Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern,

Museum of Modern Art 

November 17, 2024, through March 29, 2025

The Museum of Modern Art announces Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern, an exhibition focusing on the collection and legacy of Lillie P. Bliss, one of the Museum’s founders and an early advocate for modern art in the United States. On view from November 17, 2024, through March 29, 2025, the exhibition, which marks the 90th anniversary of Bliss’s bequest coming to MoMA, includes iconic works such as Paul Cézanne’s The Bather (c. 1885) and Amedeo Modigliani’s Anna Zborowska (1917). 

The exhibition, which will feature about 40 works as well as archival materials, will highlight Bliss’s critical role in the reception of modern art in the US and in the founding of MoMA. Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern is organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and Romy Silver-Kohn, co-editor with Temkin of Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art, with Rachel Remick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture. 

When it opened in 1929, The Museum of Modern Art was a destination where visitors could see groundbreaking temporary exhibitions, but it did not have a significant collection. Just two years later, when Bliss died, she left approximately 120 works to the Museum in her will. In an effort to ensure the Museum’s future success, Bliss stipulated that MoMA would receive her collection only if it could prove that it was on firm financial footing within three years of her death. In 1934 the Museum was able to secure the bequest, which became the core of MoMA’s collection. This included key works by Cézanne, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Modigliani, Odilon Redon, Marie Laurencin, and Henri Matisse, as well as a selection of paintings by Bliss’s friend, the American artist Arthur B. Davies. Bliss’s bequest also allowed for the sale of her works to fund new acquisitions, facilitating the purchase of many important artworks, including Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, which will be featured in the exhibition. Other favorites wholly or in part funded through the Bliss bequest, such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889), Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Newborn (1920), and Salvador Dalí’s Retrospective Bust of a Woman (1933).and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) and Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), will be on view in the collection gallerie.

The exhibition will showcase archival materials from MoMA’s Archives and other collections, reconstructing Bliss’s life before MoMA, including her passion for music, her involvement in the Armory Show of 1913, and her interactions with fellow collectors and artists. It will also highlight Bliss’s critical role in MoMA’s founding, and her continued impact on the Museum going forward, through scrapbooks, journals, photographs, and letters.

“It has been a joy to explore the life and work of this courageous woman whom we have known as little more than an important name. We are eager to share our discoveries, and to shine a spotlight on Lillie Bliss for the first time since 1934, when MoMA organized an exhibition to celebrate the new bequest,” says Temkin. 

The exhibition is presented on the occasion of the release of Inventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art, a revelatory account of the Museum’s earliest years told through newly commissioned profiles of 14 women who had a decisive impact on the formation and development of the institution. Inventing the Modern comprises illuminating new essays on the women who, as founders, curators, patrons, and directors of various departments, made enduring contributions to MoMA during its early decades (especially between 1929 and 1945), creating new models for how to envision, establish, and operate a museum in an era when the field of modern art was uncharted territory. 

 

IMAGES

 

Georges-Pierre Seurat. Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor. 1888. Oil on canvas. 21 5/8 x 25 5/8″ (54.9 x 65.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection, 1934.

 

Amedeo Modigliani. Anna Zborowska. 1917. Oil on canvas. 51 1/4 x 32″ (130.2 x 81.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection, 1934. Photo: John Wronn

 

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. Saint Rémy, June 1889. Oil on canvas. 29 x 36 1/4″ (73.7 x 92.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange), 1941. Conservation was made possible by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

 

Odilon Redon. Silence. c. 1911. Oil on prepared paper. 21 1/2 x 21 1/4″ (54.6 x 54 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection, 1934.

PAUL CÉZANNE (French, 1839–1906)

Antoine Dominique Sauveur Aubert (born 1817), the Artist's Uncle

1866
Oil on canvas
31 3/8 x 25 1/4" (79.7 x 64.1 cm)
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Wolfe Fund, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection. (53.140.1)

PAUL CÉZANNE (French, 1839–1906)

Bathers

c. 1885-1890
Watercolor and pencil on paper
5 x 8 1/8" (12.7 x 20.6 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

PAUL CÉZANNE (French, 1839–1906)

The Bather

c. 1885
Oil on canvas
50 x 38 1/8" (127 x 96.8 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection
. Conservation was made possible by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. Photo: John Wronn

PAUL CÉZANNE (French, 1839–1906)

Still Life with Apples

1895-98
Oil on canvas
27 x 36 1/2" (68.6 x 92.7 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

PAUL GAUGUIN (French, 1848–1903)

Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude)

1893-94, printed 1921 Wood engraving

composition: 8 1/16 x 14" (20.5 x 35.5 cm); sheet: 10 9/16 x 16 7/8" (26.8 x 42.8 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

