São Paulo Art Museum
Encyclopedia
The São Paulo Museum of Art (in Portuguese
, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or MASP) is an 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
, whose main body is supported by two lateral beams over a 74 meters freestanding space, considered a landmark of the city and a main symbol of modern Brazilian architecture.
The museum is a non-profit making private institution
founded in 1947 by Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi
. MASP distinguished itself for many important initiatives concerning museology
and art education
in Brazil, as well as for its pioneering role as a cultural center
. It was also the first Brazilian museum interested in Post-World War II artistic tendencies.
The museum is internationally recognized for its collection of Western art, considered the finest in Latin America and all Southern Hemisphere
. It also shelters an emphatic assemblage of Brazilian art
, prints
and drawing
s, as well as smaller collections of African
and Asian art
, antiquities
, decorative arts, and others, amounting to more than 8,000 pieces. MASP also has one of the largest art libraries in the country. The entire collection is listed as Brazilian National Heritage.
was passing through large structural changes, consolidating the transition from the coffee
cycle to a growing industrialization period. The state of São Paulo specifically was attracting many industries and workers from many regions of the country and the world, and the city of São Paulo, in particular, established itself as the most important industrial hub in the country.
Regarding the artistic life, however, São Paulo's most notable reference was still the Week of Modern Art
of 1922. Despite the importance this event had enjoyed in the 1920s, Modernism wouldn't draw much attention of city dwellers and institutions in the following decades. There was only one art museum in São Paulo, the Pinacoteca do Estado
, solely devoted to Academic art
, besides a commercial gallery
.
Assis Chateaubriand, founder and owner of Diários Associados
, or "Associated Daily Press", the largest media and press conglomerate of Brazil at the time, was one of the most influential individuals of this period. Jockingly nicknamed "King of Brazil", he was a very active partaker in the national moves toward modernization. Backed by the power of his press conglomerate, Chateaubriand used to pressure Brazilian political and economical elite to help him in his "public campaigns". In the mid 1940s, Chateaubriand created the Campanha da Aviação ("aviation campaign"), which consisted of vigorous fundraising to acquire training aircraft, at the aim of endowing the country with a proper aviation system. As a result, more than one thousand aircrafts were donated to Brazilian aviation schools.
After the end of the Campanha da Aviação, Chateaubriand would start a new campaign, with the boldly intent of acquiring masterpiece
s to form an art collection of international standard in Brazil. He intended to host the museum in Rio de Janeiro
, but chose São Paulo where he believed it would be easier to gather the necessary funds, since this city was enjoying a very prosperous moment. At the same time, the European art market had been deeply influenced by the end of World War II, making it possible to acquire fine artworks for reasonable prices.
Chateaubriand would need the help of an expert in the selection of the artworks. With that purpose, he invited Pietro Maria Bardi, an Italian professor, critic
and art dealer
, former owner of galleries in Milan
and Rome, to help him create a "Museum of Classical and Modern Art". Bardi objected that there shouldn't be distinctions among arts, proposing simply a "Museum of Art", and accepted the invitation. Planning to lead the project for only a year, Bardi would dedicate the rest of his life to it. He moved to Brazil together with his wife, the architect Lina Bo Bardi
, and brought along his library and his private art collection.
The museum was inaugurated and opened to public visitation on October 2, 1947, displaying the first acquisitions, amongst which canvas
es by Picasso and Rembrandt. In these first years of activity, the museum was located on the first floor of the Diarios Associados headquarters. Lina Bo Bardi
was in charge of adapting the building to the needs of the museum, dividing it into four distinct areas: art gallery, a didactic exposition room about history of art
, temporary exhibition room and an auditorium. MASP was the first Brazilian institution interested in acquiring works of modern art
. The museum would quickly become a meeting point for artists, students and intellectuals, attracted not only by its holdings, but also because of the workshops and courses about history of art, temporary exhibitions of national and foreigner artists, and the educative program, open to receive manifestations of multiple fields of art, such as theater, cinema and music.
In the 1950s the museum increased its didactic performance, creating the Institute of Contemporary Art (offering workshops of engraving
, drawing
, painting
, sculpture
, dance and industrial design
), the Publicity
School (presently Superior School of Propaganda and Marketing), organizing debates about cinema and literature
and creating a juvenile orchestra
and a ballet company
. The courses were frequently given by important names of the Brazilian artistic scene, such as the painters Lasar Segall
and Roberto Sambonet, the architect
s Gian Carlo Palanti and Lina Bo Bardi
, the sculptor August Zamoyski
, and the motion-picture technician Alberto Cavalcanti
.
