Impressões Digitais. MNAC Collection

Consisting of founding works of contemporary Portuguese art historiography, from 1850 to the present day, the MNAC's collection holds several national treasures. Having grown exponentially over the last three decades, the collection, mostly by Portuguese creators, with a growing number of women artists, constitutes a unique, historical and emotional legacy, in some ways as identifiable as our fingerprints [impressões digitais].

After seven temporary exhibitions, between 2018 and 2023, in which we focused on specific aspects of the collection, and chose to share especially works that had never been displayed, the new long-term exhibition brings together the high lights of the collection along with newcomers to the collection, i.e, artists of our own time.

Curated by Ana Guimarães, Emília Ferreira, Maria de Aires Silveira and Tiago Beirão Veiga, the journey through these 170 years of history, held at the museum’s main building, values the coexistence of different artistic languages, putting painting, drawing, engraving, photography, sculpture, installation and video into dialogue.

 As we open this new long-term exhibition of the National Museum of Contemporary Art's collection, we would like to thank our patrons, partners and all the collectors who entrust us with their works, all the internal and external teams who work with us, and especially the artists, for their dedication and involvement.

 Emília Ferreira

Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art