Paul Klee. Bauhaus Ausstellung Weimar Juli–Sept, 1923, Karte 5. 1923. Lithograph, 3 15/16 x 5 7/8  ” (10 × 15 cm). Committee on Architecture and Design Funds. Photo: John Wronn

When friends went off on a summer vacation adventure and I heard myself request that they be sure to post some pictures on Instagram, I wondered what happened to “send postcards?” It really was not so very long ago when I could open my mailbox (my letter box) and regularly find a picture postcard from someone gone halfway around the world—or even just across town—with a handwritten personal note or a “having a wonderful time wish you were here,” or some artist post cards with wonderful, artfully collaged imagery from a mail art–artist friend. Now, it’s a rarity.

From the onset of Gilbert & George’s career, when they described themselves as “baby artists,” the phrase “Art for All” has served as their motto or mission statement. The artists have made this mantra part of the ideological grounding of their work, and have even included these three words as part of their mailing address and within all of their correspondence. The current exhibition Gilbert & George: The Early Years epitomizes this underlying philosophy by highlighting MoMA’s collection holdings of the artists’ work from the initial period of their practice. Perhaps best known for their brilliantly-colored, wall-sized Pictures of later years, Gilbert & George initially worked with quite a different palette and varied sense of scale, which is on display in this exhibition.

Time is on your side this week, from architecture for the future, utopia through history, and 10 years of change on the Lower East Side, to party time at MoMA PS1:

Yoko Ono. YOKO ONO MORNING PEACE 2015. Spring 2015. Ink on paper; drawing for the event

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Yoko Ono’s 1965 performance of Morning Piece in New York City. To commemorate Morning Piece and in conjunction with Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971</a>, MoMA and PopRally have organized YOKO ONO MORNING PEACE 2015, a global sunrise celebration on the summer solstice, Sunday, June 21.

Participants from Elders Share the Arts (ESTA) viewing the exhibition One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North

How does artwork created within a specific cultural and political context connect with viewers across multiple generations and disparate locations? How can an institution remain relevant to contemporary audiences while maintaining a commitment to preserving and championing artwork from past generations? Shellyne Rodriguez and Kerry Downey are two longtime teaching artists working with MoMA’s Community and Access Programs who, in addition to their work across a wide range of educational groups, both run the majority of the Museum’s Community Partnerships

The Rainbow Flag waving in the wind at San Francisco’s Castro District. Photo: Benson Kua. Image used through Wikimedia Commons

We’re thrilled to announce that MoMA has acquired the iconic Rainbow Flag into its design collection, where it joins similarly universal symbols such as the @ symbol, the Creative Commons logo, and the recycling symbol. Artist Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Flag in 1978 in San Francisco. Just a few days ago, he met Michelle Millar Fisher in MoMA’s offices to record an interview for the MoMA Archives, part of which is transcribed here.

As we approach the solstice this week—the official start of summer—things are truly “buzzing” at MoMA. Don’t miss out!

How well do you know your MoMA? If you think you can identify the artist and title of each of these works from MoMA’s collection—all currently on view throughout the Museum—please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We’ll provide the answers next month (on Friday, July 10).

The histories behind the works in the Museum’s collection are often as engaging as the art itself. We don’t always get to share these stories, but through our collection-based exhibitions we have the opportunity to highlight the previous lives of works on view. One that I was able to see installed for the first time since it formally entered the collection is Gilbert & George’s The Tuileries (1974), which is currently on view in the exhibition Gilbert & George: The Early Years.

In the fall of 2010, close to 4.8 million articles were downloaded from the password-protected, subscriber-only, nonprofit online academic journal repository JSTOR in an extended cyber hack that used the campus network at MIT. The articles represented roughly 80% of JSTOR’s total cache.