This article examines the extent to which the Bienal de São Paulo’s was successful in achieving its main goal of presenting avant-garde art to the public from 1951 to 2002. To do so, it focuses on the conception and materiality of four important exhibitions that occurred in the second half of the 20th century. The notion of the avant-garde was based on a concept of modern linear time, which guaranteed the privilege of future time and was based on a universalist notion of art. Such a conception was part of the concept of modernity that prevailed throughout most of the 20th century, until the advent of postmodern theories.