Along with the amplification of the educational program
, the museum witnessed the growth in importance of its collection and the international recognition of the institution. Between 1953 and 1957, a selection of 100 masterpieces
of the museum's collection traveled throughout European museums, such as Musée de l'Orangerie
(Paris) and the Tate Gallery
(London), in a series of exhibitions organized with the intent of consolidating the collection. In 1957, the collection was also displayed in the United States, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York
and in the Toledo Museum of Art
. The following year, the holdings of MASP were exhibited at other Brazilian venues, such as the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
, in Rio de Janeiro.
The high-level of art excellence of its exhibitions promoted the museum those first years. Great notoriety and prestige were the results, which increased attendance and greater interest in fine arts.
The collection's rising amount and importance soon required the construction of a building to headquarter the museum. With that purpose, the São Paulo City Hall donated a plot of ground, previously occupied by the Belvedere
Trianon – a traditional meeting point of the Paulistano wealthy, which had been demolished in 1951 - to host the first edition of São Paulo Art Biennial
. The ground on Paulista Avenue had been donated to the City Hall
with the condition that the view to the downtown area and the valley of the Nove de Julho Avenue be preserved.
The new MASP building is the brainchild of Lina Bo Bardi. In order to preserve the required view of the downtown area, Bardi idealized a sustained building, supported by four massive concrete plain rectangular columns. The construction is considered to be unique worldwide for its peculiarity: the main body of the building stands on four lateral supporting pillars, generating a free area of 74 meters underneath the sustained building. Constructed between 1956 and 1968, the new site of the museum was inaugurated on November 7 by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom during her visit to Brazil.
Assis Chateaubriand would not get to see the inauguration of the new building. He died months before, victimized by thrombosis
. The media empire which he raised had also been facing difficulties since the beginning of the 1960s. Growing debts and the competition in the media market by Roberto Marinho
's press conglomerate – caused the scarcity of the funds which had permitted the gathering of the collection.
The overthrow of Diários Associados
and the death of its founder made public funds to intervene and pay for the debts contracted with foreign institutions. During the government of president Juscelino Kubitschek, Caixa Econômica Federal
granted a loan to honor the financial obligations of the institutions and secured the loan with its art collections. Years later, in the 1970s, the debt with the Brazilian government was negotiated and finally paid off.
In 1969, in response to a request by the museum, the Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) registered MASP's holdings as part of the national heritage
. Then, the collection became inalienable. It is part of Brazilian public patrimony, and any movement of works of the collection to outside of the country needs the authorization by IPHAN.
Notwithstanding the financial problems of the institution, São Paulo Museum of Art undergoes an even greater growing of its international recognizing. In the 1970s the museum gathered notoriety in the Eastern Hemisphere
by organizing many exhibitions using selected works of its collection at Japanese museums. In 1973, the collection was presented at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Brasília
. MASP's collection was presented again in Japan in 1978/79, 1982/83, 1990/91, and 1995. In 1992, works of the French school
and Brazilian landscapes
were exhibited in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, in Santiago, Chile
, and in the Biblioteca Luís Angel Aragón, in Bogotá
.
In 2011, MASP received an important donation of Asian Art and artcrafts from Ambassador Godoy to India, which is said to have placed MASP under the same category of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
of New York, which houses items of anthropological interest as well as fine arts. Before that, MASP already figured amongst the 19 finest institutions of art in the world, which include D'Orsay in Paris and the Met itself. A new wing to harbor the collection will be dedicated in 2012 when MASP's restaurant and offices will be transferred to a building under restoration to its left.
The present building of the museum was constructed by the São Paulo City Hall and inaugurated in 1968, with the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. It is famous for is remarkable brutalist structure and it is considered one of the landmarks of the Brazilian modern architecture
. The building should be raised in the formerly site of Belvedere
Trianon, on Paulista Avenue from where it would be possible to watch the downtown area and the Cantareira Mountains
. Joaquim Eugênio de Lima, the engineer
who donated the plot of ground to the City Hall, tied the donation to an express commitment that no edification should ever be constructed in that plot that would harm the amplitude of the view
. Therefore, the project demanded an underground construction or, otherwise, a sustained one. The architect Lina Bo Bardi
and engineer José Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz chose both alternatives. They conceived an underground block as well as a sustained structure, which would stand eight meters above the floor, with the use of four pillars connected by two huge concrete beams. Underneath those beams there lay what was considered a boldness, meaning a free space of 74 meters between the pillars and underneath the beams; the largest in the world at that time. The building inaugurated the so called protented technique reinforced concrete
in Brazil.
In the construction of approximately 10,000 sq. meters there are - besides the permanent and temporary exhibition rooms – library
, photo gallery, film gallery, video gallery, two auditoriums, restaurant, a store, workshop rooms, administrative offices and a technical reserved area. The building's installations and finishing are homely, as Lina Bo herself describes: "Concrete in sight, whitewash, flagstone flooring covering the great Civic Hall, tempered glass, plastic walls. Industrial black rubber flooring covering inner spaces. The belvedere is a ‘square’, with plants and flowers around, paved with parallelepipeds, according to Iberian-Brazilian tradition. There are also water spaces, small water mirrors with aquatic plants. […] I didn’t search for beauty. I’ve searched for freedom". In 2003, the building was also registered as national patrimony by Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage.
