13 Best Artworks of the MoMa New York

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is, without a doubt, the most important museum of modern art in the world. But with a collection of almost 200,000 pieces, we run the risk of getting lost and ending the visit without having seen the essential. Below, I detail the fundamental works so that you can make the most of your visit to 100%.

It is difficult to decide which are the best works. For this reason, I recommend that you check the MoMa map before starting the tour to see which floor contains the largest number of works that interest you. To make your visit easier, I will tell you that the most popular paintings at the MoMA are on the fourth and fifth floors.

If you book your ticket to the MoMa you will have the chance to see The Starry Night, described as the quintessential work of Van Gogh. It belongs to the permanent collection of the MoMa since 1941 and was acquired through Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.

Starry Night is an oil on canvas and was painted by Van Gogh in a studio on the first floor of the Saint-Paul-de Mausole asylum. The view has been identified as that of his bedroom window and he captured it in the painting at different times of the day: sunrise, moonrise, on sunny, cloudy, windy or rainy days.

This work is located on... the fifth floor and is the work that most visitors come to see.

The Persistence of Memory by Spanish painter Salvador Dalí is also known as The Soft Clocks or The Melting Clocks, and another of the key works you will see if you book your MoMa ticket.

This oil on canvas, dating from 1931 and on view at MoMa since 1934, is a surrealist painting depicting a subjective vision of temporality. The technique is precise and the drawing academic, with pure lines. A curiosity: Dalí admitted that he was inspired by camembert cheese when he painted the picture.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the MoMa.

*Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1907 and shows, in a cubist style, five Barcelona prostitutes in the street of Avinyó.

This painting, which you can see if you book your MoMA ticket, was initially exhibited at the Galerie d'Antin (Paris) in 1916. Subsequently, Picasso kept it in his studio until the early 1920s when it was acquired by Jacques Doucet and exhibited at the Petit Palais Museum in 1925. It was later purchased by MoMA and is still one of the collection's favorite pieces.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of MoMA.

Campbell Soup Can is a work of art produced by American artist Andy Warhol in 1962. Also known under the title 32 Campbell's Soup Cans.

This work, which you can admire if you book your ticket to MoMa, constituted Warhol's first solo exhibition in an art gallery as a professional artist. The work consists of 32 canvases and depicts each of the varieties of canned soup that the company offered at the time. An exponent of pop art, it has become a world-famous image and has been stamped on numerous merchandising objects.

This work is located on... the fourth floor of the MoMa.

*The Water Lilies, by the impressionist Claude Monet, belongs to a series of paintings that the painter made in the French village of Giverny at the end of his life.

These canvases are characterized, in addition to their large format, because neither the shore of the lake where the water lilies lie nor the horizon line can be distinguished in them. In fact, it is a close-up painting precisely because of this vaporization of the contours.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the MoMa.

• René Magritte's The Lovers is on the fifth floor of the MoMa, in the Richard S. Zeisler Collection.

*The Lovers" dates from 1928, and is the first work in a series of four variations. A disturbing image that does not leave visitors indifferent. There are different versions about the meaning. Some say that it shows a terrible memory of the painter, since as a teenager he witnessed the corpse of his mother being pulled out of the Sambre River with her wet shirt wrapped around her head.

In fact, it is very common in Magritte's works the appearance of characters with their faces covered by a veil. It is also said that it may be a metaphor for desire, impossible love, forbidden love or past loves.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the museum.

*Gas Station, by Edward Hopper, is a series of several gas stations seen by the artist that you can also see if you reserve your MoMa ticket.

The American painter was one of the main representatives of 20th century realism. Even so, his pictorial work was not well received, both by the public and the critics of the time, and he was forced to work as an illustrator to survive.

It was after his death that Hopper began to be recognized as one of the great masters of 20th century art. Today, his work has become an icon of modern life and society.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the MoMa.

