This department, which since 1982 has been a part of the Bitola Museum, marks its foundation and development from 1958 when, as a separate institution, an art gallery "Mosa Pijade" was founded.

Since its foundation to the present its work is aimed at two primary goals: firstly, the collection, registration, processing, and preservation of the artistic masterpieces of modern art and secondly, its conservation and presentation and the affirmation of Macedonian authors and works, as well as the organization and presentation of the International Graphic Triennial.

In the course of its 50 year long existence, this department has brought about the realization of more then 1200 painting exhibitions: individual, group exhibitions, retrospective exhibitions, jubilee, thematic exhibitions, foreign exhibitions, works from its own fund, exhibitions taken from similar institutions (galleries and consulates) or exhibitions grouped according to the techniques: painting, graphics, drawings, photography, sculpture, watercolors or aquarel.

Since 1970 this institution was named as the "Gallery of Contemporary Yugoslavian Graphics", which determined its general direction towards investigation of and affirmation of the graphic art form.

Of the great number of expositions, we would like to mention the triennial state graphic manifestations at the Yugoslav level, which made possible the visits of many famous graphic artists from the country and abroad.

Also deserving special mention are the exhibitions of Licenovski, Vladimirski …, the members of the group VDIST (Vidimce, Dimovski, Ivanovski, Spirovski, Traikovski), the group of 77 (Kocevski, Kocovski and Manev), the annual exhibitions of DLUB and many others.

The international exhibitions, which should be remembered for their remarkable educational results, and hold a special place are the exhibitions of Gustav Klimt and Egon Shile, Pier Alesinski, Heinrich Cile, "The American board" and others.

This department possesses a great collection fund of works of art (about 1000) grouped into the collections of: painting, graphics-drawings and sculpture. They have been amassed through purchasing from exhibitions and donations from artists or individuals. Of special significance is the graphic collection of the awarded graphics from all triennial manifestations, which is considered to be unique in R. Macedonia.

The presence of Macedonian graphic artists: D. Avramovski Gute, M. Spirovski, P. Hadzi-Boskov, D. Percinkov, S. Semov, D. Nikolov, D. Malidanov, Z. Jakimovski, as well as the authors B. Jakac, A. Jemec, B. Boric, J. Bernik, A. Kuduz, M. Arsic, E. Mundzic, H. Hebler, L. Jung-Ae, Kapobianko, is testimony to the high quality of the wealth of the collection preserved in this museum.