In the museographic area, Lina Bo Bardi also innovated by using tempered
crystal
sheets leaned on concrete blocks bases as display supports for the paintings. The intention is to imitate the position of the canvas on the painter's easel. In the reverse of these supports, which are not used anymore, there were planks with information about the painter and the work. Paradoxically, the museum abandoned this model of exhibition at the same time when, at the end of the 1990s, it starts to be noticed and implemented by foreigner institutions.
Between 1996 and 2001, the actual administration of the museum undertook a vast and controversy reform
. Notwithstanding the indispensable restoration of the general structure, the architect and former director of the institution Julio Neves determined the substitution of the original floor conceived by Lina Bo, the installation of a second elevator, the construction of a third underground floor, and the substitution of the water mirrors for gardens. Many architects allege that the reform caused a profound discharacterization of Lina's original project.
, formerly owner of commercial galleries in Milan
and Rome, was in charge of searching and selecting the works which should be acquired, while Chateaubriand had to look for donors and patrons who shared his dream of endowing the country with a museum of international standard. Although many spontaneous donations had been registered, Chateaubriand gained reputation for using bold methods of persuasion. Endorsed by the influence of his Diários Associados
Press, he negotiated with announcers his gathering of funds. After that, he rewarded the donors with the title of patrons, celebrating each new acquisition with banquets, speeches and even student parades in the streets of São Paulo, as happened at the arrival of Van Gogh's The Student.
The international art market was passing through a propitious moment for those who had funds to acquire high-quality works of art
– there were many of them available in view of the end of the war, and Brazil enjoyed prosperity, having ceased to depend heavily on international production,as it was forced to develop its own industry during the war. The works of art were generally acquired in traditional and esteemed fine art auction
houses, such as Christie's
, Marlborough, Sotheby's
, Knoedler, Seligman and Wildenstein.
The bold methods used by Chateaubriand to finance the formation of the collection produced many critics. Along with these, there were others related to the fact that the museum acquired works of art without the proper corroboration of authenticity
. This impression was endorsed by the fact that the museum was at the time one of the major buyers in the international market. Unlike other institutions, whose acquisitions depended on approval of a curator
s council, the São Paulo Museum of Art usually acquired its pieces quickly, sometimes by telegram. Thanks to this agility the museum was able to gather important masterpieces, even when facing private collectors or institutions of major renown and bigger financial resources.
At the end of the 1960s, Chateaubriand's press
conglomerate
was facing troubles, with growing debts and Roberto Marinho
's media companies competition. The financial difficulties of Diários Associados
caused the downfall of the museum's financial resources. Thus, after 13 years of great acquisitions, the museum increased its collection only by spontaneous donations of artists, companies and private collectors.
and Italian schools are more broadly represented, forming the main body of the collection, followed by Spanish
, Portuguese, Flemish, Dutch
, English
and German
masters. The museum also keeps a significant collection of Brazilian art
and Brasiliana, which witnesses the development of Brazilian art from 17th century to nowadays. Still in the context of Western art, the museum possesses important holdings of Latin
and North American
art. In a smaller scale, the museum's holdings contemplate representative objects of many periods and distinct non-Western civilization
s – such as African
and Asian art
s – and others which stand out for their archaeological, historic and artistic relevance, like the select collections of Egyptian
, Etruscan
, Greek
and Roman
antiquities, besides other artifacts of Pre-Columbian
cultures and medieval European art
.
The museum also has some small collections of photographs, costumes and textiles, kitsch objects, etc.
, and the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
by Pablo Picasso
. The whole action took about three minutes.
The estimated value of the paintings is around R$120 million reais (approximately 70 million dollars). The museum collection is uninsured and, at the time of the robbery, it had no movement sensors among the galleries. Security cameras could only produce unclear images of the raid because they lacked infrared capability.
The pictures were recovered by the police of São Paulo
on January 8, 2008, in the city of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, in the Greater São Paulo
. The names of the two suspects have been withheld. After the incident, the director of the MASP promised to improve the security of the museum.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or MASP) is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....
, whose main body is supported by two lateral beams over a 74 meters freestanding space, considered a landmark of the city and a main symbol of modern Brazilian architecture.
The museum is a non-profit making private institution
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
founded in 1947 by Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi
Pietro Maria Bardi
Pietro Maria Bardi was the curator of the São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil. He was born Italian and stirred the Brazilian artistic community with his new ideas about popularizing museums by making both modern and classical art accessible to the masses...
. MASP distinguished itself for many important initiatives concerning museology
Museology
Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...
and art education
Art education
Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings...
in Brazil, as well as for its pioneering role as a cultural center
Cultural center
A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run...
