What treasures do think you’d find if you spent months digging through MoMA’s Library collection?  Just ask artist Xaviera Simmons! Xaviera is mining MoMA to trace the Museum’s history with political action through gesture. What does this mean?

MoMA Assistant Conservator Jennifer Hickey inspects the paint surface of One: Number 31, 1950 under magnification

In our last post, we took a closer look at the variety of visual effects Pollock was able to achieve with his painting technique. We also observed some passages of paint that don’t appear to fit the typical characteristics of poured house paint. So we set out to investigate this seeming inconsistency.

Nick Adams and Andy Griffith in No Time for Sergeants. 1958. USA. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

I may be a film curator, but I certainly haven’t seen every film ever made. First, such an aspiration is impossible. When do you do the laundry? Second, discovering a film one has not yet seen is too much fun to give up.

Back in the fall of 2012, I wrote a post highlighting the Roving Gallery Guide initiative piloted by the Department of Education staff last summer. Recently, MoMA’s freelance educators completed their own interventions.

All images: Kelly Nipper with Japanther. Tessa Pattern Takes a Picture. 2013. Photograph © The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Paula Court

On January 30, Kelly Nipper debuted her piece, Tessa Pattern Takes A Picture, in MoMA’s Titus 2 Theater. The performance featured Japanther (Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly), and Marissa Ruazol (dancing in characteristic Nipper attire [pictured]).

Leora: I want to tell you how much has stayed with me since last week’s performances. It feels like I can access the entire duration in my memory, which is not altogether typical of my experience of either rock shows or dance performance. Since our space is limited, I’d like to jump in, describe what I saw, and ask you a related question.

You may ask yourself: “What did these pirates intend to plunder from MoMA and what does it have to do with the Museum’s Education Department?”

Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones. 1958. USA. Directed by Stanley Kramer

These notes accompany screenings of Stanley Kramer’s </em>The Defiant Ones</a> on February 20, 21, and 22 in Theater 3.</p>

I don’t think Stanley Kramer (1913–2001) would be too indignant about being labeled more a producer than a director.

Louise Bourgeois. Ode à l’oubli. 2002. Fabric illustrated book with 35 compositions: 32 fabric collages, 2 with ink additions, and 3 lithographs (including cover), page (each approx.): 11 3/4 x 13” (29.8 x 33 cm); overall: 11 x 12 3/16 x 1 ¾” (28 x 31 x 4.5cm). © 2013 Louise Bourgeois Trust

The first installment of MoMA’s new online project Louise Bourgeois: The Complete Prints & Books includes Bourgeois’s fabric book Ode à l’oubli. In 2002, at the beginning of her 90th decade, Bourgeois constructed the book’s linen binding and pages out of 60-year-old, monogrammed hand towels from her 1938 wedding.

Launching on February 15, post is an extension of research happening in The Museum of Modern Art’s C-MAP (Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives in a Global Age) research initiative, which began in 2009.

To get everyone in the mood for today’s amorous holiday, I’ve selected some of the best kisses from MoMA’s collection. What’s your favorite?