Finally, an exhibition called “Betye Saar: The Legends of ‘Black Girl’s Window,’” will at least gesture toward putting to rights a longstanding omission. Ms. Saar, now 92, is many decades overdue for a full career retrospective. Disappointingly, the planned show, consisting of 42 early prints by Ms. Saar, is not that. But at least it gives a major artist the solo spotlight on prime MoMA real estate.

Even more significant, in the long run, is the fact that MoMA has acquired the Saar prints for its collection. Acquisition is everything. Short-term shows come and go. Their presence can signal a genuine change in an institutional direction or merely paper over entrenched habits. The only solid gauge of commitment is when something is brought into the collection, and put on view in the permanent galleries. And specific recent acquisitions that will debut when MoMA reopens in October are the surest signs of MoMA’s intention to widen its sights.

We’ll see the first painting to enter the collection by the Spanish-born, Mexico City-based Remedios Varo (1908-1963). In addition to being a mesmerizing image — it suggests a high-fashion version of “The Handmaid’s Tale” — it adds to the small number of female artists in the museum’s sizable Surrealist holding. And there’s a newly acquired painting, from the early 1960s by Hervé Télémaque, born in Haiti. Mr. Télémaque, 81, has lived and worked in New York, Paris and Port-au-Prince, and his painting embodies the spirit of three. It has AbEx sweep, Pop verve and an otherness that makes it a world of its own.