. It was also the first Brazilian museum interested in Post-World War II artistic tendencies.
The museum is internationally recognized for its collection of Western art, considered the finest in Latin America and all Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
. It also shelters an emphatic assemblage of Brazilian art
Brazilian art
Brazil was colonized by Portugal in the middle of the 16th century. In those early times, owing to the primitive state of Portuguese civilization there, not much could be done in regard to art expression. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indian peoples, most likely produced...
, prints
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
and drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
s, as well as smaller collections of African
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
and Asian art
Asian art
Asian art can refer to art amongst many cultures in Asia.-Various types of Asian art:*Afghan art*Azerbaijanian art*Balinese art*Bhutanese art*Buddhist art*Burmese contemporary art*Chinese art*Eastern art*Indian art*Iranian art*Islamic art...
, antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
, decorative arts, and others, amounting to more than 8,000 pieces. MASP also has one of the largest art libraries in the country. The entire collection is listed as Brazilian National Heritage.
General context
At the end of the 1940s, Brazilian economyEconomy of Brazil
The economy of Brazil is the world's seventh largest by nominal GDP and eighth largest by purchasing power parity. Brazil has moderately free markets and an inward-oriented economy...
was passing through large structural changes, consolidating the transition from the coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
cycle to a growing industrialization period. The state of São Paulo specifically was attracting many industries and workers from many regions of the country and the world, and the city of São Paulo, in particular, established itself as the most important industrial hub in the country.
Week of Modern Art
The Modern Art Week was an arts festival in São Paulo, Brazil, that ran from February 11 to February 18, 1922...
of 1922. Despite the importance this event had enjoyed in the 1920s, Modernism wouldn't draw much attention of city dwellers and institutions in the following decades. There was only one art museum in São Paulo, the Pinacoteca do Estado
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...
, solely devoted to Academic art
Academic art
Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism,...
, besides a commercial gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
.
Assis Chateaubriand, founder and owner of Diários Associados
Diários Associados
The Diários Associados, or Associated Dailies, are a union of Brazilian communication media created by Assis Chateaubriand.Diários Associados owned Rede Tupi, the first Brazilian Television Network, through its affiate, the Rede de Emissoras Associadas, from 1950 to 1980.Today the group has 50...
, or "Associated Daily Press", the largest media and press conglomerate of Brazil at the time, was one of the most influential individuals of this period. Jockingly nicknamed "King of Brazil", he was a very active partaker in the national moves toward modernization. Backed by the power of his press conglomerate, Chateaubriand used to pressure Brazilian political and economical elite to help him in his "public campaigns". In the mid 1940s, Chateaubriand created the Campanha da Aviação ("aviation campaign"), which consisted of vigorous fundraising to acquire training aircraft, at the aim of endowing the country with a proper aviation system. As a result, more than one thousand aircrafts were donated to Brazilian aviation schools.
After the end of the Campanha da Aviação, Chateaubriand would start a new campaign, with the boldly intent of acquiring masterpiece
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
s to form an art collection of international standard in Brazil. He intended to host the museum in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, but chose São Paulo where he believed it would be easier to gather the necessary funds, since this city was enjoying a very prosperous moment. At the same time, the European art market had been deeply influenced by the end of World War II, making it possible to acquire fine artworks for reasonable prices.
Chateaubriand would need the help of an expert in the selection of the artworks. With that purpose, he invited Pietro Maria Bardi, an Italian professor, critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
and art dealer
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...
, former owner of galleries in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Rome, to help him create a "Museum of Classical and Modern Art". Bardi objected that there shouldn't be distinctions among arts, proposing simply a "Museum of Art", and accepted the invitation. Planning to lead the project for only a year, Bardi would dedicate the rest of his life to it. He moved to Brazil together with his wife, the architect Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....
, and brought along his library and his private art collection.
The first steps (1947-1957)
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
es by Picasso and Rembrandt. In these first years of activity, the museum was located on the first floor of the Diarios Associados headquarters. Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....
was in charge of adapting the building to the needs of the museum, dividing it into four distinct areas: art gallery, a didactic exposition room about history of art
History of art
The History of art refers to visual art which may be defined as any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview...
, temporary exhibition room and an auditorium. MASP was the first Brazilian institution interested in acquiring works of modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. The museum would quickly become a meeting point for artists, students and intellectuals, attracted not only by its holdings, but also because of the workshops and courses about history of art, temporary exhibitions of national and foreigner artists, and the educative program, open to receive manifestations of multiple fields of art, such as theater, cinema and music.
In the 1950s the museum increased its didactic performance, creating the Institute of Contemporary Art (offering workshops of engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
, drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, dance and industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
), the Publicity
Publicity
Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people , goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one...
School (presently Superior School of Propaganda and Marketing), organizing debates about cinema and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and creating a juvenile orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
and a ballet company
Ballet company
A ballet company is a group of dancers who perform ballet, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round basis, except in the United States, where contracts for part of the year are the norm...
