Renoir, African art, geometries, and the actresses from I Am Still Here, at the renovated São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)

The new MASP building inspires curiosity and happiness. And not just because this is Brazil, but also because the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand inaugurated the Pietro Maria Bardi Building on March 28, 2025, with the exhibition Five Essays on MASP . Now the classic and iconic building has been renamed the Lina Bo Bardi Building . Together, they make up the current MASP . The exhibitions offer new perspectives and dialogues on the museum's collection and history. There, among great universal masters, there is room for works by Argentines León Ferrari, Claudia Alarcón, and Nicolás García Uriburu.

This cultural institution is a very important art museum in the Southern Hemisphere , with a collection of approximately 10,000 pieces covering African, American, Asian, Brazilian and European art, from antiquity to the 21st century . There are paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and antique costumes in a museum that is known for its modern architecture: it was designed by architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1958 .

Inside and out, it's impressive. From the opposite sidewalk on Avenida Paulista, two striking volumes can be seen. The first is a recumbent rectangle with red edges that houses the old museum . Next to it, a tower decorated with black sheet metal rises, completing the scene in a stretch of São Paulo with a hypermodern urban feel that contrasts with any classic Brazilian corner. It has 14 floors, five of them dedicated to exhibitions.

The exhibitions in the new building command attention. The Five Essays on display there are: Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi, a Marvelous Entanglement; Geometries, Arts of Africa; Renoir; and Histories of the MASP. They occupy five exhibition floors of the museum, representing a 66% increase in the exhibition space.

In the video installation about the legacy of modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992), who designed the iconic MASP building on Avenida Paulista, actresses Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro interpret Lina's writings, giving voice to her ideas about the social and cultural potential of art and architecture, particularly based on her experience with Afro-Brazilian culture in Bahia. “Linear time is a Western creation; time is not linear, it is a marvelous tangle in which, at any moment, points can be chosen and solutions invented, without beginning or end,” wrote the Italian-Brazilian architect.

Isaac Julien (London, 1960) filmed the video at MASP, SESC Pompeia, and the Teatro Oficina. These three buildings, widely recognized as emblems of Brazilian modernity, stand as representatives of a pioneering vision of São Paulo architecture. A wonderful plot portrays Bo Bardi during different stages of her life, while the actresses perform excerpts from the architect's writings. Mother and daughter, Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, are the protagonists of the film "Still I Am Here," by Walter Salles, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2025.

On the third floor is Arts of Africa. This exhibition features more than 40 works from the museum's collection, primarily from the 20th century and originating from West Africa. The collection includes figurines, everyday objects, dolls, drums, furniture, and masks used in festivities, initiation rituals, celebrations, and funerals. "The presence of African art at the MASP has been shaped by key moments throughout its history, marked by exhibitions and donations. The museum's first significant involvement with African art took place in 1953, with the Arte Negra exhibition, held six years after the MASP's opening. This initiative was one of the first recorded exhibitions of African art in a Brazilian museum," explains Amanda Carneiro , one of the exhibition's curators.

The works come from 17 different cultures, mainly from West Africa , from groups such as the Guro, Senufo and Baulê, from present-day Ivory Coast; the Dogon and Bamana, from Mali; the Mossi and Bobo, from Burkina Faso; the Baga, from Guinea; the Axante, from Ghana; the Guere-Wobe, from Liberia; the Hemba, from the Congo; the Mumuye, Ibibio, Igbo and Yoruba, from Nigeria; as well as a Chokwe piece, from Angola.

Geometries is on display on the 4th and 10th floors. The exhibition features more than 50 works from the MASP collection, including around twenty recent donations. These works feature works by artists who emerged during the avant-garde constructive movements, in dialogue with works by contemporary artists who use different materials to create geometric compositions.

"The MASP collection is primarily made up of figurative works, but the collection of abstract-geometric works has gradually expanded. The organization of Geometrias mobilized artists and collectors, who generously donated a significant number of works that not only fill gaps but also update the collection," says Regina Teixeira de Barros , one of the curators.

The exhibition also highlights the use of textile patterns that appear in works such as those of Claudia Alarcón (Pueblo Wichí, Río Pilcomayo, Argentina, 1989) and Laura Lima (Governador Valadares, MG, 1971), which also establishes connections with fashion.

On another level is the exhibition featuring all of the works by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) from the MASP collection, located on the fifth floor. It includes 12 paintings and a sculpture. The collection spans virtually the artist's entire career and was last displayed 23 years ago.

A separate commentary on Historias del MASP (6th floor). The exhibition reviews more than seven decades of the institution's history, reflecting on the museum's trajectory and its role in establishing a modern museum model. It is a chronology that recounts how the museum acquired its key works, how they arrived, were unpacked, and displayed. Among them are works by Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Picasso, and Tarsila do Amaral, as well as works by Argentine artists León Ferrari and Nicolás García Uriburu.

The MASP houses an important collection of Ferrari's works, which were donated to the museum by the artist himself. It includes heliographs, a series of photocopied works, as well as two paintings, two sculptures, and an object. Most of them—with the exception of two preliminary works from the 1960s—were created during his fifteen years of exile in São Paulo.

The historic exhibition brings together 74 works from the MASP collection with exceptionally well-displayed documentation from the museum's Research Center, including photographs, documents, posters, books, catalogs, newspapers, and magazines. It features statuettes by Degas, works such as the Madonna and Child and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (1490–1500) by Sandro Botticelli , and The Five Young Women of Guaratinguetá (1930) by Di Cavalcanti , and Madame Cézanne in Red (1888–90) by Paul Cézanne.

In addition to the collection, the exhibition examines the museum's growing importance to the architecture, cityscape, and political life of São Paulo . Images show the construction of the iconic building on Avenida Paulista since its inauguration in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II in 1968. After more than 20 years in exposed concrete, the building's porticos were dyed red.

The architectural ensemble creates a scene of proportions between the two buildings, forming a perfect L. In fact, it's as if the glass structure of the historic building had been erected vertically, but without the concrete pillars. A tunnel is currently being built to connect the two buildings and is scheduled to be operational in the second half of this year. Visitors can visit both buildings with a single ticket.

The architectural project is by Júlio Neves and METRO Arquitetos Associados, with partners Martin Corullon and Gustavo Cedroni. Paulo Vicelli, Director of Experience and Communication at Masp, told O Globo: “It's a building with a very strong personality compared to the others on Paulista Street. It's authentic, but at the same time it doesn't overshadow the Lina Building. There's a respect between the contemporary and the modern.” He added: “I like it. People have every right to like or dislike something. I'm glad this issue is being debated in architecture, which is a topic rarely discussed in Brazil. On the other hand, when the Lina Building opened, there wasn't unanimous support either. At the time, it was quite difficult for people to codify and understand it. So perhaps, with the passage of time, this new building will also be viewed differently.”