JOAN JONAS, 87, perched on a stool in a room behind the scenes at MoMA, was immediately recognizable as the artist she had been — compact, tense, intense — when she emerged as a figure in New York’s downtown scene in the late 1960s. In an essay published many years later, the composer Alvin Curran recalled Jonas’s stature in that environment: “On the streets, children cry out, ‘Here comes Joan Jonas,’” he wrote, adding that some even wanted to be what she was when they grew up: a performance artist. This month, she’s finally receiving a hometown retrospective at MoMA, a tribute on a scale she’s already had in cities such as Milan, London and Munich. “You’re coming, right?” said Jonas, speaking into a cellphone at the museum in late December. It was important to her that he, and many others in her world, see this collection of her work, its totality and its range.

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Persons: JOAN JONAS, Alvin Curran, Joan Jonas, ’ ”, Jonas —, —, Jonas, she’s, “ You’re, ” Organizations: MoMA Locations: New York’s, Milan, London, Munich, Europe