“This museum hangs from two giant red beams so it seems to float, and inside the paintings stand on glass easels rather than hanging on walls.”
About Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP)
MASP was founded in 1947 and moved into Lina Bo Bardi's celebrated building, completed in 1968 on Avenida Paulista. Her design, suspending the structure from red beams to leave a public plaza below, became an architectural landmark. Bo Bardi's innovative glass-easel display, later restored, redefined how a collection could be shown, and the museum holds the finest collection of Western art in the southern hemisphere.
The Sao Paulo Museum of Art, known as MASP, is one of the most important art museums in Latin America and an icon of modern Brazilian architecture. Its striking building, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, appears to float above the street, its great glass box suspended from two enormous red concrete beams, leaving an open public plaza beneath.
The Sao Paulo Museum of Art, known as MASP, is one of the most important art museums in Latin America and an icon of modern Brazilian architecture.
A Museum That Floats
Lina Bo Bardi's radical 1968 design suspends the main museum volume from a pair of massive red beams, creating a 74-metre clear span with no columns touching the ground below, so the building seems to hover over an open civic space on Sao Paulo's main avenue. Inside, Bo Bardi displayed the European old masters and other works on transparent glass easels, freeing the paintings from walls so visitors could move among them as if in a forest of art.
The Experience
You see the building hovering above its open plaza, a bold red-and-glass landmark, then go inside to find paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and others mounted on clear glass easels, so you walk among them and read the labels on the back. The floating architecture and the unconventional display make MASP as much an experience of space and ideas as of art. The plaza below hosts a popular weekend antiques fair.
Why It Matters
MASP is a core element of Latin American art and a masterpiece of Brazilian modernist architecture, internationally celebrated for both its collection and Lina Bo Bardi's visionary building. Its floating form and glass-easel galleries make it one of the most influential and recognisable museums in the world.
MASP is a core element of Latin American art and a masterpiece of Brazilian modernist architecture, internationally celebrated for both its collection and Lina Bo Bardi's visionary building.
Why Visit
Latin America's premier art museum in an iconic floating building, with old masters displayed on glass easels and a landmark public plaza beneath, in Sao Paulo.
✦ Insider Tips
- 1
See the paintings displayed on transparent glass easels.
- 2
Note the building suspended from two huge red beams.
- 3
Check for free-entry times such as Tuesday evenings.
- 4
Browse the weekend antiques fair in the plaza below.
