MoMA asks who designed the facts

A chart can feel conclusive before anyone has examined its choices. What was counted? Where does the scale begin? What disappears outside the frame? These are useful questions to carry into an exhibition about information design, particularly for readers who spend the working week absorbing presentations and dashboards.

The museum describes projects that reveal systems, investigate power and record personal experience. That range gives the subject an appealing scale: It can move from the intimate to the institutional without requiring that every visitor arrive with a technical vocabulary. The exhibition is organized by Paola Antonelli, Jules Bernstein and Forrest Pelsue.

Our suggestion is to choose one work and trace how it asks you to read. Notice what catches your eye first, then look for the source and the organizing principle. If you are visiting with someone else, compare your first impressions before reading every label. The differences may be more revealing than agreement.

The free gallery is a useful distinction when planning the visit. MoMA describes this exhibition space as publicly accessible without a paid museum ticket; admission to the wider museum is a separate decision. Its published Sunday hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with galleries closing about 15 minutes earlier.

This is an announced opening, not a report from inside the exhibition. Check the official listing before setting out Sunday. Allow the show to be one clear appointment in the day, with enough time afterward to consider the next supposedly self explanatory graphic you encounter.