Pinacoteca do Estado

The Pinacoteca is the city's oldest art museum and the best place to understand Brazilian art. It occupies a handsome red-brick building from the early 1900s in the Luz district, redesigned inside with walkways, skylights and an airy central atrium by the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. The collection runs from the nineteenth century to contemporary work, with an emphasis on Brazilian artists, and there are rotating exhibitions that regularly draw national attention. The museum sits beside the Jardim da Luz, a historic public garden with sculptures and shade, which makes it easy to extend the visit into the surrounding streets. Related sites run by the same institution include the Estação Pinacoteca nearby and the Memorial da Resistência, which share ticketing arrangements. If MASP gives you the world, the Pinacoteca gives you Brazil.

Take your time in the permanent galleries, which are arranged to show how Brazilian art developed from academic painting to modernism and beyond. The building itself is part of the show, with brick vaults, iron beams and bridges across the open atrium. There is a cafe and a shop, and the quiet courtyard sculpture garden is a good place to rest.

The Luz area has changed a great deal in recent years but is still a working central district, so go during the day, travel by metro or ride-hailing car and keep valuables out of sight as you would in any city centre. The Luz station and Jardim da Luz are within a few minutes on foot. Opening days, free-entry days and the ticket price can change, so check the museum's visit page before you go, and look at whether a combined ticket for its related museums is available.

Allow two hours for the Pinacoteca on its own. Because it is a few kilometres from Paulista, many visitors combine it with a morning in the historic centre, the Sé cathedral area or the Mercado Municipal, which is a short ride away. That makes a rewarding day built around old São Paulo rather than new.