São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)

The São Paulo Museum of Art, called MASP, is a famous art museum on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo, Brazil. Its building from 1968, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, is a landmark of the city and a symbol of modern Brazilian architecture. The museum is also one of the most visited art museums in the world.

The glass-walled box seems to float, because it is held about 8 meters above the ground by two huge beams resting on four red pillars. Underneath is an open plaza with a free span of 74 meters. The museum itself was founded in 1947 by Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi, and it is run as a non-profit.

What art does it hold?

MASP has more than 8,000 works. Its collection of European art is among the finest in Latin America and in the entire Southern Hemisphere. It also has Brazilian art, prints and drawings, and smaller collections of African and Asian art, antiquities and decorative arts. It has one of the largest art libraries in the country. The whole collection has been listed as Brazilian national heritage. It was also the first Brazilian museum to show art made after World War II.

Why is the building special?

Because the galleries hang above a wide open space with no columns beneath, the plaza under the museum is a public place in the middle of the busy avenue. The building is concrete and glass, and its bold structure carries the weight of the upper box through the two big beams. In the 1940s São Paulo was growing into Brazil's most important industrial city, and the museum helped bring modern art, education and culture to its citizens.

On the globe

The model shows a glass box lifted by two big beams on four red pillars, with open space under it. Look for the red pillars.