2.5 million
Annual Visitors
11,000 works
Collection
2–3 hours
Recommended Visit
Lina Bo Bardi (1968)
Architect
About Museu de Arte de São Paulo
The São Paulo Museum of Art (Portuguese: Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, MASP) is a non-profit art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi.
The museum was founded in 1947 by Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi. MASP is recognized as one of Latin America's most important cultural institutions, and is a non-profit private institution.
The museum is also known for its glass easels — a 2015 reinstallation by curator Adriano Pedrosa that returned the works to Lina Bo Bardi's original concept of presenting paintings on transparent glass supports without traditional walls.
Its collection of European art, with major works by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Goya, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, and Van Gogh, is regarded as the finest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Masterworks & Must-See Highlights
The works that define Museu de Arte de São Paulo — and why they matter.
The Student (Portrait of Iracema)
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior · 1891
Brazilian Art Collection
The most iconic Brazilian painting in the collection — a young woman reading, depicted with extraordinary naturalistic light. Almeida Júnior broke from European academicism to portray Brazilian everyday life.
Portrait of the Art Dealer Ambroise Vollard
Pablo Picasso · 1910
European Paintings
A masterwork of Analytic Cubism in which the figure of Vollard is fractured into overlapping geometric planes. One of MASP's greatest treasures and a defining document of Cubism.
Young Woman Sewing
Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1879
European Paintings
A tender domestic scene typical of Renoir's Impressionist period — dappled light falls on a seamstress absorbed in her work. One of several major Impressionist works in MASP's acclaimed European collection.
Collections & Highlights
Frequently Asked Questions
A small ask before you go
You've just explored one of humanity's greatest collections of beauty. Art has the power to move us, inspire us, and change how we see the world. But millions of people will never see beauty like this — not because the art isn't there, but because they can't see at all.
Preventable blindness, caused by conditions like cataracts and trachoma, affects people of all ages across the world's poorest communities. A small gift — for the cost of a museum ticket — can provide a simple surgery to restore someone's sight and transform their life.