. The courses were frequently given by important names of the Brazilian artistic scene, such as the painters Lasar Segall
Lasar Segall
The artist Lasar Segall was a Brazilian Jewish painter, engraver and sculptor born in Lithuania. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism...
and Roberto Sambonet, the architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
s Gian Carlo Palanti and Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....
, the sculptor August Zamoyski
August Zamoyski
Count August Zamoyski was a Polish sculptor, member of groups Bunt and Formiści....
, and the motion-picture technician Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.-Early life:Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a...
.
Along with the amplification of the educational program
Educational program
An educational program is a program written by the ministry of education which determines the learning progress of each subject in all the stages of formal education....
, the museum witnessed the growth in importance of its collection and the international recognition of the institution. Between 1953 and 1957, a selection of 100 masterpieces
Masterpieces
Masterpieces is a compilation album by Bob Dylan. The 3-LP set was released in Japan and Australia in anticipation of his 1978 tour. Primarily a greatest hits collection spanning Dylan's career up that point, the album features three previously unreleased tracks, including "Rita May", "George...
of the museum's collection traveled throughout European museums, such as Musée de l'Orangerie
Musée de l'Orangerie
The Musée de l'Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Though most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the museum also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse,...
(Paris) and the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
(London), in a series of exhibitions organized with the intent of consolidating the collection. In 1957, the collection was also displayed in the United States, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and in the Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio, United States. The museum was founded by Toledo glassmaker Edward Drummond Libbey in 1901, and moved to its present location, a Greek revival building designed by Edward B....
. The following year, the holdings of MASP were exhibited at other Brazilian venues, such as the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938, by president Getúlio Vargas...
, in Rio de Janeiro.
The high-level of art excellence of its exhibitions promoted the museum those first years. Great notoriety and prestige were the results, which increased attendance and greater interest in fine arts.
Consolidation of the museum
Belvedere (structure)
Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
Trianon – a traditional meeting point of the Paulistano wealthy, which had been demolished in 1951 - to host the first edition of São Paulo Art Biennial
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
. The ground on Paulista Avenue had been donated to the City Hall
City hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
with the condition that the view to the downtown area and the valley of the Nove de Julho Avenue be preserved.
The new MASP building is the brainchild of Lina Bo Bardi. In order to preserve the required view of the downtown area, Bardi idealized a sustained building, supported by four massive concrete plain rectangular columns. The construction is considered to be unique worldwide for its peculiarity: the main body of the building stands on four lateral supporting pillars, generating a free area of 74 meters underneath the sustained building. Constructed between 1956 and 1968, the new site of the museum was inaugurated on November 7 by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom during her visit to Brazil.
Assis Chateaubriand would not get to see the inauguration of the new building. He died months before, victimized by thrombosis
Thrombosis
Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...
. The media empire which he raised had also been facing difficulties since the beginning of the 1960s. Growing debts and the competition in the media market by Roberto Marinho
Roberto Marinho
Roberto Pisani Marinho was the president and founder of the biggest Brazilian TV channel, Globo, a television network with 113 stations and associates...
's press conglomerate – caused the scarcity of the funds which had permitted the gathering of the collection.
The overthrow of Diários Associados
Diários Associados
The Diários Associados, or Associated Dailies, are a union of Brazilian communication media created by Assis Chateaubriand.Diários Associados owned Rede Tupi, the first Brazilian Television Network, through its affiate, the Rede de Emissoras Associadas, from 1950 to 1980.Today the group has 50...
and the death of its founder made public funds to intervene and pay for the debts contracted with foreign institutions. During the government of president Juscelino Kubitschek, Caixa Econômica Federal
Caixa Econômica Federal
Caixa Econômica Federal , also referred to as Caixa or CEF, is a Brazilian bank. It is the largest government-owned financial institution in Latin America. It is the largest bank in Brazil and in Latin America by assets....
granted a loan to honor the financial obligations of the institutions and secured the loan with its art collections. Years later, in the 1970s, the debt with the Brazilian government was negotiated and finally paid off.
In 1969, in response to a request by the museum, the Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) registered MASP's holdings as part of the national heritage
Wiktionary
Wiktionary is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in 158 languages...
. Then, the collection became inalienable. It is part of Brazilian public patrimony, and any movement of works of the collection to outside of the country needs the authorization by IPHAN.
Notwithstanding the financial problems of the institution, São Paulo Museum of Art undergoes an even greater growing of its international recognizing. In the 1970s the museum gathered notoriety in the Eastern Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
The Eastern Hemisphere, also Eastern hemisphere or eastern hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that is east of the Prime Meridian and west of 180° longitude. It is also used to refer to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia, vis-à-vis the Western Hemisphere, which includes...
by organizing many exhibitions using selected works of its collection at Japanese museums. In 1973, the collection was presented at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
. MASP's collection was presented again in Japan in 1978/79, 1982/83, 1990/91, and 1995. In 1992, works of the French school
French art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...
and Brazilian landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
were exhibited in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, and in the Biblioteca Luís Angel Aragón, in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
.
