A forerunner of the MAM, the National Museum of Plastic Arts, was created in 1947 by Carlos Chávez.
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; This project took more than ten years to materialize.
A forerunner of the MAM, the National Museum of Plastic Arts, was created in 1947 by Carlos Chávez. 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; This project took more than ten years to materialize.
Museo de Arte Moderno