The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in

Chapultepec Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultep ...

park,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, Mexico. The museum is part of the

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL, en, National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature), located in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, is the Mexican institution in charge of coordinating artistic and cultural ...

and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary artists. The museum also hosts a permanent collection of art from

Remedios Varo María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga (16 December 1908 – 8 October 1963) was a Spanish-born Mexican surrealist artist working in Spain, France, and Mexico. Early life Remedios Varo Uranga was born in Anglès, is a small town ...

, Gelsen Gas,

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

Olga Costa Olga Costa (August 28, 1913 – June 28, 1993) was a painter and cultural promoter who immigrated to Mexico from Germany when she was twelve. She began to study art at the Academy of San Carlos but left after only three months to help support her ...

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...

Manuel Álvarez Bravo Manuel Álvarez Bravo (February 4, 1902 – October 19, 2002) was a Mexican artistic photographer and one of the most important figures in 20th century Latin American photography. He was born and raised in Mexico City. While he took art classes a ...

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of ...

Rufino Tamayo Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo (August 25, 1899 – June 24, 1991) was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.Sullivan, 170-171Ades, 357 Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, ...

, Juan Soriano, and

Vicente Rojo Almazán Vicente Rojo Almazán (15 March 1932 – 17 March 2021) was a Spanish-Mexican painter, graphic designer, and sculptor. His daughter, Alba Rojo Cama Alba Teresa Rojo Cama (28 April 1961 – 16 August 2016) was a Mexican sculptor known for her ...

. In 1971 the posthumous retrospective exhibition of Varo drew the largest audiences in its history - larger than those for Rivera and Orozco.

Background

Detalles_del_Museo_de_Arte_Moderno_de_la_Ciudad_de_México_05

A forerunner of the MAM, the National Museum of Plastic Arts, was created in 1947 by

Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...

. This first museum was located inside the Palacio de Bellas Artes. However, this museum was more than modest and provisional in part because of the museological conception of modern art since it was considered just one chapter in a broader curatorial script that traversed the history of Mexican art since the pre-Hispanic Mexico/pre-Hispanic times. Shortly after, in 1953, Carmen Barreda, the then director of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana and who would later become the first director of the MAM from 1964 to 1972, founded a board with the intention of building an enclosure destined, on purpose, to preserve, study and disseminate the

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

; This project took more than ten years to materialize.

Building

The building of the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico was based on the design of the architects

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (April 16, 1919 – April 16, 2013)
Retrieved 2013-04-16. was a

Rafael Mijares Alcérreca. A part of the original project, which included an auditorium, library and wineries, was never completed. The design of the gardens and walkways corresponds to Juan Siles, with the direction of the artist

Helen Escobedo Helen "Elena" Escobedo (July 28, 1934 – September 16, 2010) was a Mexican sculptor and installation artist who has had work displayed all over the world from Mexico, Latin America, the United States, and Canada to the United Kingdom, (Germany) ...

Collections

The museum focuses on displaying modern Mexican art, mainly from the decade of 1930 onwards. Within its permanent exhibition are works of several great Mexican masters of the period, such as:

, Julio Castellanos,

, Emir Jair,

Roberto Montenegro Roberto Montenegro Nervo (February 19, 1885 in Guadalajara – October 13, 1968 in Mexico City) was a painter, muralist and illustrator, who was one of the first to be involved in the Mexican muralism movement after the Mexican Revolution. His m ...

, Louis Henri Jean Charlot, Juan Soriano,

Juan O'Gorman Juan O'Gorman (July 6, 1905 – January 17, 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect. Early life and family Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal Distri ...

Jesús Guerrero Galván Jesús Guerrero Galván (b. June 1, 1910 – d. May 11. 1973) was a Mexican artist, a member of the Mexican muralism movement of the early 20th century. He began his career in Guadalajara but moved to Mexico City to work on mural projects in the ...

, María Izquierdo,

Raúl Anguiano José Raúl Anguiano Valadez (February 26, 1915 – January 13, 2006) was a notable Mexican painter of the 20th century, part of the “second generation” of Mexican muralists which continued the tradition of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Or ...

Federico Cantú Federico (; ) is a given name and surname. It is a form of Frederick, most commonly found in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. People with the given name Federico Artists * Federico Ágreda, Venezuelan composer and DJ. * Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, ...

Carlos Orozco Romero Carlos Orozco Romero (September 3, 1896 – March 29, 1984) was a Mexican cartoonist and painter who co-founded several cultural institutions in Mexico, including the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". His work was re ...

, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano,

Ricardo Martínez de Hoyos Ricardo Martínez de Hoyos (October 28, 1918 – January 11, 2009) was a Mexican painter noted for his figurative work on unreal atmospheres. He was one of several children from a very large family to make a mark in his field, along with Oliverio ...

Jorge González Camarena Jorge González Camarena (24 March 1908 – 24 May 1980) was a Mexican painter, muralist and sculptor. He is best known for his mural work, as part of the Mexican muralism movement, although his work is distinct from the main names associat ...

, Guillermo Meza, Francisco Corzas,

Alfredo Zalce Alfredo Zalce Torres (12 January 1908 – 19 January 2003) was a Mexican artist and contemporary of Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and other better-known muralists. He worked principally as a painter, sculptor, and engraver, also taught, and ...

, Agustín Lazo,

Ángel Zárraga Ángel Zárraga (y) Argüelles (August 16, 1886 in Victoria de Durango – September 22, 1946) was a Mexican painter. He was a founding member of the cultural organization '' El Ateneo de la Juventud''. His work was part of the art competition ...

Gerardo Murillo Gerardo Murillo Cornado, also known by his signature "Dr. Atl", (October 3, 1875 – August 15, 1964) was a Mexican painter and writer. He was actively involved in the Mexican Revolution in the Constitutionalist faction led by Venustiano Carra ...