GEORGES-PIERRE SEURAT (French, 1859–1891)

Stone Breaker, Le Raincy

c. 1879–81
Conté crayon and graphite on paper
12 1/8 x 14 3/4" (30.8 x 37.5 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

GEORGES-PIERRE SEURAT (French, 1859–1891)

House at Dusk (The City)

1881–82
Conté crayon
12 3/16 × 9 3/8" (30.9 × 23.8 cm)
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection (55.21.5)

VINCENT VAN GOGH (Dutch, 1853–1890)

The Starry Night

Saint Rémy, June 1889
Oil on canvas
29 x 36 1/4" (73.7 x 92.1 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange)

MARIE LAURENCIN (French, 1883–1956)

Girl's Head

1916–18
Watercolor, pencil, and crayon on paper
6 1/4 x 7" (15.9 x 17.8 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

HENRI MATISSE (French, 1869–1954)

Interior with a Violin Case

Nice, winter 1918-19
Oil on canvas
28 3/4 x 23 5/8" (73 x 60 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

AMEDEO MODIGLIANI (Italian, 1884–1920)

Anna Zborowska

1917
Oil on canvas
51 1/4 x 32" (130.2 x 81.3 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881–1973)

Head of a Woman, in Profile from the Saltimbanques series
1905
Drypoint

plate: 11 7/16 x 9 13/16" (29.1 x 25 cm); sheet: 18 3/16 x 12 5/8" (46.2 x 32.1 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881–1973)

Salome from the Saltimbanques series

1905, published 1913 Drypoint

plate: 15 7/8 x 13 11/16" (40.3 x 34.7 cm); sheet: 25 5/16 x 20 1/16" (64.3 x 51 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881–1973)

Green Still Life

Avignon, summer 1914
Oil on canvas
23 1/2 x 31 1/4" (59.7 x 79.4 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection

After PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881–1973)

Pierrot and Brown Harlequin, Standing from the series Dix Pochoirs

published 1921 Stencil

composition: 11 1/4 x 8 7/8" (28.5 x 22.6 cm); sheet: 12 1/8 x 9 1/2" (30.8 x 24.1 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lillie P. Bliss Collection 

 

Lillie P. Bliss. c. 1924. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. 

Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers

  Museum of Modern Art

 May 11 through September 27, 2025

The Museum of Modern Art announces an exhibition showcasing MoMA’s recent acquisition of Nature Studies, a portfolio of 46 botanical drawings by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), which will be on display for the first time. On view from May 11 through September 27, 2025, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers explores af Klint’s engagement with the natural world. Created during the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, the Nature Studies portfolio presents the wonders of Sweden’s flora and showcases the artist’s keen botanical eye. Af Klint combines her renowned approach to abstraction with traditional botanical drawing, juxtaposing detailed renderings of plants discovered in her surroundings with enigmatic abstract diagrams. Examples include a sunflower paired with concentric circles, a narcissus crowned by a pinwheel of primary colors, and tree blossoms accompanied by checkerboards of dots and strokes. Through these forms, af Klint seeks to reveal, in her words, “what stands behind the flowers,” reflecting her belief that studying nature uncovers truths about the human condition. Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers is organized by Jodi Hauptman, The Richard Roth Senior Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, with Kolleen Ku, Curatorial Assistant, and Chloe White, Louise Bourgeois Fellow, Department of Drawings and Prints. Realized with the participation of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm.

The exhibition focuses on the years 1917 to 1922, contextualizing the MoMA portfolio and highlighting a pivotal shift in af Klint’s practice. In 1917, no longer satisfied with only receiving direction from spiritual guides, af Klint embarked on a path of self-study, culminating in the Nature Studies drawings. The exhibition opens with this new approach, seen in her adoption of an abstract diagrammatic vocabulary in works like the 1917 Atom series, one of many key loans from the Hilma af Klint Foundation in Stockholm. This section also highlights in landscapes and botanical drawing her ongoing dedication to observation. As af Klint noted, “First, I shall try to penetrate the flowers of the earth; use as a point of departure the plants of the earth.” The second section focuses on the Nature Studies, along with related notebooks that allow visitors to experience af Klint’s reflections on the plants she studied, as well as botanical source materials. The final section presents her ongoing interest in exploring the connection between nature and spirituality, but with a new method. In the 1922 series On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees, af Klint employs a wet-on-wet watercolor technique, using vibrant color to express the spiritual power of plants.