In 2011, MASP received an important donation of Asian Art and artcrafts from Ambassador Godoy to India, which is said to have placed MASP under the same category of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
of New York, which houses items of anthropological interest as well as fine arts. Before that, MASP already figured amongst the 19 finest institutions of art in the world, which include D'Orsay in Paris and the Met itself. A new wing to harbor the collection will be dedicated in 2012 when MASP's restaurant and offices will be transferred to a building under restoration to its left.
The building
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
. The building should be raised in the formerly site of Belvedere
Belvedere (structure)
Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
Trianon, on Paulista Avenue from where it would be possible to watch the downtown area and the Cantareira Mountains
Serra da Cantareira
The Serra da Cantareira is a Brazilian mountain range to the north of the city of São Paulo in the São Paulo state. It is the second largest native urban forest in the world. The Pico do Jaraguá, São Paulo's highest point, is located there. This is also the place where the famous Brazilian band...
. Joaquim Eugênio de Lima, the engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
who donated the plot of ground to the City Hall, tied the donation to an express commitment that no edification should ever be constructed in that plot that would harm the amplitude of the view
View
A view is what can be seen in a range of vision. View may also be used as a synonym of point of view in the first sense. View may also be used figuratively or with special significance—for example, to imply a scenic outlook or significant vantage point:...
. Therefore, the project demanded an underground construction or, otherwise, a sustained one. The architect Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....
and engineer José Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz chose both alternatives. They conceived an underground block as well as a sustained structure, which would stand eight meters above the floor, with the use of four pillars connected by two huge concrete beams. Underneath those beams there lay what was considered a boldness, meaning a free space of 74 meters between the pillars and underneath the beams; the largest in the world at that time. The building inaugurated the so called protented technique reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
in Brazil.
In the construction of approximately 10,000 sq. meters there are - besides the permanent and temporary exhibition rooms – library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, photo gallery, film gallery, video gallery, two auditoriums, restaurant, a store, workshop rooms, administrative offices and a technical reserved area. The building's installations and finishing are homely, as Lina Bo herself describes: "Concrete in sight, whitewash, flagstone flooring covering the great Civic Hall, tempered glass, plastic walls. Industrial black rubber flooring covering inner spaces. The belvedere is a ‘square’, with plants and flowers around, paved with parallelepipeds, according to Iberian-Brazilian tradition. There are also water spaces, small water mirrors with aquatic plants. […] I didn’t search for beauty. I’ve searched for freedom". In 2003, the building was also registered as national patrimony by Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage.
In the museographic area, Lina Bo Bardi also innovated by using tempered
Tempering
Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming brittle martensite or bainite into a combination of ferrite and cementite or sometimes Tempered martensite...
crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
sheets leaned on concrete blocks bases as display supports for the paintings. The intention is to imitate the position of the canvas on the painter's easel. In the reverse of these supports, which are not used anymore, there were planks with information about the painter and the work. Paradoxically, the museum abandoned this model of exhibition at the same time when, at the end of the 1990s, it starts to be noticed and implemented by foreigner institutions.
Between 1996 and 2001, the actual administration of the museum undertook a vast and controversy reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....
. Notwithstanding the indispensable restoration of the general structure, the architect and former director of the institution Julio Neves determined the substitution of the original floor conceived by Lina Bo, the installation of a second elevator, the construction of a third underground floor, and the substitution of the water mirrors for gardens. Many architects allege that the reform caused a profound discharacterization of Lina's original project.
The formation of the collection
The main body of the collection was gathered between 1947 and 1960. Pietro Maria BardiPietro Maria Bardi
Pietro Maria Bardi was the curator of the São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil. He was born Italian and stirred the Brazilian artistic community with his new ideas about popularizing museums by making both modern and classical art accessible to the masses...
, formerly owner of commercial galleries in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Rome, was in charge of searching and selecting the works which should be acquired, while Chateaubriand had to look for donors and patrons who shared his dream of endowing the country with a museum of international standard. Although many spontaneous donations had been registered, Chateaubriand gained reputation for using bold methods of persuasion. Endorsed by the influence of his Diários Associados
Diários Associados
The Diários Associados, or Associated Dailies, are a union of Brazilian communication media created by Assis Chateaubriand.Diários Associados owned Rede Tupi, the first Brazilian Television Network, through its affiate, the Rede de Emissoras Associadas, from 1950 to 1980.Today the group has 50...
Press, he negotiated with announcers his gathering of funds. After that, he rewarded the donors with the title of patrons, celebrating each new acquisition with banquets, speeches and even student parades in the streets of São Paulo, as happened at the arrival of Van Gogh's The Student.
