Directorship
Several transitory directors oversaw the gallery until Nicholas Serota became director in 1974, with Sandy Nairne as assistant director. David Elliott replaced Serota in 1976.
Elliott's programme focused on media that were often ignored by bigger public galleries at the time, such as photography, architecture and graphic design. Under Elliott's directorship, MoMA held photography exhibitions such as the Robert Doisneau Retrospective in 1992, which was and has remained the most popular show in the gallery's history. Elliott introduced up-and-coming artists from Africa, Asia and the Soviet Union, and at various times also held major video art exhibitions. His contributions also included numerous gallery renovations. He resigned his position in 1996 to become the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, having served the longest term of any director in the history of the gallery.
Elliott's replacement, an American from Los Angeles, Kerry Brougher, preferred larger shows of American and European art, and, like Elliott, exhibitions focusing on film and media. In 2000, Brougher left to join the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
Brougher was replaced by Andrew Nairne, who renamed the gallery, coordinated additional enhancements to the building, and gave MoMA's substantial library of art books and catalogues to Oxford Brookes University. He shifted the focus to exhibitions of contemporary artists, who have included Cecily Brown, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Daniel Buren, Stella Vine, Sol LeWitt and Kerry James Marshall. Nairne left the gallery in 2008 to take up a senior managerial position at the Arts Council.
Michael Stanley assumed the directorship in January 2009.
David Thorp assumed interim directorship in October 2012 following the death of Michael Stanley.
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