Support for the exhibition is provided by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Leadership contributions to the Annual Exhibition Fund, in support of the Museum’s collection and collection exhibitions, are generously provided by Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Sandra and Tony Tamer Exhibition Fund, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Alice and Tom Tisch, the Marella and Giovanni Agnelli Fund for Exhibitions, The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Eva and Glenn Dubin, Mimi Haas, The David Rockefeller Council, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, Kenneth C. Griffin, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. Major funding is provided by The Sundheim Family Foundation.
A Member’s Field Guide to Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern
Get to know the pathbreaking MoMA cofounder who made remarkable contributions to the history of modern art in the US—but still managed to stay under the radar.
Follow Your Bliss
MoMA would not be what it is today without Lillie Plummer Bliss. In 1929, after years of advocating for modern art in New York, Bliss, together with Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Quinn Sullivan, founded The Museum of Modern Art. When she died, at 66, just two years later, Bliss left a large part of her art collection to the museum—a visionary act that fundamentally changed MoMA’s trajectory. Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern brings together 40 works from Bliss’s collection, including paintings and works on paper by Paul Cézanne, Odilon Redon, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and Pablo Picasso.
Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. Saint Rémy, June 1889
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Podcast: A “Most Typical Victorian Daughter” and the Radical Art of Her Time
Society ridiculed the modern art she loved, so Lillie P. Bliss set out to create a museum to house it.
Arlette Hernandez, Ann Temkin, Romy Silver-Kohn, Kate Walbert
Jan 10, 2025
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Kate Walbert on Lillie P. Bliss
Read an excerpt from Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art about one of MoMA’s trailblazing founders.
Kate Walbert
Sep 30, 2024
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A Room with a View to Music: Henri Matisse’s Interior with a Violin Case
The first Matisse painting bought by MoMA’s cofounder shows the artist’s fusion of color, light, sea, and music.
Ann Temkin
Jan 13, 2025
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A Cigarette, a Tube of Paint, a Glass of Wine: Amedeo Modigliani Paints Anna Zborowska
Learn more about the woman who had a front-row seat to Modigliani’s art.
Lily Goldberg
Jan 9, 2025
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Your Heart Is a Rare Bird: The Hidden Meanings of Marie Laurencin’s Girl’s Head
A drawing made in exile during World War I holds many mysteries, including whether it was once sent through the mail.
Anne Umland
Jan 17, 2025