MoMA cofounder Lillie P. Bliss bequeathed her collection of modern art to the Museum upon her death in 1931. With unique foresight, Bliss’s will generously allowed MoMA to sell works from her bequest in order to purchase other works of art. In the ensuing years, Bliss’s provision brought the Museum’s holdings further into the 20th century, enabling the later purchase of some of MoMA’s most renowned works, including Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. To complement the exhibition Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern, follow this itinerary to find artworks in our collection galleries on Floors 5 and 4 that came to the Museum thanks to the vision of Lillie P. Bliss.
Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Floor 5, Gallery 502
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries
Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. 1907
Pablo Picasso. Study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. 1907
A Cubist Salon
Floor 5, Gallery 503
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries
Juan Gris. Jar, Bottle and Glass. 1911
Georges Braque. Man with a Guitar. 1911–12
Gino Severini. Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin. 1912
Henri Matisse
Floor 5, Gallery 506
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries
Henri Matisse. Jeannette (I, III, IV, V). 1910–16
Constantin Brâncuși
Floor 5, Gallery 508
The David Geffen Wing
Constantin Brâncuși. The Newborn. Version I, 1920
Constantin Brâncuși. Fish. 1930
Nature Symbolized
Floor 5, Gallery 509
The David Geffen Wing
Marsden Hartley. Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine. 1942
The New Spirit in Paris
Floor 5, Gallery 513
The David Geffen Wing
Piet Mondrian. Composition C. 1920
Amédée Ozenfant. The Vases. 1925
Surrealist Objects
Floor 5, Gallery 517
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries
Giorgio de Chirico. The Anxious Journey. 1913
Joseph Cornell. Untitled (Bébé Marie). Early 1940s
Salvador Dalí. Retrospective Bust of a Woman. 1933
Arshile Gorky
Floor 5, Gallery 523
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries
Arshile Gorky. Garden in Sochi. c. 1943
Acting Out
Floor 4, Gallery 405
The David Geffen Galleries
Jackson Pollock. Echo: Number 25, 1951. 1951
Domestic Disruption
Floor 4, Gallery 412
The David Geffen Wing
Andy Warhol. Campbell’s Soup Cans. 1962
James Rosenquist’s F-111
Floor 4, Gallery 418
The David Geffen Galleries
James Rosenquist. F-111. 1964–65
Find out more
- To learn more about the founding of MoMA, a new publication, Inventing the Modern, tells the stories of 14 pioneering women who contributed to the formation of the Museum, including Lillie P. Bliss and her fellow cofounders Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Quinn Sullivan. Available at all MoMA stores.