MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo

The exhibition has some great art pieces by well-known artists such as Monet, Picasso, Bacon, and more... it's hard to differentiate if these are all originals since a Picasso piece was stolen years ago, so some might be copies. If you are a fan of art in any form, this is one of the best art museums in the world. No words can adequately describe what your eyes, mind and heart see. Challenge and stimulate your mental and perceptual subjectivity. FYI : Tuesdays are freee

I believe it is the most important museum in South America. You can enjoy masterpieces from universally acclaimed artists like Van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt and Picasso as well as the most important Brazilian artists like Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral and Di Cavalcanti. I vê been at this museum when in high school and it was great to be back.

Wonderful museum. It's a little smaller than I thought, but I really did get to see a ton of art. I went on a day when it was free - Women's Day so that was a nice plus with no line at that!

If you have any type of beverage or food with you, they make you check it in downstairs on the street level before you can even go upstairs using the elevator (there are also stairs you can use).

There is a tiny cafe on the first floor that has coffee and small snacks. While I enjoyed the first floor of art, my favorite exhibit was the one upstairs on the second floor. I was very pleased with my visit to MASP :]

There aren't too many places to sit down once there, but there are a few! Had no problems finding a place to rest and the rooms / floors weren't super packed which was great! I never felt rushed or like I was in the way of anyone else.

This museum is one of my favorite places in the world. It is the symbol of São Paulo in Avenida Paulista. Tuesday is free, but better you take tickets online. You will see classical and Brazilian important artists of Modern art.

My buddy and I stopped by MASP, Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo on their free entrance day. Despite entrance being free, their system to get inside is pretty burdensome. We had to wait long enough in line that we were starting to question whether or not entrance would be free.

I have been to many museums of fine art in my day and MASP is structured in a way that is different than anywhere I've ever been. Rather than the paintings being on the walls across many rooms, all of the art is in a large room on self-standing displays. The painting is on one side of the display and the name of the work and the artist are on the other side. It's a bizarre set-up and requires you to walk behind the painting if you want to find out the title of the work and the artist. Logistically, there are some things left to be desired across the board.

The collection of art is not extensive but includes some indigenous Brazilian art along with fine art by artists including Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, Degas, El Greco, Manet, Monet, and more. If you're not taking part in the self-guided audio tour, you can get through it in less than an hour.

Excellent collection of works from Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Rafael, Rubens, Manet, Borges, Cequeira, Cantuaria and more. Takes only 45-60 minutes to appreciate the art on, at the time of my visit, 2 floors. Only cost R$ 50 and was well worth it.

I love that MASP offers a free entrance day! Be prepared to get there early if you intend to take advantage of it. This is a nice art museum, however, I wish it featured MORE Brazilian art, specifically from Black, Indigenous, and femme artists. There was some, but not enough for my taste. I NEED MOAR.

Stopped by here on a Sunday afternoon. (when Avenida Paulista is closed to car traffic) and waited in a line to get a ticket. I think a ticket is about $9-$10 USD. Then you go through bag check and you're in! (If you're here on a Sunday there's a sort of a swap meet where a lot of people are selling a bunch of stuff in the area that's next to the tickets area).

After making my way to the second floor (and getting a grand view of Avenida Paulista), went into one of the exhibits, the Afro-Atlantic Histories section. There's a small section of art here (they said 450 pieces of art) and it felt kinda...underwhelming, with not much really standing out. Went through this section actually pretty quickly. They also have a second part of this in the lower basement.. more on that later.

Then I went up to the floor above and it was a huge art gallery. It's just paintings or exhibits formed in a singular line, weaving for the entire length of the room. This is the area that you're here for. Feel free to take flash-less photos. The thing that irked me the most... if you want to read about who painted it or the story behind it, it's behind the painting. So you kinda have to weave like a caterpillar back and forth zigzag (or i guess in endless circles haha) to look at the art and read about it. (Descriptions are in both Porteguese and English). The interesting one for me was the one in the far back left corner of the room with the glass + the bullet piece. And then some.

After going through there, intuition came my way. That's it? I thought.. no way. Looking at the map didn't help all too much. Turns out where you enter, there's a staircase behind for bag check, which has 2 sections + a gift shop where you can look through. This was the second section of the Afro-Atlantic Histories. They also have a small cafe and a kids area here as well.

Bit underwhelmed when going through MASP, probably wouldn't be back. It does stand out though...

Stunting, absolutely stunting. MASP is free on Tuesday and Thursday so it heighten my experience plus they held an outdoor concert that day as well.

The art is beautiful! It was a bit collective, no real theme but to of great artist and pieces. Definitely worth going to if you're in Sao Paulo. Remember no flash photography in there!

Underwhelmed much?

First there was this: Despite charging full price for admission (R$25, about $6US) a good portion of the museum collection wasn't on view. I was forewarned but assumed there would still be something worth viewing.

Then this: The first exhibit was photos, black and white, by non-professional photographers. The exhibit was presented in very dim lighting rendering all of it in boring shades of grey which were difficult to see.

The other exhibit was this: Clothing designed from textiles made by a French chemical manufacturing firm (at least I think that's what it was). Having recently attended a traveling MET fashion exhibit at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum this paled in comparison. The clothing designs and fabric were fun to look at, no more, no less.

Not fun to look at: Two rooms of work by one artist. One room was all variations on drawings of mazes as viewed from overhead (my interpretation). In the other room each image included drawings of couples fuc*ing. My son and I had a good chuckle about that - um - "art".

That's all there was to see.

On the plus side, there seemed to be a place to purchase food and drink on every floor, something I did once, if only to try to make my MASP experience last a bit longer.

Until the regular collection returns I'd not recommend a visit to MASP even at the most reasonable admission price. Even when the regular collection returns I'm not certain a visit is worth your time. Judging from what I saw, it's not but perhaps the regular collection is amazing. I certainly hope so.

Bottom line: If you have time for only one museum opt for the Museu Afro Brasil in Ibirapuera Park.