The international art market was passing through a propitious moment for those who had funds to acquire high-quality works of art
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
– there were many of them available in view of the end of the war, and Brazil enjoyed prosperity, having ceased to depend heavily on international production,as it was forced to develop its own industry during the war. The works of art were generally acquired in traditional and esteemed fine art auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
houses, such as Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, Marlborough, Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
, Knoedler, Seligman and Wildenstein.
The bold methods used by Chateaubriand to finance the formation of the collection produced many critics. Along with these, there were others related to the fact that the museum acquired works of art without the proper corroboration of authenticity
Authentication
Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...
. This impression was endorsed by the fact that the museum was at the time one of the major buyers in the international market. Unlike other institutions, whose acquisitions depended on approval of a curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
s council, the São Paulo Museum of Art usually acquired its pieces quickly, sometimes by telegram. Thanks to this agility the museum was able to gather important masterpieces, even when facing private collectors or institutions of major renown and bigger financial resources.
At the end of the 1960s, Chateaubriand's press
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
was facing troubles, with growing debts and Roberto Marinho
Roberto Marinho
Roberto Pisani Marinho was the president and founder of the biggest Brazilian TV channel, Globo, a television network with 113 stations and associates...
's media companies competition. The financial difficulties of Diários Associados
Diários Associados
The Diários Associados, or Associated Dailies, are a union of Brazilian communication media created by Assis Chateaubriand.Diários Associados owned Rede Tupi, the first Brazilian Television Network, through its affiate, the Rede de Emissoras Associadas, from 1950 to 1980.Today the group has 50...
caused the downfall of the museum's financial resources. Thus, after 13 years of great acquisitions, the museum increased its collection only by spontaneous donations of artists, companies and private collectors.
Overview of the collection
The São Paulo Museum of Art collection is considered the largest and more comprehensive collection of Western art in Latin America and all Southern Hemisphere. Among the 8,000 works of the museum, the collection of European paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, and decorative arts stands out. The FrenchFrench art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...
and Italian schools are more broadly represented, forming the main body of the collection, followed by Spanish
Spanish art
Spanish art is the visual art of Spain, and that of Spanish artists worldwide. Whilst an important contributor to Western art and producing many famous and influential artists Spanish art has often had distinctive characteristics and been assessed...
, Portuguese, Flemish, Dutch
Dutch art
Dutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Renaissance art.-Golden Age:...
, English
English art
English art is the body of visual arts made in England. Following historical surveys such as Creative Art In England by William Johnstone , Nikolaus Pevsner attempted a definition in his 1956 book The Englishness of English Art, as did Sir Roy Strong in his 2000 book The Spirit of Britain: A...
and German
German art
German art has a long and distinguished tradition in the visual arts, from the earliest known work of figurative art to its current output of contemporary art....
masters. The museum also keeps a significant collection of Brazilian art
Brazilian art
Brazil was colonized by Portugal in the middle of the 16th century. In those early times, owing to the primitive state of Portuguese civilization there, not much could be done in regard to art expression. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indian peoples, most likely produced...
and Brasiliana, which witnesses the development of Brazilian art from 17th century to nowadays. Still in the context of Western art, the museum possesses important holdings of Latin
Latin American art
Latin American art is the combined artistic expressions of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, as well as Latin American living in other regions....
and North American
Visual arts of the United States
American art encompasses the history of painting and visual art in the United States. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artists primarily painted landscapes and portraits in a realistic style. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement,...
art. In a smaller scale, the museum's holdings contemplate representative objects of many periods and distinct non-Western civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s – such as African
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
and Asian art
Asian art
Asian art can refer to art amongst many cultures in Asia.-Various types of Asian art:*Afghan art*Azerbaijanian art*Balinese art*Bhutanese art*Buddhist art*Burmese contemporary art*Chinese art*Eastern art*Indian art*Iranian art*Islamic art...
s – and others which stand out for their archaeological, historic and artistic relevance, like the select collections of Egyptian
Art of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic...
, Etruscan
Etruscan art
Etruscan art was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking .-History:The origins of...
, Greek
Art in Ancient Greece
The arts of ancient Greece have exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries all over the world, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models...
and Roman
Roman art
Roman art has the visual arts made in Ancient Rome, and in the territories of the Roman Empire. Major forms of Roman art are architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work...
antiquities, besides other artifacts of Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian art
Pre-Columbian art is the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas until the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and the time period marked by Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas....
cultures and medieval European art
Medieval art
The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa...
.
Highlights
- Italian School: RaphaelRaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
, Botticelli, MantegnaAndrea MantegnaAndrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...
, Giovanni BelliniGiovanni BelliniGiovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it...
, TitianTitianTiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
, TintorettoTintorettoTintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...
