[2][3] The main building has a dramatic cadence of external pillar elements, connected by longitudinal beams, providing a galley level free of internal columns or structural walls.

The northern façade has aluminum shutters to control the amount of (low) natural light entering the gallery space during the winter solstice period.

A broad spiral ramp element reaches an upper level, with a roof terrace, restaurant, bar, and lounge overlooking Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf, and Rio's other granitic mountain formations.

Affonso Eduardo Reidy's essay for the meaning of the museum expressed: The cultural influence of a modern art museum is not only drawn from the collection of works of art and of courses of study and conferences held there, but more particularly the creation of their own intellectual atmosphere in which the artist is to enrich their own work and ideas in which the public can absorb the artistic culture required by the mind of modern man.

[2]The museum's scope is as an arts center, and includes:[2] On July 8, 1978, a fire caused either by a cigarette or an electrical failure destroyed 90% of the museum's collection, including artworks from Pablo Picasso ("Cubist Head" and "Portrait of Dora Maar"), Joan Miró ("Persons in a Landscape"), Salvador Dalí ("Egg on a Plate, Without the Plate"), Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Diego Rivera, René Magritte, Louis Van Lint, Ivan Serpa, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Manabu Mabe and others – and all artworks showed in a big retrospective of artist Joaquín Torres-García.