Modern and Contemporary Art
About Us
The Met’s Modern and Contemporary Art department studies, collects, and exhibits art from 1890 to the present. The collection encompasses modernist movements and contemporary practices from across the globe. Featuring important holdings of European modernism, American art and modern design, and contemporary art, the department continues to expand its collection through strategic acquisitions, with a focus on artists and works from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, and African diasporas. With strengths in painting, sculpture, and works on paper, the collection also includes international decorative arts, design, installation art, and time-based media. In addition to its gallery displays, the department engages in mission-driven activities such as special exhibitions, site-specific commissions by contemporary artists, and collaborations within and beyond the museum. It also prioritizes collections care through maintenance, cataloging, research, and the support of fellows and interns.
The Met has been acquiring the art of its time since its founding in the nineteenth century, even though a dedicated Department of Contemporary Arts was only established in 1967. The department’s early years were shaped by curators like Henry Geldzahler, and later Lowery Stokes Sims, who joined the museum in 1972. The department’s holdings have grown significantly through acquisitions, generous gifts, and bequests. Notable collections include the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, featuring nearly 90 Cubist masterpieces; the Alfred Stieglitz Collection; works from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation; a monumental promised gift of major works by Philip Guston; and the Azari collection of contemporary Iranian art.
The department found a permanent home in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing in 1987 and later also mounted exhibitions at The Met Breuer (2016–2020). Looking ahead, the department’s collections will find a new home in The Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, slated to open in 2030.
FEATURED
The Met Announces Transformative Gift of Dada and Surrealism Works
This promised gift from Met Trustee John Pritzker includes works by Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Kurt Schwitters as well as funding for a new research initiative at The Met to advance scholarship and programming related to Dada and Surrealism.
Art
Willem de Kooning
1955–56
Ellsworth Kelly
1963
Designer Olga de Amaral
1984
Lucian Freud
1991–92
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
2016
Eileen Gray
ca. 1922–25
Rashid Johnson
2019
Siah Armajani
2015–16
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Featured Collections
Research the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, held by the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, including works by Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso.
Explore 220 works by Philip Guston (1913–1980) from the promised gift of Musa Guston Mayer, and other works from the permanent collection by one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists.
Explore 188 works in the Bluff Collection, the promised gift of John A. Pritzker. The collection includes paintings, photographs, objects, works on paper, and documents of Dada and Surrealism by such avant-garde artists, as Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Kurt Schwitters.
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A world-class home for The Met’s renowned holdings of 20th- and 21st-century art, opening in 2030.
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Research
Research Center
The Research Center mission is to foster the understanding and appreciation of modern art, including Cubism, its origins and influence.
Explore 220 works by Philip Guston (1913–1980) from the promised gift of Musa Guston Mayer, and other works from the permanent collection by one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists.
Research Initiative
The Collaborative generates new scholarship by bringing together knowledge from the museum, archive, lab, and studio to advance fresh perspectives on the power of art and ideas in society today.
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