Artifact or Idea?
10 Nov 2010 - 15 Apr 2011
Installation view of Photography 1839–1937 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1937. Photo: Soichi Sunami
Photography in MoMA Exhibition Design, 1937–1979
In its early decades the Museum played a significant role in establishing photography as a modern art form. At the same time MoMA was integrating photography into innovative installation designs, blurring distinctions between photographs as art objects and as communications media. In this exhibit, books, periodicals, installation photographs, and examples of actual exhibition design illustrate how diverse developments in twentieth-century photography were mobilized to explain, disseminate, and promote modernism.
In its early decades the Museum played a significant role in establishing photography as a modern art form. At the same time MoMA was integrating photography into innovative installation designs, blurring distinctions between photographs as art objects and as communications media. In this exhibit, books, periodicals, installation photographs, and examples of actual exhibition design illustrate how diverse developments in twentieth-century photography were mobilized to explain, disseminate, and promote modernism.