“While we often think of artists of the early 20th century as focused on new technologies— and the hustle and bustle of modern life—for many, the natural world was a crucial touchstone. MoMA’s Nature Studies reveal af Klint as an artist uniquely attuned to nature. We hope that attunement—her demonstration of careful observation and discovery of all that stands behind the flowers—encourages our audience to look closely and see their own surroundings, whether here in the city or beyond, in new ways,” says Hauptman.

The exhibition reveals, for the first time, the extent of af Klint’s plant knowledge and the ways her botanical experience shaped her artistic vision. Through research for this exhibition, seven previously unknown drawings by af Klint of mushroom species, commissioned by the renowned Swedish mycologist M. A. Lindblad, were discovered in the archives at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. They will be loaned to MoMA, and shown in the US for the first time, to demonstrate af Klint’s commitment to close observation of the natural world and her drawing within a scientific context. The discovery was made through the research collaboration of Dr. Lena Struwe, director of the Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers University and professor at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, a contributor to the exhibition and its catalogue; and Dr. Johannes Lundberg, curator in the Department of Botany at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, who identified this previously unknown group of drawings. Further, as a crucial element of the exhibition’s research, MoMA associate conservator Laura Neufeld conducted the first- ever technical analysis of af Klint’s methods and materials on paper.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue and a limited-edition facsimile. The lavishly illustrated catalogue, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, will present the 46 drawings alongside contextualizing artworks and translations of the artist’s previously unpublished writings. An overview essay by Jodi Hauptman will explore af Klint’s portfolio and the circumstances of its creation, and essays by Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Laura Neufeld, and Lena Struwe will unpack the imagery, materiality, and botanical knowledge of these works. 272 pages, 160 color illustrations. Hardcover, $55. ISBN: 978-1-63345-168 1. Hilma af Klint: Flora will be a deluxe facsimile of the full portfolio, published in a limited edition of 500. Each of the 46 drawings will be presented on its own sheet at full scale, and the collection will be enclosed in a luxe clamshell case. $500. ISBN: 978-1-63345-169-8. Both editions are published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and will be available at MoMA stores and online at store.moma.org. 

IMAGES

Hilma af Klint.Gagea lutea(Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem), Pulmonaria officinalis(Common Lungwort), Tussilago farfara(Coltsfoot), Draba verna(Common Whitlowgrass), Pulsatilla vulgaris(European Pasqueflower).Sheet 2 from the portfolioNature Studies. April 24–30, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 9/16 in. (49.9 × 26.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022        

 

Hilma af Klint.Convallaria majalis(Lily of the Valley), Geum rivale(Water Avens), Polygala vulgaris(Common Milkwort).Sheet 11 from the portfolioNatureStudies. June 10–11, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (49.9 × 27 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022       

 

Hilma af Klint.Tulipa sp. (Tulip).Sheet 35 from the portfolioNature Studies. May 20, 1920. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (49.8 × 27 cm).The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022    

 

Hilma af Klint.Luzula campestris (Field Woodrush), Viola hirta (Hairy Violet), Viola odorata (Sweet Violet), Chrysospleniumalternifolium (Alternate-Leaf Golden Saxifrage), Equisetumarvense (Field Horsetail), Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold), Ranunculus ficaria (Fig Buttercup), Carex sp. (Sedge).Sheet 4 from the portfolioNature Studies.May 9–15, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 9/16 in. (49.9 × 26.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022    

 

Hilma af Klint. Helianthus annuus (Common Sunflower). Sheet 27 from the portfolio Nature Studies. September 3, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, 19 3/4 × 10 9/16″ (50.2 × 26.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022

 

Hilma af Klint.Prunus padus(European Bird Cherry),Prunus avium(Sweet Cherry),Prunus cerasus(Sour Cherry),Prunus domestica(European Plum). Sheet 7 from the portfolioNature Studies. May 27–June 3, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (49.9 × 27 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022         

 

Hilma af Klint. Tilia × europaea (Common Linden).Sheet 22 from the portfolioNature Studies. July 29, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (49.9 × 27 cm).The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund and gift of Jack Shear, 2022   

 

Hilma af Klint. Nos. 6–14b from the series Group 2. February 5–12, 1919. Watercolor, graphite, and metallic paint on paper, 14 3/16 × 19 11/16 in. (36 × 50 cm). Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm (HaK 448)

 

Hilma of Clint.  No. 8  from  The Atom Series January 13, 1917. Watercolor, graphite, and metallic  paint on paper, 10 5/8 × 9 13/16 in. (27 × 25 cm). Hilma by the Clint Foundation, Stockholm (HaK  360)

 

Hilma af Klint.Birchfrom the seriesOn the Viewing of Flowers and Trees.1922. Watercolor onpaper, 6 11/16 × 9 13/16 in. (17 × 25 cm). Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm (HaK 639)    

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