2008-2009

Where the Wild Things Are: Original Drawings by Maurice Sendak

October 6 through November 1, 2009

This special exhibition features original drawings and manuscript pages from the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (b. 1928). The show is part of a citywide celebration honoring Mr. Sendak and marking the October 13 premiere of a new Warner Bros. movie adaptation directed by Spike Jonze.

New at the Morgan: Acquisitions Since 2004

April 17 through October 18, 2009

Presenting over one hundred works that underscore the great scope of the Morgan's collecting interests, the exhibition included old master and modern drawings, literary and musical manuscripts, illuminated texts, and rare printed books and bindings.

Image of Collection Highlights of Acquisitions Since 2004

Pages of Gold: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan

June 19 through September 13, 2009

This exhibition comprised nearly sixty lavish single leaves, dating from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.

Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection

January 23 through August 30, 2009

Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection presents more than twenty works drawn from the collection of Eugene V. and Clare Thaw, which chronicles the history of the genre in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera

May 22 through August 16, 2009

Drawn from the Morgan's collection, the exhibition examines the origins of modern scenic design and chronicles the evolution of stage sets during the highly innovative period of ca. 1900 to 1970.

On the Money: Cartoons for The New Yorker From the Melvin R. Seiden Collection

January 23 through May 24, 2009

Celebrating the art of the cartoonist, On the Money: Cartoons for The New Yorker features approximately eighty original drawings by some of The New Yorker's most talented and beloved artists who have tackled the theme of money and the many ways in which it defines us.

Image of A very special interest to see you, Senator.

The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002

January 23 through May 3, 2009

The show features more than eighty works that have been added to the Thaw collection since 2002, many of them important modern drawings by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Motherwell, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Jim Dine, and David Smith, among others.

Protecting the Word: Bookbindings of the Morgan

December 5, 2008, through March 29, 2009

One of the Morgan's core strengths is its collection of historically and artistically significant bookbindings.

John Milton’s Paradise Lost

October 7, 2008, through January 4, 2009

John Milton's Paradise Lost celebrates the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton (1608–1674) with an exhibition drawn from the Morgan's collection of the English poet's work, which includes the only surviving manuscript of Paradise Lost.

Online exhibition »

Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors

September 19, 2008, through January 4, 2009

The exhibition Drawing Babar returns visitors to the two essential moments of Babar's creation: when Jean de Brunhoff and, years later, his son Laurent, set down their initial thoughts on paper.

Online exhibition »