History
The fruit of the cultural transformations that occurred in the post-War period, and which in Brazil translated into the growth of cities and diversification of their cultural structure, the Museum of Modern Art, created in 1948 in Rio de Janeiro, follows the model of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York (1929), in the same way as the Museu de Arte Moderna de São  Paulo - MAM/SP [Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo] (1949). A "living museum", with exhibitions, music, theatre and cinema, in addition to debates was the central idea/purpose of the institution, which was chaired by the collector and industrialist, Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya (1894 - 1968). The most evident differences between the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro and its counterpart in São Paulo appear to be the openness of the Rio museum to the applied arts, above all to design and to industrial design, and its educational vocation, which took the form of an active library service (run by the literary critic Lúcia Miguel Pereira) and workshops open to the public. Various professionals were invited to set up the museum's activities: Candido Portinari (1903-1962), painting; Bruno Giorgi (1905-1993), sculpture; Alcides Miranda (1909-2001), architecture; Luís Heitor (1905-1992), music; Santa Rosa (1909-1956), theatre; and Luís Roberto Assumpção Araújo, cinema. The museum initially operated in rooms donated by the Banco Boa Vista in the Praça Pio X square, subsequently moving to a space improvised between the pillars of the Ministry of Health and Education building, where the show Contemporary European Painting (January 1949) was opened to the public. Of the 32 works presented in this exhibition, 12 would integrate the collection of the museum, which would subsequently include donations from Raul Bopp (1898-1984), Marques Rabelo and Oscar Niemeyer (1907- ), among many others.
 
The year 1952 marked a new phase of the museum, which was inaugurated with an exhibition of the artists receiving prizes at the 1^st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [São Paulo International Bienal] (which from then onwards became a regular occurrence) and with the expansion of the collection thanks to Mrs. Niomar Moniz Sodré, the executive director of the time, whose husband Paulo Bittencourt was the owner and director of the newspaper, Correio da Manhã. The MAM's collection, until then consisting of four works donated by the Bienal, a small donation by the MoMA and private contributions from artists and collectors, began to include works by foreign artists acquired in Europe, such as  André Lhote (1885-1962), Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), Georges Mathieu (1921), Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). Among Brazilian artists, in addition to Portinari, Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976), Lasar Segall (1891-1957) and Guignard (1896-1962), the MAM's collection was distinguished by a significant collection of drawings and engravings by Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961). It was Niomar who invited the architect Affonso Reidy (1909-1964) to design a new headquarters for the museum on a 40,000m2 site donated by the municipal authority of Rio de Janeiro, on the Aterro do Flamengo , with a landscaping project by Burle Marx (1909-1994). Works were begun in 1954 and inaugurated at different times: the School Block in 1958, the Exhibition Block in 1967 (with a show by Lasar Segall), while the Theatre Block remains unfinished. Reidy's project followed the suggestions of architectural rationalism that guided various works of his. In the specific case of the MAM, it is worth noting the use of a hollow and transparent structure, the free plan of the exhibition space (which provided for flexibility of museography) and the attention paid to lighting.
 
Also dating from this new phase of the museum were the courses for adults and children by contributors such as Ivan Serpa (1923 - 1973), Margareth Spencer (1914- ), Décio Vieira (1922-1988), Fayga Ostrower (1920 - 2001) etc. The children's workshop, coordinated by Serpa was instantly successful. For its part, the workshop for adults formed the origin of the Grupo Frente [Front Group] (1954/1956), founded by Aluísio Carvão (1920 - 2001), Carlos Val (1937), Décio Vieira, Ivan Serpa, Lygia Clark (1920 - 1988), Lygia Pape (1929 - 2004) and Vicent Ibberson (19--), with Hélio Oiticica (1937 - 1980), Franz Weissmann (1911 - 2005), Abraham Palatnik (1928), and others subsequently joining. In 1955, the Cinemateca [Cinema] began its activities with the international show "Dez Anos de Filmes de Arte" [Ten Years of Art Films], and the offer of regular courses. A little later, in 1959, the engraving workshop began with the lecturers Johnny Friedlaender (1912 - 1992) and Edith Behring (1916 - 1996), and whose students included Maria Bonomi (1935- ), Anna Letycia (1929- ) and Roberto de Lamonica (1933 - 1995).
 
The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro was the stage for important shows by Brazilian and foreign artists, in addition to hosting international lecturers. The institution welcomed avant-garde groups and movements of national art in the 1950s and 60s, as may be inferred by shows such as: Exposição do Grupo Frente [Front Group Exhibition] (1955), Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta [National Exhibition of Concrete Art] (1957) and the show of Arte Neoconcreta [Neoconcrete Art] (1959). Tropicália (1967), the celebrated work by Hélio Oiticia, at the origin of the Tropicalista movement in the arts, was shown at the Nova Objetividade Brasileira [New Brazilian Objectivity] show, held at the museum in April 1967. The fire of 1978, during a historic retrospective of the Uruguayan artist Torres-Garcia (1874-1949), marks a tragic moment in the history of the museum, with the destruction of part of its collection and installation. In 1992, the collection was reorganised, with the transfer to the museum as a loan for use of part of the collection of Brazilian works belonging to Gilberto Chateaubriand.