MASP

Lina Bo Bardi received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza. She moved to Milan and worked as an editor for Domus, an important magazine on architecture and design. In 1946, she married critic and art dealer Pietro Maria Bardi (1900–1999), with whom she moved to Brazil that same year. Beginning in the following year, when journalist and businessman Assis Chateaubriand (1892–1967) tasked her husband with the founding of MASP, she collaborated widely in the effort. Bo Bardi designed the installations for the museum at its former location on 7 de Abril Street, and also participated in its projects as curator, architect, designer and editor. From 1959 to 1964, Bo Bardi lived in Salvador, where she served as director of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, also working on the design and project for the renovation of that museum. In 1957, she began designing the new headquarters for MASP on Avenida Paulista, which opened in 1968. Bo Bardi was interested in raw, no-frills architecture. Hence the use of concrete, glass and industrial rubber flooring, and unconcealed installations such as the air-conditioning system in plain sight. In her design for Estudo preliminar — Esculturas praticáveis do belvedere Museu Arte Trianon (1968), Bo Bardi presents her ideas for the use of the plaza under MASP’s clear span, conceived as a public square for free use by the population, creating an interface between the museum and the city.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015

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