MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

“Nobody could imagine in New York—the most busy place in the world—that anybody would take the time to sit and just engage in [a] mutual gaze with me." — Marina Abramović

On this day in 2010, Marina Abramović's retrospective "The Artist Is Present" closed at MoMA. As part of the exhibition, Abramović staged a new work, sitting at a small table across from an empty chair in MoMA's Marron Atrium. Anyone was welcome to sit across from her for as long as they wanted.

For eight hours a day, over the course of nearly three months, more than 1,000 people sat opposite the artist, lining up for hours to do so; some people even camped outside the Museum overnight.

One person described sitting with Abramović as “a transforming experience—it’s luminous, it’s uplifting, it has many layers, but it always comes back to being present, breathing, maintaining eye contact.”

Did you visit "The Artist Is Present"? Share your experience in the comments 👇

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Installation views of the exhibition "Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 14, 2010–May 31, 2010. Photographs by Jonathan Muzikar.

Throw the confetti! It's graduation season 🎊

Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made this poster in 1894 to advertise the new paper form of confetti. Inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, the artist incorporated patterns of vivid, flat color, and sinuous lines to achieve a directness that went far beyond the illustrative charm of other poster makers of the day.

🎓 Celebrating a graduate this season? Gift a MoMA membership so they can continue learning and finding new inspiration in our galleries!

🎁 Members get free admission, exclusive viewing opportunities and events, discounts at MoMA Design Store and more.

Head to membership.moma.org to learn more!

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. "Confetti." 1894. Acquired in honor of Joanne M. Stern by the Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books in appreciation for her contribution as Committee Chair.

May flowers have arrived 🌸
..and that means Mother's Day is just around the corner! Bring mom to MoMA and you can...

🍨 Grab an ice cream and enjoy the spring flowers in our Sculpture Garden
🎨 Embark on an art quest through our galleries with our Kids Guide (kids 16 and under always get in free!)
✏️ Participate in hands-on activities for all ages in the Heyman Family Art Lab
🛍️ Check out new arrivals at MoMA Design Store

🎁 Gift a membership ahead of your visit! Head to membership.moma.org to learn more.

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Roe Ethridge. "Flower." 2011. Gift of Michael S. Ovitz. © 2026 Roe Ethridge.

📷 Man Ray's experiments with photography carried him to the center of the emergent Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1920s.

Led by André Breton, Surrealism sought to reveal the uncanny coursing beneath familiar appearances in daily life. Man Ray proved well suited to this, and he contributed photographs to the three major Surrealist journals throughout the 1920s and 1930s as well as constructing Surrealist objects.

Working across mediums and historical movements, Man Ray was an integral part of The Museum of Modern Art’s early exhibitions. His photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, films, and even a chess set were included in landmark early installations at the Museum.

🖼️ Plan your visit to see this photograph and more works by Man Ray on view now in our fifth-floor galleries.

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Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky). "Untitled." 1931. Gift of James Thrall Soby. © 2026 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

How it feels when spring flowers begin to bloom! 🌼

While artist Betye Saar is mostly known for her assemblage, she began her career as a printmaker. Her earliest works are on paper, and using the soft-ground etching technique, she pressed stamps, stencils, and found materials into her plates to capture their images and textures.

Over the course of her now six-decade career, Saar has continued to make work that honors or critiques the familiar and mines the unknown.

“It may not be possible to convey to someone else the mysterious transforming gifts by which dreams, memory, and experience become art," she once said. "But I like to think that I can try.”

🖼️ See Saar's work on view now in our fourth-floor galleries.

📖 Read more about how Saar shifted from printmaking to working with assemblage and collage on → mo.ma/mag216

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Betye Saar. "Flight." 1963. Gift of Julie and Bennett Roberts, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. © Betye Saar, courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles.

Behind the myths and misconceptions, who was Marcel Duchamp?

➡️ Swipe to learn more about the artist and his famously enigmatic work.

📣 Coming soon! The first North American retrospective of Duchamp’s work in over 50 years opens this Sunday, April 12.

🎟️ Become a member today and enjoy exclusive Member Previews. Learn more at mo.ma/duchamp

📣 Explore the histories, politics, and aesthetics of demolition at the next MoMA R&D Salon, streaming live on April 8 at 6 p.m.

From the televised implosion of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis in 1972 to Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2025, demolition is often a spectacle: loud, visually arresting, and violent.

MoMA R&D Salon 57 will explore demolition, ranging from Shiva the Destroyer to urban renewal and slum clearance, from the White House’s East Wing to the work of artists like Gordon Matta-Clark, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Kara Walker.

The salon will feature presentations by Francesca Russello Ammon, Jody Graf, Christopher López, and Vyjayanthi Rao, as well as video contributions by Agbajowo Collective, Mona Hadler, Søren Pihlmann, Quinn Slobodian, Dr. Megan Sykes, and Kate Wagner.

MoMA R&D Salons, hosted by Paola Antonelli, explore the role of museums as the R&D of society.

📺 Stream it live on April 8 at 6 p.m. or watch the recording → mo.ma/rddemolition

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[1] Gordon Matta-Clark and Gerry Hovagimyan working on "Conical Intersect." Photograph by Harry Gruyaert. [2] Portraits from left to right: Francesca Russello Ammon, Jody Graf, Christopher López, Vyjayanthi Rao.