As children, when we still didn’t understand anything about art, and much less modern art, this museum offered a particular diversion: if you stand on the rest platform of the staircase and yell or clap, the upper vault echoes the sound. At least until the museum staff called attention to our parents for letting their children run wild in a place like this.
This museum came to life around the same time as the National Anthropology Museum, the former Viceregal Art Gallery and the Museum of Natural History; all during the city’s 1960s cosmopolitan boom. It continues to be one of the most important collections of 20th century art in Latin America. Beyond its offering of high-quality temporary exhibits, it also boasts its own collection of artists such as Diego Rivera, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo. It also has an important collection of work by Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo.
The Sculpture Garden that surrounds the museum is a pleasant space to walk around or relax in front of stunning works by the likes of Mathias Goeritz, Ángela Gurría, Germán Cueto and Juan Soriano.
The MAM building was designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Rafael Mijares and the gardens conceived by Matsumoto, though the final design is the work of Juan Siles.