I. Toward the new MOMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has long been regarded—and has long regarded itself—as the greatest institution of its kind in the world. Its collections are acknowledged to be unrivaled in quality and number, and for more than half a century its exhibition program together with the publications that derive from it have played a crucial role in shaping our understanding of what, in fact, the very notion of “modern art” may be said to encompass. From the outset, moreover, the museum undertook to define its interests—and thus those of modern art—in broad terms, embracing not only painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, but also architecture, photography, industrial design, and film. In this respect, too, MOMA (as it has come to be called) has exerted an immense influence. For other institutions in the field it has served as something of a model and inspiration, and for its large and constantly expanding public it has served as a source of pleasure and instruction as well as a touchstone of taste and certification. So central has been its role in defining both the standards and the scope of modern art that the museum’s own activities and ideas have in themselves come to constitute a distinct chapter in the cultural history which MOMAwas originally conceived to monitor, to document, to pass judgment upon, to preserve. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that in 1984, fifty-five years after the founding of the museum,