Robert Indiana’s LOVE (1965) is one of many holiday cards commissioned by The Junior Council of the Museum. The image subsequently became well-known in various other contexts. © 2015 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Museum of Modern Art’s Christmas card program was initiated in 1954 by the Museum’s Junior Council. The Junior Council, an affiliate group, had been founded five years earlier “to bring together a group of younger people who have a common interest in the arts and a desire to see them fostered soundly and liberally in this country.” It was chaired by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, III.

The program invited artists to submit original cards or card designs. The council’s Christmas Card Committee then selected from those submissions and chose several annually for reproduction and sale at the Museum. A royalty on sales was paid to the artists, and the council benefited from a percentage of the profits.

Page spread from the 1954 Christmas card sales brochure, “The Museum of Modern Art Christmas Cards,” showing two of the first five cards commissioned by the Museum: Seong Moy’s Christmas Tree with Star and Antonio Frasconi’s Good Tidings

The program thrived, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time a wide range of artists were represented, including Ilya Bolotowsky, Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Indiana, Bridget Riley, and Hannah Wilke. In 1986 the council was renamed the Contemporary Arts Council, and soon after the card program shifted to the Museum’s Publications department. Today the cards are produced under the auspices of the Museum’s Retail department.