If art gets your heart racing, then a trip to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is a must-do bucket list item. We were totally blown away by floors 5 and 4, which are jam-packed with some of the most famous and inspiring works of all time!
Floor 5: A Journey Through Modern Art History
This floor is a masterclass in modern art from the late 19th century up through the 1940s, and it’s home to some seriously iconic pieces. Our favorites included:
- Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night — That swirling night sky view from his asylum window is simply otherworldly. The bold colors and emotional brush strokes made us stare in awe.
- Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon — A groundbreaking cubist work where Picasso flipped artistic conventions on their head. Those angular shapes and fractured perspectives were like stepping into a new visual world.
- Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory — Those signature melting clocks blew our minds, making time feel flexible and mysterious. It felt like stepping into a dreamscape.
- Claude Monet’s Water Lilies — These large canvases burst with impressionist magic, blurring horizons and immersing us in serene water garden vibes.
- Joan Miró’s Dutch Interior — A surreal, symbolic exploration with whimsical shapes and colors inspired by Dutch painting.
- Edward Hopper’s Gas Station — Quiet and contemplative scenes of American life that make you pause and feel the solitude.
- Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel — The first kinetic sculpture that turned everyday objects into art, changing history with its playful spirit.
- Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair — A powerful personal statement showing her transformation after a divorce, dressed in a masculine suit and boldly defying traditional expectations.
- René Magritte’s The Lovers — Faces veiled in mystery, evoking feelings of forbidden love and memory, deeply haunting yet beautiful.
Floor 4: Pop Culture and Powerful Stories
While Floor 5 took us through art history, Floor 4 brought on the pop art explosion and social commentary with electrifying works:
- Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans — 32 canvases of iconic canned soups, turning mass consumerism into bold art statements. Walking past those cans felt like a giant tribute to everyday America.
- Roy Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl — Inspired by comic books, this dramatic pop art piece with bursting tears plunging into a stormy sea drew us into the emotional whirlwind of a tragic romance.
- Robert Rauschenberg’s Canyon — A wild collage of found objects that pushed boundaries between art and reality, making everyday stuff into a masterpiece.
- Yayoi Kusama’s Accumulation No. 1 — A chair covered in phallic protrusions that shocked the art world—Kusama’s fearless feminist edge was undeniable.
- Faith Ringgold’s American People Series #20: Die — A poignant, politically charged painting inspired by the social unrest of the 1960s, riffing off Picasso’s Guernica with a fresh voice.
Why These Two Floors Left Us Speechless
The 5th floor welcomed us with masterpieces that defined the beginnings and evolutions of modern art — from emotional expressionism to surrealism and cubism. Meanwhile, Floor 4 felt like stepping into the heartbeat of bold, 20th-century cultural shifts with pop art’s glamour and the raw power of social commentary.
Between Van Gogh and Warhol, Picasso and Lichtenstein, Dalí and Kusama, both floors together were a whirlwind tour of art’s ability to move, challenge, and inspire.
If visiting MoMA, these floors are the ultimate spots to soak in landmark works and get lost in the stories they tell. A day here is like traveling through the colorful, quirky, revolutionary soul of modern art!
