Alberto Giacometti
October 11, 2001–January 8, 2002
Second and third floors

This is the first major New York City museum exhibition in almost three decades devoted to the work of the internationally renowned Swiss sculptor, painter, and draftsman Alberto Giacometti. Organized by The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Zürich, and with the active cooperation of the Alberto Giacometti Foundation, the exhibition presents some ninety sculptures, forty paintings, and sixty drawings, including key examples from each of the artist's major periods and works in plaster not usually seen outside of Zürich. MoMA is the sole U.S. venue for the retrospective, which celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the artist's birth.

Organized by Carolyn Lanchner, former Curator, and Anne Umland, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art; and by Christian Klemm, Deputy Director, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Curator, Alberto Giacometti Foundation, and Tobia Bezzola, Curator, Kunsthaus Zürich.

top

New to the Modern: Recent Acquisitions from the Department of Drawings
October 25, 2001–January 8, 2002
Second and third floors

Over the past year the Department of Drawings has actively sought purchases and gifts of new works for the collection, including drawings by many artists not represented in the department or the Museum before now. This exhibition includes works from the past sixty years by well-known artists such as Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, Jacob Lawrence, Jim Nutt, Martin Puryear, Gerhard Richter, and Robert Smithson, among others. Another emphasis is work by contemporary artists from the United States, Europe, and Latin America, among them Janine Antoni, John Currin, Ellen Gallagher, Glenn Ligon, Juan Muñoz, Elizabeth Peyton, Kara Walker, and Andrea Zittel. Figurative and abstract works small and large, executed in a broad variety of materials, exemplify the diversity and vitality of drawing in the art of the past sixty years.

Organized by Gary Garrels, Chief Curator, Department of Drawings, and Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture.

top

Mies in Berlin
June 21–September 11, 2001

Purchase the exhibition catalogue

The first in-depth look at the early career of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe examines Mies's work from the time he arrived in Berlin in 1905 and established his architectural practice there in 1913, until his emigration to the United States in 1938. Mies in Berlin, which includes three hundred drawings, fifteen scale models, video and digital displays, and new photographs of Mies's work by Kay Fingerle and Thomas Ruff, focuses on facets of Mies's career that have been previously neglected in considering Mies as an International Style architect. The exhibition demonstrates that his German work is much more than a prelude to a more mature phase of his career in America. By suggesting a more continuous and complex evolution of the architect's design methods—as well as his theories of nature, materials, modern space, and dwelling—the exhibition invites reconsideration of a key figure of the modern movement. Mies in America, a comprehensive survey of the architect's work from 1938 to 1969 organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, is on view June 21-September 23 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Organized by Terence Riley, Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Barry Bergdoll, Professor of Art History, Columbia University.

This exhibition is made possible by UBS PaineWebber. Funds for research and planning were provided by the Getty Grant Program. Generous support is also provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Peter Norton, Norton Family Foundation, Tishman Speyer Properties, and Knoll, Inc. Additional funding is provided by Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown, Mrs. Frances Lewis, Sarah Peter, and The Government of The Federal Republic of Germany.

top

Workspheres
February 8–April 22, 2001
Second floor galleries

Purchase the exhibition catalogue

Workspheres examines the balance between work and life, and the important role designers play in devising effective solutions for our ever-changing work paradigms. The exhibition features six built concepts of work tools and environments designed by Naoto Fukasawa; Martí Guixé; Hella Jongerius; Lot/Ek Architects; the MIT Media Laboratory/John Maeda and Joe Paradiso; and a team made up of Jeff Reuschel and Ronna Alexander, Brian Alexander, Christopher Budd, Kevin Estrada,and Brad Paley. The concepts bring to life realistic visions of the near future and range in size and type from entire working environments to computer interfaces and personal accessories. The exhibition also presents a selection of prototypes already under development and available products that are designed with sensible and sensitive attention to the way we really want to work.

Organized by Paola Antonelli, Curator, and Sarah Robins, Research Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design. This exhibition is made possible by Haworth, Inc., Herman Miller Inc., Knoll, Inc., Steelcase Inc., and the Xerox Foundation. Additional generous support is provided by Peter Norton, Norton Family Foundation, The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.

top

Van Gogh's Postman: The Portraits of Joseph Roulin
February 1–May 15
Second floor galleries

This small exhibition brings together five different portraits made by Vincent van Gogh, over a crucial eight-month period in 1888 and 1889, of one of the most important figures in his life. Joseph Roulin was a postal employee in Arles, became a surrogate "big brother" for the artist, caring for Vincent during the major onset of mental illness that came in 1888, and seeing him through the asylum months of early 1889. Now the Museum's own well-loved Portrait of Joseph Roulin can be seen in the context of four other paintings (and two superb drawings) of this same extraordinary personality, drawn from museum collections in America and Europe.

