13 Best Artworks of the MoMa New York

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) is undoubtedly the most important museum in the world for modern art. But with a collection of almost 200,000 pieces, we run the risk of getting lost and ending the visit without having seen the most important works. Below, I'll give you a rundown of the essential works so you can get the most out of your visit.

It's hard to decide which are the best works. I recommend checking the MoMa map before you start your tour to see which floor has the most works that interest you. To make your visit easier, I'll tell you that the most popular paintings at MoMa are on the fourth and fifth floors.

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The Museum of Modern Art Admission Tickets

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Some of the most iconic works in art history await you in its galleries.

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To make sure you don't miss any of these works of art and get the most out of your visit, buy your tickets to MoMa in advance. Not only will you avoid long lines, but you'll also be able to plan your tour better and focus on enjoying the museum's most iconic pieces, such as Van Gogh's The Starry Night and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Remember that MoMa also offers access to temporary exhibitions featuring the most innovative contemporary artists. When you purchase your tickets, you'll enjoy a complete experience that combines classic masterpieces with the latest trends in art.

• Recommended if... you want to enjoy iconic masterpieces and discover the best of modern art in one place.

With your ticket to MoMa, you will have the chance to see The Starry Night, considered Van Gogh's masterpiece. It has been part of MoMa's permanent collection since 1941 and was acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.

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

• This work is located on the fifth floor and is the most visited work in the museum.

The Persistence of Memory by Spanish painter Salvador Dalí is also known as The Soft Watches or The Melting Watches, and is another of MoMa's key works.

This oil on canvas, dating from 1931 and housed at MoMa since 1934, is a surrealist painting that represents a subjective vision of temporality. The technique is precise and the drawing academic, with pure lines. An interesting fact: Dalí admitted that he was inspired by Camembert cheese when he painted the picture.

• This work can be found on the fifth floor of MoMa.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1907 and depicts, in a cubist style, five prostitutes from Barcelona's Calle de Avinyó.

This painting was first exhibited at the Galerie d'Antin (Paris) in 1916. Picasso then 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 the MoMA and is now one of the favorite pieces in the collection.

• This work can be found on the fifth floor of MoMA.

Campbell's 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 was Warhol's first solo exhibition in an art gallery as a professional artist. The work consists of 32 canvases, each depicting one of the varieties of canned soup offered by the company at the time. An exponent of pop art, it has become a world-famous image, appearing on numerous merchandise items.

• This work can be found on the fourth floor of the MoMa.

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

These canvases are characterized not only by their large format, but also by the fact that neither the shore of the lake where the water lilies lie nor the horizon line can be distinguished in them. In fact, it is an intimate painting precisely because of this blurring of the contours.

• This work can be found on the fifth floor of the MoMa.

The Lovers by René Magritte is located on the fifth floor of MoMa, in the Richard S. Zeisler collection.

The Lovers dates from 1928 and is the first work in a series of four variations. It is a disturbing image that leaves no visitor indifferent. There are different interpretations of its meaning. Some say that it shows a terrible memory of the painter, as when he was a teenager he witnessed his mother's body being pulled out of the Sambre River with her shirt wet and wrapped around her head.

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

• This work can be found on the fifth floor of the museum.

Gas Station, by Edward Hopper, is a series of several gas stations seen by the artist, which you can also see on your visit to MoMa.

The American painter was one of the leading representatives of realism in the 20th century. However, his paintings were not well received by either the public or the critics of the time, and he was forced to work as an illustrator to make a living.

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 can be found on the fifth floor of the MoMa.

Dutch Interior is a series of three paintings created by Joan Miró in 1928 after a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands, where he was inspired by 17th-century Dutch painting.

It is one of Joan Miró's most representative works and is characterized by a search for the essential and a refinement of the expressive vocabulary that characterized his earlier works.

• This work is located on the fifth floor.

Self-Portrait with Cut 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 wearing a large, dark men's suit. Self-Portrait with Cut Hair was Kahlo's first work at MoMa.

• This work is located on the fifth floor.

One: Number 31 by Jackson Pollock is one of the most outstanding examples of his "drip" technique: an abstract expressionist drip painting, in which he dripped, dripped, or threw paint onto a canvas spread out on the floor.

This painting, dating from 1950, is one of Pollock's largest paintings and can be admired if you book your ticket to the MoMa.

• This work is located on the fourth floor.

Bicycle Wheel, Marcel Duchamp

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 first example of this revolutionary type of artwork, is located on the fifth floor and is considered the first kinetic sculpture. The artist denied that his invention had any purpose, although it is known as the first of his found artworks.

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

The Love Song is one of Giorgio de Chirico's best-known works, as well as 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, gloomy passages, and eerily elongated streets evoke the profound absurdity of a universe torn apart by World War I.

• This work can be found on the fifth floor of MoMa.

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

For this pop art masterpiece, dating 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 woman with tearful eyes in a stormy sea. In a "tragic situation," the woman is emotionally distressed, apparently over a romance.

• This work can be found on the fourth floor of MoMa.

The MoMa collection is divided into six floors. Below you will find information about each floor, but I'll tell you now that floors 2, 3, 4, and 5 house most of the collection.

• The first floor is used as a hall and is where you will find the reception, ticket office, restaurant, shop, sculpture garden, and more.
• The second floor focuses on the collection from 1980 to the present: special exhibitions, prints, illustrated books, audiovisual media. It also houses the shop and café.
• The third floor includes drawings, photography, architecture, and design from various periods.
• The fourth floor is where you will find paintings and sculptures from 1940 to 1980: Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Yayoi Kusama, Japer Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and more.
• 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 reserved for special exhibitions and also houses a shop.

We recommend that if you book your ticket for the MoMa, you start your visit on the fourth and fifth floors, where the main works are located.

Interactive guide to the MoMa

Admission to MoMA includes an interactive guide that suggests some themed itineraries, depending on the type of visitor (adult or child) and the time you have available. This tool makes the visit much easier if you are short on time.

1- Buy your ticket in advance: MoMa receives a large number of visitors every day. It is important to book your ticket in advance to avoid long queues and wasting time at the ticket office. The cheapest tickets for MoMa are priced at around $31 on Hellotickets and are the 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 your visit to see which floor has the most works that interest you and start your tour in that area. You will enjoy it more if you see them at the beginning of your visit!

3- Go first thing in the morning: It is best to visit MoMa first thing in the morning so you have as much time as possible to enjoy the collection at your leisure.