MAM – Rio de Janeiro

Founded in 1948 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Directed by Luiz Schymura

The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM) is one of the most important cultural institutions in Brazil. It is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in Flamengo Park, near Santos Dumont Airport. Its headquarters building, the best known work of the Rio architect Affonso Reidy, follows the orientation of rationalist architecture, emphasizing the use of leaked structures and integration with the environment.

The museum was inaugurated in 1948, on the initiative of a group of businessmen presided over by Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya. It is a private, non-profit organization, born of the cultural and economic context that Brazil experienced in the second post-war period, in which the diversification of the country’s cultural equipment was observed, the acquisition of a valuable artistic heritage and the assimilation of modern artistic currents .

As a stage of several events of great relevance in the Brazilian artistic avant-garde, the museum has throughout its history a highly representative collection of modern art – mostly lost in the tragic fire of 1978. It now holds approximately 11,000 objects, from the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection.