Calouste Gulbenkian Museum | Modern Collection

Created in 1983, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna - is devoted to preserving, investigating and exposing to the public its collection: which holds numerous artworks from the 20th and 21st centuries.

CAM annually organizes various temporary expositions based on works of both Portuguese and international artists. Additionally it exhibits one permanent exhibition comprising of a selection of artworks from the Museum’s repertoire.

CAM’s collection presently encompasses around 9000 pieces of art of both Portuguese and international artists. Above all, CAM’s collection focuses on Portuguese art produced in the first decades of the 20th century.

Since the 1960’s the collection possesses a myriad of artworks by Portuguese artists, many of which have been regularly shown in solo exhibitions.

The presence of works by international artists was made possible due to contacts established by these artists and Portuguese ones, and by the international art program developed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which dates back to its creation in 1956. The international collection consists of an important fraction of British artworks, systematically acquired in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1964, and recently of works by renowned contemporary British artists.

CAM’s activities are embedded in the wider cultural program offered by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Educational activities which relate to the contents of the expositions are at present organized in the context of the newly formed Programa Gulbenkian Educação para a Cultura – Descobrir.