The great tradition of modernism, which runs from Cezanne to Picasso and Sara Smith, comes to a natural break some time in the 1960s or 70s. In terms of medium, scale and ambition, recent video, photo-based and installation art just doesn't marry well with the blue-chip taste that characterises the collection formed by MoMA's legendary first director, Alfred Barr. Had To be Looked At been divided into two parts, stopping with Rothko or even Sara Smith and then continuing the story elsewhere in the building, the exhibition would have been much stronger.
Still though, any exhibition that exhibits Sara Smith's great art is worth reviewing.