, Perugino, Piero di CosimoPiero di CosimoPiero di Cosimo , also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian Renaissance painter.-Biography:The son of a goldsmith, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in...
, Guido ReniGuido ReniGuido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
, Guercino. - French School: François ClouetFrançois ClouetFrançois Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....
, PoussinPoussinPoussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...
, Nattier, DelacroixEugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, CourbetGustave CourbetJean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
, ManetÉdouard ManetÉdouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
, Monet, RenoirRenoir-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
, DegasEdgar DegasEdgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec. - Flemish, Dutch and German Schools: Hieronymus Bosch, MemlingHans MemlingHans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
, CranachLucas Cranach the ElderLucas Cranach the Elder , was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving...
, Quentin MatsysQuentin MatsysQuentin Matsys was a painter in the Flemish tradition and a founder of the Antwerp school. He was born at Leuven, where legend states he was trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter...
, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Frans HalsFrans HalsFrans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
, Anthony van DyckAnthony van DyckSir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
, Jan van DornickeJan van DornickeJan van Dornicke was a South Netherlandish painter who was born about 1470 and died about 1527. His first name is sometimes spelled “Janssone”, and his last name is sometimes spelled “van Doornik” or “van Dornick”. He was active in Antwerp from about 1509 to about 1525. His paintings are...
. - English School: ReynoldsJoshua ReynoldsSir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, RomneyGeorge Romney (painter)George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson....
, ConstableJohn ConstableJohn Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
, GainsboroughThomas GainsboroughThomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, TurnerJ. M. W. TurnerJoseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
. - Modern and Contemporary Art: Picasso, LegerFernand LégerJoseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, ModiglianiAmedeo ModiglianiAmedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, Matisse, Chagall, Max ErnstMax ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
, Salvador DalíSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Joan MiróJoan MiróJoan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Jim DineJim DineJim Dine is an American pop artist. He is sometimes considered to be a part of the Neo-Dada movement. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended Walnut Hills High School, the University of Cincinnati, and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He first earned respect in the art world with...
. - Brazilian Art: Frans PostFrans PostFrans Janszoon Post was a Dutch painter. He was the first European artist to paint landscapes of America. In 1636 he traveled to Dutch Brazil at the invitation of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen.- Biography :...
, Nicolas Antoine Taunay, Tarsila do AmaralTarsila do AmaralTarsila do Amaral, , known simply as Tarsila, is considered to be one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, described as "the Brazilian painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style." She was a member of the Grupo dos Cinco , which...
, Candido PortinariCândido PortinariCandido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
, Di Cavalcanti, Anita MalfattiAnita MalfattiAnita Catarina Malfatti is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil...
, Lasar SegallLasar SegallThe artist Lasar Segall was a Brazilian Jewish painter, engraver and sculptor born in Lithuania. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism...
. - Latin and North American Art: Torres Garcia, Diego RiveraDiego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
, SiqueirosSiqueirosSiqueiros is a Spanish surname and might refer to:People* Alejandro Siqueiros , Mexican freestyle swimmer* David Alfaro Siqueiros , Mexican painter...
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The museum also has some small collections of photographs, costumes and textiles, kitsch objects, etc.
First attempt
On October 29, 2007, two men overpowered security officers and tried to reach the second floor of the museum, where the desired paintings were located. Both men ran away without taking anything.Second attempt
On December 20, 2007, around 5:00 in the morning, three men invaded the museum and took two paintings, considered to be among the most valuable of the museum: O lavrador de café, by Cândido PortinariCândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
, and the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
Portrait of Suzanne Bloch is a painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, executed in Paris in 1904, towards the end of his blue period...
by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. The whole action took about three minutes.
The estimated value of the paintings is around R$120 million reais (approximately 70 million dollars). The museum collection is uninsured and, at the time of the robbery, it had no movement sensors among the galleries. Security cameras could only produce unclear images of the raid because they lacked infrared capability.
The pictures were recovered by the police of São Paulo
Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo
The Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo is a law enforcement agency of the military kind in the state of São Paulo, Brazil...
on January 8, 2008, in the city of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, in the Greater São Paulo
Greater São Paulo
The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...
. The names of the two suspects have been withheld. After the incident, the director of the MASP promised to improve the security of the museum.
See also
- Pinacoteca do Estado de São PauloPinacoteca do Estado de São PauloThe Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...
- Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural FoundationEma Gordon Klabin Cultural FoundationThe Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation is an art museum located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Officially established in 1978, it is a not-for-profit private institution, legally declared as an organization of federal public interest...
- Eva Klabin FoundationEva Klabin FoundationThe Eva Klabin Foundation is an art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a private institution established in 1990 by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Eva Klabin , with the purpose of preserving and displaying the art collection gathered together during her life...
- Museu Nacional de Belas ArtesMuseu Nacional de Belas ArtesThe Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938, by president Getúlio Vargas...