MoMA Studio: Exchange Café furniture by Caroline Woolard. Photo by Ryan Tempro

When I was asked to propose a new learning format to MoMA, I suggested a café because I wanted to create a social space where meaning is made in dialogue, where objects can be touched, and where visceral knowledge is honored.

The 2012 Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Having never visited a biennial—a fancy name for a recurring exhibition that explores the state of contemporary art—I had always been curious about this art-world phenomenon that has populated almost every nook and cranny of the globe

On any given day, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room may be full of studio art students viewing contemporary screenprints, art history students researching works for their term papers, or curators from other institutions planning exhibitions.

Cover of the exhibition catalogue Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series, published by The Museum of Modern Art

The iconic American artist Ellsworth Kelly celebrated his 90 birthday on May 31, and in his honor, MoMA has reunited the 14 ell-shaped paintings of his seminal Chatham Series for the first time since they were originally exhibited in 1972.

Though it is whimsical to think that the ell-shaped canvases were chosen as an ode to ELLsworth kELLy’s big day, the paintings are considered to be among Kelly’s greatest contributions to abstract art. Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture Ann Temkin details the fascinating story behind the series in MoMA’s new book, Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series.

In 1970, Kelly decided to leave New York City, where he had been living and working since the 1950s, for a more rural environment. After a period of exploratory road trips, he settled in Spencertown, two hours north of Manhattan, and established a studio in the nearby town of Chatham. This newfound location proved to be an important influence in Kelly’s artistic development, serving as an inspiration for his work.

Kelly’s studio in Chatham was in a 19th-century brick building featuring nearly 12-foot-tall windows along its upper floor. After spying the striking windows from the sidewalk while exploring the town, Kelly entered the barber shop on the ground floor of the building to inquire about the space and learned that, after stints as an opera house, banquet hall, roller rink, and more, it was functioning as a storage space, holding the town’s Christmas lights. The barber and a neighboring shopkeeper co-owned the space, and they agreed to rent it out to Kelly for $50 a month. The space was far more spacious than any studio Kelly has previous occupied, and the isolated location allowed him to explore his ideas without external influence.

Ellsworth Kelly outside his studio, 13 Main Street, Chatham, 1970

After a year of transforming and customizing the space for his needs, Kelly began work on the first series he would produce there in 1971. Each of the 14 large-scale paintings in the Chatham series are made of two monochromatic canvases that are joined together at a right angle, yet no two are the same, allowing the artist to experiment with color and proportion. Temkins’s essay provides an in-depth exploration of the various aspects of this iconic series, including scale, process, and the reception the Chatham Series received when it was first exhibited to the public at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, in 1972.

Ellsworth Kelly’s studio, Chatham, New York, 1972

The paintings now belong to 14 different collections, but Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series brings them back together for the first time since their debut so museumgoers and readers alike can explore one of Kelly’s most significant achievements in its entirety. For more on the series, download a free PDF sample of the exhibition catalogue for an excerpt from the essay. The book also features as essay by the director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery that accompanied the first exhibition of the series, vibrant reproductions of each of the 14 paintings, additional illustrations including vintage photographs of Kelly’s studio, and much more.

Paris Belongs to Us. 1961. France. Directed by Jacques Rivette

These notes accompany screenings of Jacques Rivette’s </em>Paris Belongs to Us</a> on June 12, 13, and 14 in Theater 3.</p>

Jacques Rivette, who recently celebrated his 85th birthday—and is still active—seems to me to be one of the most uneven, and certainly less prolific, of the major figures to come out of the French New Wave.

How well do you know your MoMA? If you think you can identify the artist and title of each of these works—all currently on view in the Painting and Sculpture and Contemporary galleries—please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We’ll provide the answers next month (on Friday, July 12).

MoMA’s celebration of the landmark year 1913 continues with the 11th in a series of videos highlighting important works from 1913 in the Museum’s collection.

The 400 Blows. 1959. France. Directed by Francois Truffaut

These notes accompany screenings of Francois Truffaut’s </em>The 400 Blows</a> on June 5, 6, and 7 in Theater 3.</p>

In the interest of full disclosure, let me make it clear at the outset that of all the directors who came along

From left: Claes Oldenburg. Empire (Papa) Ray Gun. 1959. Casein on papier-mâché over wire. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist. © 1959 Claes Oldenburg. Photo: MoMA Imaging Services; Vija Celmins. Gun with Hand #1. 1964. Oil on canvas. Gift of Edward R. Broida in honor of John Elderfield. © 2013 Vija Celmins

If you visit Claes Oldenburg’s Ray Gun Wing, currently on display in MoMA’s Marron Atrium, you can see his collection of toy guns, metal gun-like constructions, and gun-evoking pieces of detritus, all arrayed like exotic butterflies in a naturalist’s cabinet of wonder.

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.

We had a lot of fun selecting hand-related graphics from the collection to display in Hand Signals: Digits, Fists, and Talons.