Ten essential works of art to see at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

"Glenn Lowry, the sixth director of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), who will be stepping down this month after 30 years at the helm, once posed the question of what exactly his museum was. He then offered his own answers, including "a cherished place, a sanctuary in Midtown Manhattan", "a laboratory of learning, a place where the most challenging and difficult art of our time can be measured against the achievements of the immediate past", and "an idea represented by its collection"."

"MoMA's collection was originally envisaged by its first director, Alfred Barr, as "a torpedo moving through time, its nose the ever advancing present, its tail the ever-receding past of 50 to 100 years ago". MoMA was then imagined as a kind of "feeder" institution, modelled on the Musée du Luxembourg's relationship to the Louvre, so that once a contemporary work had stood the test of time it would be handed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art."

"From its temporary quarters of six rooms on the 12th floor of the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue (which opened in 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash), to Lowry's ambitious incorporation of the contemporary art centre PS1 in Queens (2010) and the $450m expansion of the main building on 53rd Street (2019)-which more than doubled its size-MoMA's founders, trustees, staff and visitors have been asking what the museum is, and who it is for."

MoMA's collection now exceeds 200,000 works spanning 1872 to the present, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photography. Alfred Barr described the collection as "a torpedo moving through time," positioning contemporary work to become part of older institutions once it endures. Glenn Lowry led MoMA for 30 years, expanding physical space, incorporating PS1 in Queens, and overseeing a $450m expansion that doubled the 53rd Street building. Christophe Cherix, appointed from the Department of Drawings and Prints, succeeds Lowry. Cherix emphasizes the collection as MoMA's distinguishing feature. Ongoing questions concern the museum's identity, purpose, audience, and stewardship of modern and contemporary art.

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