In 1951, in the introduction to his essay of the catalogue for the inaugural Bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, the artistic director, Lourival Gomes Machado, wrote:
By definition, the Bienal should fulfill two major tasks: it should place Brazilian modern art, not in simple confrontation, but in living contact with the art of the world, and at the same time the Bienal should strive to position São Paulo as a world artistic center. (page 14).
The optimistic tone, the rhetoric filled with hope, the engagement with the age of reconstruction after the traumatic events of the Second World War, sound today like a prophecy, the setting out of an utopia, which after fifty-eight years has been realized: São Paulo has become an international artistic center, a cosmopolitan city, a reference in the globalized art scene, Brazil in turn has become a point of attraction for artists, curators, gallery owners, and international collectors. Brazilian artists occupy important positions within the history and discourse of post-war modernity and in the production of contemporary visuality. The objectives of 1951 have been accomplished.