The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Chiado owns a collection of Portuguese art that includes painting, sculpture, drawing, video, photography and installation. Columbano Bordallo Pinheiro, José Malhoa, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Sousa Lopes, Mário Eloy, Almada Negreiros, Fernando Lanhas, Joaquim Rodrigo, Lourdes Castro, Helena Almeida, Ângela Ferreira or João Pedro Vale are just some of the names represented in this crucial collection for the knowledge of the history of Portuguese art from the second half of the 19th century to the present day.
Installed since 1911, the year of its foundation, in the premises of the Convent of São Francisco da Cidade, a set of buildings seriously affected by the earthquake of 1755, the current National Museum of Contemporary Art of Chiado, after the fire that affected the area in 1988, reopened in 1994 under a renovation project by the French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. In 2015, it also occupied the building of the former Civil Government of Lisbon, at Rua Capelo.
The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Chiado was born from the division of the former National Museum of Fine Arts into two distinct museums: the National Museum of Ancient Art, which inherited the works made until 1850 and continued to be installed in the Alvor Palace, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, consisting of all works after this date, and is now located in the Convent of São Francisco, in building close to the Academy of Fine Arts.
Its exhibitions feature paintings, sculptures and drawings from the period between 1850 and 1975, through works and authors of reference from the 19th century, from romanticism to symbolism, and from the 20th century, between the ruptures of the beginning of the century, modernism and conceptual art. The works between 1975 and the present day are the focus of temporary exhibitions, according to thematic axes and a regular schedule that, although covering the entire period of the collections, focuses rather on contemporary production, with a particular focus on photography and multimedia.
