Costa Rican Museum of Art

The Costa Rican Museum of Art (Spanish: Museo de Arte Costarricense, MAC) is the principal institution in Costa Rica dedicated to the conservation, exhibition, and promotion of the country's visual arts. Located in San José, the museum opened in 1978 and holds a collection of over 6,000 artworks. It serves as the leading venue for plastic arts in the nation, stimulating critical dialogue and contributing to public education through its exhibitions and programs.

The MAC was founded in 1978 by businessman Samuel Alejandro Sosa Rivero in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Youth. It opened on 3 May 1978 in the former terminal building of La Sabana International Airport, which had closed in 1974 after Juan Santamaría International Airport opened in 1958 to handle international traffic. The land was dedicated to La Sabana Metropolitan Park in 1977. The building itself was constructed in the late 1930s and had opened as an airport terminal on 7 April 1940. In 1986, the structure was designated as architectural heritage of Costa Rica. The museum underwent renovation in the late 2000s and reopened in October 2011. The MAC also maintains an active extension program through traveling exhibitions and international projections, positioning itself both nationally and abroad with a contemporary vision.

The museum's collection encompasses approximately 6,000 works by national and international artists across all artistic disciplines, primarily painting, sculpture, and photography, created mostly from the late nineteenth century to the present. Initially focused on acquiring works from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, the collection now extends to contemporary production. The National Collection, with approximately 1,700 works, originated from pieces belonging to the Dirección General de Artes y Letras (DGAL) founded in 1963, and has grown through donations and purchases. The International Contemporary Art program, initiated in 1984, now comprises more than 560 works representing movements including geometric abstraction, kinetic art, lyrical abstraction, material art, poor art, object art, abstract expressionism, neo-expressionism, photorealism, minimalism, and conceptual art. A major component is the donation of over 4,000 works by Juan Manuel Sánchez Barrantes, given by his wife Berta Solano in 1998, constituting the primary source for study of this prolific artist and representing an unprecedented unified collection in Costa Rican art history.

Among the museum's signature works is Francisco Amighetti's 1948 mural Agriculture, which commemorates the Costa Rican Civil War and remains on permanent display. The collection features works by expressionist painter Teodorico Quirós, abstract painter Lola Fernández, and sculptor Juan Rafael Chacón. The Salón Dorado, the former diplomatic salon of the original international airport, contains a 1940 mural by French sculptor and goldsmith Luis Féron Parizot (1901-1998), who was based in Costa Rica. This 150-square-meter stucco bas-relief, carved and painted in bronze color, synthesizes Costa Rican history from the pre-Columbian era to the 1940s. The museum also holds the most comprehensive collection of Juan Manuel Sánchez (1907-1990), an educator, poet, sculptor, and draftsman who emerged as a vanguard artist in the National Salons of Plastic Arts (1928-1937) and whose work integrated indigenous essence with universal and Americanist themes. The MAC hosted the first major retrospective of Max Jiménez's work in 1999. In 2024, the museum presented the first exhibition of Carlos Cruz-Diez's artwork in Central America, alongside an exhibition of works depicting Guanacaste Province.

The museum occupies the former terminal building of La Sabana International Airport, situated in La Sabana Metropolitan Park in San José. This neocolonial structure was designed by Teodorico Quirós and built in the late 1930s. As the first international airport in Costa Rica, it served as the country's primary aviation hub until the opening of Juan Santamaría International Airport. The building's adaptation for museum use preserved its historic character, and since 1986 it has been recognized as Costa Rica's historical-architectural heritage. The neocolonial design and original control tower elements make the building itself a significant work of architectural heritage worth appreciating in its own right.

The Costa Rican Museum of Art is located in San José, within La Sabana Metropolitan Park, at the site of the former La Sabana International Airport. The museum is publicly accessible, and admission is free of charge. Its current role extends beyond exhibition to include educational and recreational programs that contribute to the integral formation of visitors. With capacity to display only about 150 works at a time from its collection of over 6,000, the museum rotates its presentations to maximize public engagement with its holdings. The institution continues to lead the country's principal activities related to plastic arts, maintaining an active program of national and international exhibitions while fulfilling its mission as the primary guardian of Costa Rica's artistic patrimony.