Unlike some museums that have recently broadened their scope—and presumably their audiences—to include Latin America, the region has been on MoMA’s radar from the start. In 1931, the museum’s second solo exhibition was on Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and its first show on Latin American architecture, “Brazil Builds,” ran in 1943. “There’s a strong institutional logic to continue that thread,” says Martino Stierli, MoMA’s chief curator of architecture and design, and to explore social and cultural changes “that inform our understanding of the region to the present day.” Photo 3 of 16 in In Latin America, Modernism Began at Home

In Latin America, Modernism Began at Home

3 of 16

Unlike some museums that have recently broadened their scope—and presumably their audiences—to include Latin America, the region has been on MoMA’s radar from the start. In 1931, the museum’s second solo exhibition was on Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and its first show on Latin American architecture, "Brazil Builds," ran in 1943. "There’s a strong institutional logic to continue that thread," says Martino Stierli, MoMA’s chief curator of architecture and design, and to explore social and cultural changes "that inform our understanding of the region to the present day."