The "I went to MoMA and..." project in action in the MoMA lobby

“It is the spectators who make the pictures.”—Marcel Duchamp

What would our museum be with no visitors? Well…not much of a museum. MoMA isn’t just galleries filled with art, after all. It’s also the experience of art, the diverse and intensely personal experiences people have when they visit.

Young Mr. Lincoln. 1939. USA. Directed by John Ford

These notes accompany the screenings of Jean Renoir’s </i>The Rules of the Game</a> on April 6, 7, and 8 in Theater 2.</p>

John Ford (1894–1973) is the greatest film director America has ever had (or ever will), and is quite possibly the country’s greatest artist. His usual reaction to such views was that of a snarlingly sarcastic sonofabitch. He was also a man who could be quite cruel, evenly violently so, to people who loved him. Ford, like his predecessor Walt Whitman, was a poet of genius and contradictions.

Teens displaying their photographic masks in Central Park

Through a series of adventurous performance-based actions, the teens in our “Stop Or I’ll Shoot!” workshops have formed themselves into a functioning arts collective to negotiate and investigate ideas surrounding public and private space, altered perceptions, and challenging interactions.

Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection. In honor of April Fool’s Day, we present some classics of artistic pranksterism.

April Fools!

Zamp Kelp, Ortner, Pinter, Haus-Rucker-Co. Mind Expander/Flyhead Helmet, from the Environment Transformer project. 1968. On view in the exhibition Shaping Modernity: Design 1880–1980

What is it about the Haus-Rucker-Co. Mind Expander/Flyhead Helmet that so pleases everyone, I wonder? People love it. They just do. It is nice looking, with its translucent green double bubble mask, prismatic eyepieces, and groovy power pack, but the cool factor explodes once you realize what it is and what it’s meant to do.

This is the first post in the new series Off the Shelf, which explores unique MoMA publications from the Museum Archives.

From left: Front Cover: Yoko Ono. Montage incorporating photographic images of Rolf Jährling, Iain Macmillan, Nancy Mee, and Nori Sato. 1988. © 1988 by Yoko Ono. Back Cover: Milan Knizak. Drawing for catalogue cover. 1988. © 1988 by Milan Knizak.

Endpapers: Ben Vautier. Assholes Wallpaper. c. 1974.

During our intern walkthrough of the exhibition Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960, we learned about Yoko Ono and George Maciunas‘s Fluxus Wallpaper</a>, which is displayed along the third-floor hallway at the entrance to Staging Action and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.

The Rules of the Game. 1939. France. Directed by Jean Renoir

These notes accompany the screenings of Jean Renoir’s </i>The Rules of the Game</a> on March 30, 31, and April 1 in Theater 2.</p>

Saying something new and interesting about La Regle du ju (The Rules of the Game) by Jean Renoir (1894–1979) is more than a challenge. Perhaps no film (with the possible exception of Citizen Kane) has been so universally acclaimed by critics of all stripes and persuasions.

Nation. 1992. USA. Directed by Tom Kalin. On left: Trash; on right: Julie Tolentino

I never visited the Warehouse, the Chicago club where legendary Frankie Knuckles was DJ (and where the moniker “House Music” was born), but I was lucky enough to dance all night at the Power Plant, the club he opened there in the early 1980s. Later, during a visit to NYC in the summer of 1983 (before I moved here in 1987), my friends took me out for a delirious pilgrimage to hear the mighty sounds of Larry Levan at Paradise Garage. This former garage at 84 King Street was a place of few words. Dance was the message.

Teens react to their surroundings after entering Flux Factory for the first time.

In her session of In the Making, teaching artist Kerry Downey has been tackling the difficult world of abstract art and the way in which non-representational art can express emotions. For her first field trip of the season, she took the group on a strange, confusing, and ultimately beautiful journey through the amazing environs of Long Island City’s Flux Factory.

Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection.

Here are five works from MoMA’s collection representing the flowers, as well as the showers, that come with spring.