The work explores the relationship between art and politics by investigating the dynamics between the institutionalization of Brazilian modern art and the colonial past. Based on images of artworks displayed at the opening exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo in 1949, it revisits the role of abstractionism during the Cold War as a means of political and ideological contest. Combining letters to MAM-SP with spying reports on Latin America –both by Nelson Rockefeller –and images of artworks of the museum’s first exhibition, it explores the role of modernization as a mechanism to preserve relationships of subordination and dependence.