*Dutch Interior is a series of three paintings made by Joan Miró in 1928 after a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands, where he was inspired by the Dutch painting of the seventeenth century.

It is one of the most representative works in the creation of Joan Miró and is characterized by the search for the essential and a purification of the expressive vocabulary that characterized his previous works.

This work is located on... the fifth floor.

*Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair is Frida Kahlo 's first self-portrait after her divorce from Diego Rivera.

The self-portrait represents the change in her life after the divorce. Kahlo is seated in the center of the work. She appears in a man's large, dark suit. Self-Portrait with Hair Cut Short was Kahlo's first work at MoMa.

This work is located on... the fifth floor.

Jackson Pollock 's One: Number 31 is one of the most prominent examples of his "drip" technique: an abstract expressionist drip-style painting, in which he dropped, dripped, or flung paint onto a canvas lying on the floor.

This painting, dating from 1950, is one of Pollock's largest paintings and you can admire it if you book your MoMa ticket.

This work is located on... the fourth floor.

Bicycle Wheel predates Marcel Duchamp 's use of the word "readymade," a term he coined after moving from Paris to New York in 1915.

This work, which represents the earliest example of this kind of revolutionary artwork, is located on the fifth floor and is considered the first kinetic sculpture. The artist denied that his invention had a purpose, although it is known as the first of his found art works.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the museum.

*The Love Song is one of Giorgio de Chirico's best-known works and an early example of the Surrealist style, painted ten years before the movement was born.

In this work, Chirico wanted to express something of the reality he saw hidden beyond appearances. Shrouded in an atmosphere of anxiety and melancholy, the humanoid forms, empty architecture, shadowy passages and eerily elongated streets evoke the profound absurdity of a universe torn apart by the First World War.

This work is located on... the fifth floor of the MoMa.

*Drowning Girl is considered one of Roy Lichtenstein's most significant works, a painting that you should see at your leisure if you book your ticket to the MoMa.

For this pop art exponent, which dates from 1963, he was inspired by the comic Run for Love, published by DC Comics in 1962. The work has been described as a "masterpiece of melodrama" and depicts a teary-eyed woman in a turbulent sea. In a "tragic situation," the woman is emotionally distraught, apparently over an affair.

This work is located on... the fourth floor of the MoMa.

The MoMa collection is divided into six floors. Below, you have the information for each of the floors, but let me tell you that floors 2, 3, 4 and 5 house most of the collection.

• The second floor is used as a hall and is where the reception, ticket offices, restaurant, store, sculpture garden... are located.
• The second floor focuses on the collection from 1980 to the present: special exhibitions, prints, illustrated books, audiovisual media. In addition, it also houses the store and cafeteria.
• The third floor includes drawings, photography, architecture and design from various periods.
• The fourth floor is where you will find framed paintings and sculptures from 1940 to 1980: Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Yayoi Kusama, Japer Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein...
• The fifth floor houses paintings and sculptures from 1880 to 1940: Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo, Piet Mondrian .....
• The sixth floor is for special exhibitions and also houses a store.

Our recommendation is that if you book your MoMa ticket you start your visit on floors 4 and 5, where the main works are located.

MoMA Interactive Guide

The entrance to the MoMA includes an interactive guide that suggests some thematic itineraries, depending on the type of audience (adult or child) and according to the time you have available. This tool makes the visit much easier if you have limited time.

1- Buy your ticket in advance: The MoMa receives a large number of visitors every day. It is important to book your ticket in advance to avoid waiting in long lines and wasting unnecessary time at the ticket office. The cheapest tickets for the MoMa are priced from 28 euros at Hellotickets and it is a perfect option if you want to avoid wasting time at the ticket office.

2- Check the map: It is advisable to check the map before starting the visit to see on which floor are the most works that interest you and start the tour in this area. You will enjoy it more if you see them at the beginning of the visit!

3- Go early: It is preferable to visit the MoMa early in the morning to have as much time as possible to enjoy the collection with more tranquility.