Organized by Kirk Varnedoe, Chief Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture. This exhibition is made possible by BNP Paribas, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, and an anonymous donor.

top

Andreas Gursky
March 4–May 15, 2001
Third floor galleries

Purchase the exhibition catalogue

The first United States retrospective of the work of contemporary German artist Andreas Gursky presents some forty works surveying his achievement from 1984 to the present. Gursky's large color photographs present a stunning and inventive image of our contemporary world. His adventurous mixture of contemporary subjects, saturated color, large scale, rich detail, bold abstraction, visual wit, art-world savvy, photographic spontaneity, and flamboyant digital tinkering— all in the service of a polished, signature style— have made his work one of the most distinctive and challenging contributions to contemporary art.

Organized by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator, Department of Photography. This exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund. Additional support is provided by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art. The accompanying publication is made possible by the John Szarkowski Publications Fund.

top

About Face: Selections from the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books
March 21–June 5
Third floor

Throughout art history, portraits have fulfilled a range of social and cultural functions from official tributes to family homages to idealizations of the anonymous everyman. Modern artists have continued this tradition and have also used faces to evoke a panoply of expressive states. Contemporary artists have found increasingly inventive and conceptual approaches to this traditional genre. This exhibition of approximately fifty works draws from the Museum's unparalleled holdings of modern and contemporary prints and showcases numerous recent acquisitions never before on view. Among the artists represented are Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Richard Hamilton, and Sherrie Levine.

Pablo Picasso. The Weeping Woman. 1937. Etching, aquatint and drypoint, plate: 27 1/8 x 19 1/2" (68.9 x 49.5 cm), sheet: 30 5/16 x 22 5/16" (77 x 56.7 cm). Publisher: the artist, Paris. Printer: Lacourière, Paris. Edition: 15 (3rd of 7 states). Acquired through the generosity of the Katsko Suzuki Memorial Fund, the Riva Castleman Endowment Fund, David Rockefeller, The Philip and Lynn Straus Foundation Fund, and Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro; Linda and Bill Goldstein, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert D. Schimmel, the Edward John Noble Foundation, and the Associates of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books; The Cowles Charitable Trust, Nelson Blitz, Jr. with Catherine Woodard and Perri and Allison Blitz, Mary Ellen Meehan, and Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro; and Ruth and Louis Aledort, Carol and Bert Freidus, David S. Orentreich, M.D., and Susan and Peter Ralston. © 2001 Estate P. Picasso/ARS, N.Y.

Organized by Wendy Weitman, Associate Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books.

top

What Is a Print?
March 22–June 5
Third floor

Artists have used printmaking to create some of their most profound and compelling works of art, but the basic printmaking techniques remain a mystery to most people. This small exhibition provides examples of the four main processes—woodcut, etching, lithography, and screenprint—together with some of the tools and materials that are used to produce them. A related Web site may be viewed at kiosks in the exhibition or online.

Organized by Starr Figura, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books. The What Is a Print? Web project is made possible through the generosity of Linda and Bill Goldstein.

top

Collaborations with Parkett: 1984 to Now
April 5–June 5, 2001
Third floor galleries

This exhibition celebrates the Museum's recent acquisition of all the artworks commissioned by Parkett, a contemporary journal of art and ideas. Founded in the early 1980s to foster a critical dialogue between art constituencies of Europe and America, Parkett conceives each issue as a collaboration with one or more artists. The creation of editioned artworks is part of this interchange. On view are more than 150 page-art projects, prints, photographs, paintings, multiples, and works in other inventive formats. When seen together, they provide a survey of the richness and variety of art practice over the last eighteen years. Since the works are primarily small-scale, this overview is possible within the space of one gallery. Artists represented include established figures such as Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter as well as newer talents like Elizabeth Peyton and Kara Walker. Beginning with Enzo Cucchi and the Neo-Expressionist movement of the 1980s, this project continues with work ranging from the abstract painting of Ellsworth Kelly to the post-Pop constructions of Damien Hirst, and including myriad approaches in between.

Organized by Deborah Wye, Chief Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books. This exhibition is made possible by Joanne M. Stern and by Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro. Additional support is provided by the Associates of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Contemporary Arts Council, The Junior Associates, and the Young Print Collectors of The Museum of Modern Art.