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The Museum of Modern
Art, New York, 1939. Façade designed by Phillip L.
Goodwin and Edward D. Stone. Photograph by Andreas Feininger.
Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York |
In 1939, its tenth anniversary year, The
Museum of Modern Art re-opened its doors in a newly constructed
building at 11 West 53rd Street. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
in a radio address from the White House on May 10, referred to the
Museum as "a citadel of civilization," "a national institution,"
and "a living Museum." After discussing the various media of art
exhibited by the Museum, he declared, "In the future, we must seek
more widespread popular understanding and appreciation of all of
these arts."
The new building, designed by Phillip L.
Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone, opened with the exhibition Art
in Our Time: 10th Anniversary Exhibition (MoMA Exh. #85-89,
May 10-September 30, 1939). The exhibition, organized with the onslaught
of tourists in New York for the World's Fair in mind, included works
by both American and foreign artists. It was planned in sections
to reflect the general structure of the Museum's organization, as
founding Director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. had envisioned it, encompassing
diverse and various media. Painting and sculpture were represented
in several sections of the exhibition, such as American Popular
Art. Other sections included Twenty-one Prints, Seven
American Photographers, Houses and Housing, and Cycle
of Seventy Films, among others. The Goodwin-Stone building was
the first designed specifically for the Museum.
The Museum first opened in October 1929, in the Heckscher Building
at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. In 1932, the Museum leased a townhouse
at 11 West 53rd Street from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for the Museum's
new residence. Five years later, the Museum moved to a temporary
space in the concourse of the Time-Life building in Rockefeller
Center, while the Goodwin-Stone building was constructed.
Over the years, the 1939 Museum building has undergone several periods
of renovation and expansion. The Grace Rainey Rogers Annex and the
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, both designed by Philip
Johnson, opened in the 1950s. The 1960s brought the opening of the
east and garden wings as well as the enlarged sculpture garden,
also designed by Philip Johnson. In the 1980s, a west wing and tower,
designed by Cesar Pelli, were constructed.
In 1997, architect Yoshio Taniguchi was selected to undertake the
design for the current building project.
President Rockefeller, friends of the Museum
of Modern Art:
When men dedicate a new edifice for a common enterprise they are
at once celebrating an achievement and announcing a purpose. They
cannot refrain nor could they properly be excused from making clear
what that purpose is.
From all that has been said by the speakers to whom we have been
listening tonight, the mission of this museum is plain. We are dedicating
this building to the cause of peace and to the pursuits of peace.
The arts that ennoble and refine life flourish only in the atmosphere
of peace. And in this hour of dedication we are glad again to bear
witness before all the world to our faith in the sanctity of free
institutions. For we know that only where men are free can the arts
flourish and the civilization of national culture reach full flower.
The arts cannot thrive except where men are free to be themselves
and to be in charge of the discipline of their own energies and
ardors. The conditions for democracy and for art are one and the
same. What we call liberty in politics results in freedom in the
arts. There can be no vitality in the works gathered in a museum
unless there exists the right of spontaneous life in the society
in which the arts are nourished.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment,
a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art
or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush
art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish
arts, too.
In encouraging the creation and enjoyment of beautiful things we
are furthering democracy itself. That is why this museum is a citadel
of civilization.
As the Museum of Modern Art is a living museum, not a collection
of curious and interesting objects, it can, therefore, become an
integral part of our democratic institutions--it can be woven into
the very warp and woof of our democracy. Because it has been conceived
as a national institution, the museum can enrich and invigorate
our cultural life by bringing the best of modern art to all of the
American people. This, I am gratified to learn, will be done through
the traveling exhibitions of the museum.
It is most important that the museum make these traveling exhibits
an essential part of its work. By this means the gap between the
artists and American industry, and the great American public, can
be bridged. And most important of all, the standards of American
taste will inevitably be raised by thus bringing into far-flung
communities results of the latest and finest achievements in all
the arts.
These traveling exhibits will extend the perspective of the general
public, which too often has been accustomed to think of the fine
arts as painting and possibly sculpture. But the proposed traveling
exhibitions and nationwide shows will make all of our people increasingly
aware of the enormous importance of contemporary industrial design,
architecture, including the great social art--housing--which by
its very nature is one of the most formidable challenges to a democracy,
as well as photography, the printed book, the illustration, the
advertisement, the poster, the theater and the moving picture. Thus,
a nation-wide public will receive a demonstration of the force and
scope of all these branches of the visual arts.
Art in America has always belonged to the people and has never been
the property of an academy or a class. The great Treasury projects,
through which our public buildings are being decorated, are an excellent
example of the continuity of this tradition. The Federal Art Project
of the Works Progress Administration is a practical relief project
which also emphasizes the best tradition of the democratic spirit.
The W.P.A. artist, in rendering his own impression of things, speaks
also for the spirit of his fellow countrymen everywhere. I think
the W.P.A. artist exemplifies with great force the essential place
which the arts have in a democratic society such as ours.
In the future we must seek more widespread popular understanding
and appreciation of the arts. Many of our great cities provide the
facilities for such appreciation. But we all know that because of
their lack of size and riches the smaller communities are in most
cases denied this opportunity. That is why I give special emphasis
to the need of giving these smaller communities the visual chance
to get to know modern art.
As in our democracy we enjoy the right to believe in different religious
creeds or in none, so can American artists express themselves with
complete freedom from the strictures of dead artistic tradition
or political ideology. While American artists have discovered a
new obligation to the society in which they live, they have no compulsion
to be limited in method or manner of expression.
The opportunity before the Museum of Modern Art is as broad as the
whole United States. I trust that the fine example which this institution
is affording will be widely copied and that the good work will continue
until the influence of the best and the noblest in the fine arts
permeates every community in the land.
The Museum of Modern Art Archives, NY: Monroe Wheeler Papers.
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