Spooky Season at MoMA

What makes an artwork spooky? Is it the subject matter (a ghost, a monster, a witch)? Is it the emotion it inspires (terror, fear), or is it just an eerie feeling you get when looking at it?

I walked around MoMA’s fifth floor searching for the creepiest, scariest artworks I could find. Beyond the landscapes and abstract paintings, I found some spooky artworks haunting the gallery walls.

Use this scavenger hunt sheet to find them…if you dare.

Alberto Giacometti. Head of a Man on a Rod. 1947

More Tricks and Treats:

It’s not a coincidence so many of the spookiest artworks in MoMA’s collection are in one room, Gallery 517. The Surrealism galleries feature artists who were working around the 1920s and ’30s. Surrealists relied on dreams and the imagination as inspiration. Some took ordinary things and made them…a little bit odd. Placing something familiar in a strange setting created the uncanny sensation Surrealists loved.

So, when it came time to find eerie artworks I knew just where to begin my search.

Learn more about the spooky artworks in Gallery 517 and beyond with the activities below.

Find: Little Ghost Eating Bread by Meret Oppenheim

Little Ghost is happily munching on a piece of bread...but watch out! What is that creature lurking in the corner? And what might happen when she steps off that ledge?

To do at home: Create your own story. What might happen to Little Ghost next?

Meret Oppenheim. Little Ghost Eating Bread. 1934

Find: The Portrait by René Magritte

From afar it may appear that René Magritte painted an ordinary dinner, but the title gives a clue that this meal is highly unusual. Magritte calls this painting The Portrait, though at first glance you might not see a person. Look a little closer and you will find the piece of meat is looking right back at you!

To do at home: Try creating your own uncanny meal! What is the creepiest dinner you can imagine? Draw it.

René Magritte. The Portrait. 1935

Find: And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur by Dorothea Tanning

Two cloaked children stand near unfamiliar creatures. A horned animal and a translucent creature gesture toward floating orbs—and is that a ghost dancing in the background? While the painting might feel unfamiliar, Leonora Carrington actually included her own children, Pablo and Gabriel, in this scene.

To do at home: Try it for yourself! Make a drawing of someone you know in a surreal setting. What magical things might you include? Want an added challenge? Ask someone else to title your artwork…before you create it.

Leonora Carrington. And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur. 1953

Head toward the Sculpture Garden on the fifth floor to find this next sculpture: The Road; The Shadow; Too Long; Too Narrow by Maria Martin

In Maria Martin’s mysterious sculpture, the tangled arms of a creature reach out toward an unsuspecting figure. Is it just their shadow, or something more sinister?

To do at home: Read Martin’s almost-rhyming title for this work of art. Then, create your own sensory poem about the sculpture.

I See…
I Hear…
I Smell…
I Taste…
I Feel…

Maria Martins. The Road; The Shadow; Too Long, Too Narrow. 1946

Download a PDF of the Spooky MoMA activity guide to use in the galleries