshaw. Additional support is provided by
Leila and Melville Straus.
Press Contact: [email protected]
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