The Museum Library is a comprehensive collection devoted to modern and contemporary art. The noncirculating collection documents painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, architecture, design, performance, video, film, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present. Staff are available to help locate relevant collections and materials, or to direct your question to the appropriate department.
The Library's holdings include approximately 300,000 books and exhibition catalogues, 300 periodical subscriptions, and over 40,000 vertical files of announcements and ephemera about individual artists. Collection highlights include works on Dada and Surrealism, The Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, and the Political Art Documentation and Distribution (PAD/D) Archive.
DADABASE is the catalogue of The Museum of Modern Art Library and Study Centers. DADABASE includes records for all material in the Library, including books, periodical titles, exhibition catalogues, auction catalogues, pamphlet files, artists' books, special collections materials, and websites. DADABASE lists materials in diverse media, but the materials themselves are not online. Rather, DADABASE describes what the materials are and where they can be consulted at the Museum. Primary source collections are held by the Museum Archives.
The Libraries are now located at The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building in midtown Manhattan and at MoMA QNS in Long Island City, Queens. For details on access, locations, and hours, please see the Library FAQ.
Please note, the Library is closed on the following days:
Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day)
Friday, July 4 (Independance Day)
The entire month of August
Monday, September 7 (Labor Day)
Thursday, November 26–Friday, November 27 (Thanksgiving)
Friday, December 25–Friday, January 1 (Christmas and New Years)
The Museum Library, Archives, and the Department of Education organize regular exhibitions in The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building. Exhibitions include:
- Spaces for Learning at The Museum of Modern Art, 1929–1969
- Documenting a Feminist Past: Art World Critique
- America Fantastica: Art, Literature, and the Surrealist Legacy in Experimental Publishing, 1938–1968
- Elements and Unknowns
- Machine for Living Color
- Freedom of the Press: Artists Publish on the American Presidency
