Displayed in Three large galleries at the Moderno, this ambitious exhibition highlights the important collections that make up our Museum’s heritage. It allows us to visualise the growth and research processes that have given rise to so many exhibitions, publications and actions throughout the 68 years of its existence. Through a selection of 300 works created over the last 100 years, the exhibition offers a journey through the movements of modern and contemporary Argentinian art from a plural and federal perspective.

The Moderno has, in recent years, begun the process of cataloguing and digitising the documents from its historical exhibitions and has made the results of this work available to the public on its website. Thanks to these efforts, the exhibition is now displayed as a ‘meta-exhibition’. Each work or group of works exhibited is literally open via QR code as a gateway to the vast information on the historical exhibitions at the Moderno in which they took part, or on the research carried out on them, often captured in books and audio-visual records. In this way, the Moderno gives material form to an idea that inspires us: art as a vehicle for knowledge about reality and about ourselves; imagination as a driver of human and educational development.

As we explore these rooms, we can appreciate the history of this public collection’s construction. The works on display are a selection of the major acquisitions made by the Museum’s first directors, Rafael Squirru and Hugo Parpagnoli, the donations that comprised the Ignacio Pirovano Collection and the Alberto Heredia bequest, and the 622 works incorporated in the last ten years. Among recent donations, we wish to thank the artists and artists’ families, gallery owners and patrons. Recent acquisitions have been made possible by the Moderno’s Acquisitions Committee, the support of civil society and the crucial support of the Buenos Aires City Government and the Asociación Amigos del Moderno. Throughout its history, it is the Moderno’s extended family that allows us to tell an increasingly fair, inclusive, plural and federal history of Argentinian art to generations to come.

Welcome to this great house of art and non-stop research!

(Text by Victoria Noorthoorn, Director and Francisco Lemus, Head of the Curatorial Department)

Artist: Susi Aczel, Roberto Aizenberg, Julián Althabe, Carmelo Arden Quin, Pompeyo Audivert, Sergio Avello, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Elba Bairon, Ernesto Ballesteros, Daniel Basso, Carlota Beltrame, Antonio Berni, Martín Blaszko, Inés Blumencweig, Sofía Böhtlingk, Ricardo Carpani, Juan Cavallero, Luis Centurión, Laura Códega, Eugenia Crenovich (Yente), Flavia Da Rin, Jorge de la Vega, Sergio De Loof, Ernesto Deira, Juan Del Prete, Hugo Demarco, Germaine Derbecq, Mirtha Dermisache, Noemí Di Benedetto, Juan Carlos Distéfano, Ana Eckell, Marcelo Epstein, Noemí Escandell, León Ferrari, Arnoldo Gaite, Ana Gallardo, Ricardo Garabito, Santiago García Sáenz, Nicolás García Uriburu, Noemí Gerstein, Edgardo Giménez, Alberto Goldenstein, Guillermo González Ruiz, Alberto Greco, Graciela Hasper, Alberto Heredia, Alfredo Hlito, Enio Iommi, Kenneth Kemble, Guillermo Kuitca, David Lamelas, Julio Le Parc, Reinaldo Leiro, Catalina León, Valentina Liernur, Lucrecia Lionti, Alfredo Londaibere, Raúl Lozza, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Rómulo Macció, Víctor Magariños, Jorge Gumier Maier, Tomás Maldonado, María Martorell, Juan Melé, Gian Paolo Minelli, Marta Minujín, Jorge Miño, Oski, Eduardo Painceira, César Paternosto, Luis Pazos, Máximo Pedraza, Martha Peluffo, La Chola Poblete, Rogelio Polesello, Alfredo Prior, Emilio Renart, Juan Pablo Renzi, Juan Carlos Romero, Rubén Santantonín, Eduardo Serón, Aldo Sessa, Carlos Silva, Pablo Siquier, Oscar Smoje, Juan Stoppani, Pablo Suárez, Luis Terán, Luis Tomasello, Silvia Torras, Georges Vantongerloo, Gregorio Vardánega, Miguel Ángel Vidal, Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Sesostris Vitullo, Luis Alberto Wells, Horacio Zabala, Pablo Ziccarello and Rosario Zorraquín

(Curated by: Victoria Noorthoorn and Francisco Lemus. Exhibition Design: Daniela Thomas, Felipe Tassara and Iván Rösler)