José Chávez Morado José Chávez Morado (4 January 1909 – 1 December 2002) was a Mexican artist who was associated with the Mexican muralism movement of the 20th century. His generation followed that of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqu ...

, Mathías Goeritz,

Gunther Gerzso Gunther Gerzso (June 17, 1915 – April 21, 2000) was a Mexican painter, designer and director and screenwriter for film and theatre. Biography Gerzso was born in Mexico City, in the times of the Revolution. His parents were Oscar Gerzso ( hu, ...

Manuel Felguérez Manuel Felguérez Barra (December 12, 1928June 8, 2020) was a Mexican abstract artist, part of the Generación de la Ruptura that broke with the muralist movement of Diego Rivera and others in the mid 20th century. Early life Felguérez was ...

, Abraham Ángel,

Pedro Coronel Pedro Coronel (b. Jerez, Zacatecas March 25, 1922- d. Mexico City May 23, 1985) was a Mexican sculptor and painter, part of the Generación de la Ruptura, bringing innovation into Mexican art in the mid 20th century. Coronel’s training was wit ...

Luis López Loza Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

Francisco Toledo Francisco Benjamín López Toledo (17 July 1940 – 5 September 2019) was a Mexican Zapotec painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. In a career that spanned seven decades, Toledo produced thousands of works of art and became widely regarded a ...

Francisco Zúñiga José Jesús Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría (December 27, 1912 – August 9, 1998) was a Costa Rican-born Mexican artist, known both for his painting and his sculpture. Journalist Fernando González Gortázar lists Zúñiga as one of the 100 m ...

Pedro Friedeberg Pedro Friedeberg (born January 11, 1936) is a Mexican artist and designer known for his surrealist work filled with lines colors and ancient and religious symbols. His best known piece is the “Hand-Chair” a sculpture/chair designed for people ...

Luis Ortiz Monasterio Luis Ortiz Monasterio (August 23, 1906 in Mexico City – February 16, 1990 in Mexico City) was a Mexican sculptor noted for his monumental works such as the Monumento a la Madre and the Nezahualcoyotl Fountain in Chapultepec Park. His work was rec ...

, Feliciano Béjar, Rosa Castillo y Mardonio Magaña. Like other Mexican art museums, the MAM has a very wide collection of modern and contemporary Mexican art, which by limitations of physical space is known by means of temporary exhibitions. The museum's lobby and gardens are adorned with sculptures by great national and international artists. Among nationals represented are Gelsen Gas,

Germán Cueto Germán Cueto (February 8 or 9, 1883, Mexico City – February 14, 1975) was a List of Mexican artists, Mexican artist. He was part of the initial wave of artistic activity following the Mexican Revolution. However, his stay in Europe from 1927 ...

Mathias Goeritz Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (4 April 1915, Danzig, German Empire – 4 August 1990, Mexico City) was a Mexican painter and sculptor of German people, German origin. After spending much of the 1940s in North Africa and Spain, he and his wife, ...

, Estanislao Contreras and

. The theme of the museum mainly covers what is known as the Escuela Mexicana de Pintura and the

Generación de la Ruptura Generación de la Ruptura (Breakaway Generation) is the name given by art critic Teresa del Conde to the generation of Mexican artists against the established Mexican muralism, Mexican School of Painting, more commonly called Mexican muralism post ...

. Exhibitions of international contemporary art are also presented. The museum has under its shelter an important collection of works by the great Mexican photographer

Rooms

Detalles_del_Museo_de_Arte_Moderno_de_la_Ciudad_de_México_04

The museum has four rooms that are named after different personalities of the Mexican cultural environment of the twentieth century:

Xavier Villaurrutia Xavier Villaurrutia y González (27 March 1903 – 25 December 1950) was a Mexican poet, playwright and literary critic whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas called ''Autos profanos'', compiled in the work ''Poesía y teatro c ...

Carlos Pellicer Carlos Pellicer Cámara (10 January 1897 – 16 February 1977) was part of the first wave of modernist Mexican poets and was active in the promotion of Mexican art, pictures, and literature. An enthusiastic traveler, his work is filled with ...

Antonieta Rivas Mercado María Antonieta Rivas Mercado Castellanos (April 28, 1900 – February 11, 1931) was a Mexican intellectual, writer, feminist, and arts patron. Biography Rivas Mercado was born as the second of four children (Alicia, Antonieta, Mario, and A ...

, and

José Juan Tablada José Juan de Aguilar Acuña Tablada (April 3, 1871 – August 2, 1945) was a Mexican poet, art critic and, for a brief period, diplomat. A pioneer of oriental studies, and champion of Mexican art, he spent a good portion of his life living abro ...

. It also features the

Fernando Gamboa Fernando Andrés Gamboa (born 28 October 1970 in Marcos Juárez, Córdoba) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a defender. Playing career Gamboa started his playing career in 1988 with Newell's Old Boys where h ...

Gallery. The museum's permanent collection is on display in room "C" of the main building, on the first floor.

Gallery

File:Chapulin MAM MExico 1.jpg, Statue representing a grasshopper File:Mammx2.jpg, Museum gardens File:Museo_de_Arte_Moderno_Chapultepec.jpg, Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) in Chapultepec, Mexico City. File:Esculturas_en_el_jardín_del_Museo_de_Arte_Moderno_de_la_Ciudad_de_México_06.JPG, Sculptures in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. File:Detalles_del_Museo_de_Arte_Moderno_de_la_Ciudad_de_México_01.JPG, Sculptures in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.

References

External links

Museo de Art Moderno
*
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes
* {{authority control

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...

Art museums and galleries in Mexico Art museums established in 1964 Chapultepec Modern art museums Museums in Mexico City