Il MoMA to the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) offers a unique overview of the Museum's iconic collection. Composed of over 200 key works, arranged chronologically in eight thematic sections, the exhibition traces the development of art and design from the urban and industrial transformation of the late XNUMXth century, up to the digital and global present.
The emergence of a “new art” at the dawn of the twentieth century is represented by some of MoMA's earliest acquisitions, including masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne.
Works by pioneering Cubist and Futurist artists including Pablo Picasso and Umberto Boccioni, appear alongside the radically abstract forms found in works by artists such as Lyubov 'Popova and Piet Mondrian, the surreal visual language of paintings by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Frida Kahlo, and the advanced spontaneity and tactility in the works of Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock and other leading abstract expressionist artists.
Developments in art since the 60s, from pop to minimalism, are explored with the work of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Lynda Benglis and Sol LeWitt, among others. Significant late XNUMXth and early XNUMXst century works, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, Kara Walker, Rineke Dijkstra, Huang Yong Ping, El Anatsui and Camille Henrot, foreground ideas that inform much contemporary art, such as those surrounding cultural and national identity and mobility in a globalized world.
Throughout, these works of visual art are displayed alongside items from the collection MoMA Architecture and Design, many of which appeal to common concerns of architects, designers and artists – creating a new visual language for the modern era. These include: a 1932 architectural model of Le Corbusier; graphic designs, furniture and textiles by artists involved in the influential Bauhaus workshops; The pioneering computer game by Tomohiro Nishikado Space Invaders (1978); and the original set of 176 emojis developed by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999.
MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art is organized by Samantha Friedman (Associate Curator, Drawings and Prints, MoMA), Juliet Kinchin (Curator of Modern Design, MoMA), Christian Rattemeyer (The Harvey S. Shipley Miller Associate Curator of Drawings and Prints, MoMA) and Miranda Wallace (Senior Curator, International Exhibition Projects, NGV).
