The exhibition publicly presents, for the first time, a group of leading artists from this particular collection. A well-established gallery owner, Mário Teixeira da Silva has gathered, over fifty years, relevant works by Portuguese and international artists. The title chosen for the exhibition refers to the exhibited work “I don't know...”, by Jimmie Durham, and its enigmatic character is a link between this collection of works with a long chronology and different artistic typologies. The exhibition is organized into four main axes and a Cabinet D’Amateur. The Idea and Experimentation nucleus brings together works by conceptual artists, such as Helena Almeida, Alberto Carneiro, Julião Sarmento, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hamish Fulton, Jochen Gerz, Christopher Wool. In Abstraction and Matter are works that question form, color and matter by authors such as Peter Halley, João Jacinto, Eduardo Vianna, Pedro Casqueiro, Jonathan Lasker, Franz Erhard Walther, Adriana Varejão or Allan McCollum. Landscape and Narrative brings together works that investigate the theme of natural space, the treatment of interior spaces, architecture, narrative and sign figuration, as happens in works by creators such as Beatriz Milhazes, Paula Rego, Joaquim Rodrigo, Gonçalo Mabunda, Silva Porto, Candida Hofer, Wolfgang Tillmans. In the Corpo e Representação core, pieces that approach the representation of the body and its absence are collected, with artists such as Henrique Pousão, Zhang Huan, Thomas Ruff, Aurelia de Sousa, Lourdes Castro, Sue Williams, Nan Goldin or Erwin Wurm. The route ends with an evocation of a Cabinet d’Amateur, in which works from the collector’s private environment are presented.Exhibition context Following the cycle “Colecionar Arte”, promoted by the direction of Os Amigos do Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea-Museu do Chiado, in which Mário Teixeira da Silva participated, in 2017, with moderation by Adelaide Duarte, the idea arose of exhibiting the collection that had never been shown in the country. The current management of MNAC cherished the proposal and managed to gather the conditions for this first public presentation of the Mário Teixeira da Silva collection, in Portugal.
Very diverse, in terms of the representation of authors and media used, the collection presents groups of works of great importance in the field of modern and contemporary art, both Portuguese and international. Also including elements of art known as tribal, it is also worth mentioning the important nucleus of photography.About the collector Mário Teixeira da Silva is an amateur collector and a compulsive reader. He makes his travels his “moments of freedom” to let himself be seduced by objects. It brought together a collection of international contemporary art, with an artistic spectrum that goes far beyond its gallery work. Graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of Porto, in 1975 he opens the Modulo-Centro Difusor de Arte, first in Porto, and later in Lisbon. This gallery, dedicated to new trends in contemporary art, maintains, until today, and for almost five decades, the same persistent and coherent line of work.About the curator Adelaide Duarte is a researcher at the Instituto de História da Arte and professor at the Department of History of Art at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. She coordinates the Post-Graduation in Art Market and Collecting at the same college. PhD in Museology and Cultural Heritage, her research focuses on the private collection of modern and contemporary art and on the functioning of the art system. She is vice-president of the association Os Amigos do Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea-Museu do Chiado.Catalog The exhibition will also feature a bilingual publication, carried out in partnership with Documenta. In addition to texts by Emília Ferreira and Adelaide Duarte, the publication will also feature texts by Mário Teixeira da Silva, Sérgio Mah and João Pinharanda.
Curator guided tours June 9th, Thursday, 5pm July 1, Friday, 3pm Other guided visits: Appointments with the MNAC Educational Service via email: hildafrias@mnac.dgpc.pt

Wim Delvoye, Chantier (Installation), 1992
© Mário Teixeira da Silva
MNAC. Rua Serpa Pinto
entry: General Conditions'I don't know if I can wish you a happy year'.
2022-04-14
2022-08-28
Curatorship: Adelaide Duarte
On Exhibition
Music in the MNAC's Garden
2022-08-05
2022-08-26
Summer Nights - Music Concerts
short film ‘Azul no Azul’ (Blue in Blue)
2022-07-28
2022-09-15
Curatorship: Nelson Ferreira
short experimental film ‘Azul no Azul’ (Blue in Blue) is a cinematic journey inside the sculpture garden of MNAC - The National Museum of Contemporary Art
Painting rarefied the spirit
2022-07-28
2022-10-30
Curatorship: Hilda Frias
After an artistic residency at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, what you see here is the fruit of persistent work and research by Nelson Ferreira.
Exhibition
COTA 1.20 at MNAC's PeP Gallery
2022-07-21
2022-09-04
Curatorship: Sílvia Berény e Rita Brandão
WALKING BY A GROUP OF CHILDREN FROM THE OSMOPE SCHOOL ON RUA MOUZINHO DA SILVEIRA IN PORTO
Veloso Salgado
from Lisbon to Wissant. Itinerary of a Portuguese painter
2022-07-02
2022-12-15
Curatorship: Maria de Aires Silveira
Exhibition Veloso Salgado from Lisbon to Wissant. Itinerary of a Portuguese painter - integrated in the Portugal-France Season (Crusade)
111 years
2022-05-26
2024-04-01
An intervention that celebrates 110 years of the MNAC.
‘There’s a shite stunk in the air… Dad’s oot oan bail! by Edgar Martins
2022-05-25
2022-08-21
There’s a shite stunk in the air… Dad’s oot oan bail!
THE OTHER LIFE OF ANIMALS
2022-05-05
2022-08-28
Curatorship: Emília Ferreira
This exhibition of real and fantastic animals features works of drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture and media art, having been designed for a younger audience, but where all ages are welcome.
Populated landscapes
Narratives from the MNAC collection (1850-1930)
2022-02-16
2022-08-28
Curatorship: Maria Aires Silveira
The aesthetics of the landscape, in dialogue with the presence and human intervention in nature.
Maria Eugénia & Francisco Garcia
A Colection
2021-11-18
2022-09-18
Curatorship: Maria de Aires Silveira, Cristina Azevedo Tavares e Raquel Henriques da Silva
MNAC exhibits the collection of Maria Eugénia and Francisco Garcia