Day 62 - São Paulo (Part 2)

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Then I came to the Museo de Arte São Paulo, popularly known as MASP (pronounced mas-pee by the locals, don't ask me why). Here I had to decide whether to go into the museum or not. I am not very big on museums when I travel, mainly because it takes up so much time and there are so many other things to see, and art is not one of my pet peeves. But when I researched São Paulo, all the travel sites recommended going to MASP. So in the end I decided to go, and it turned out that today the entrance was free (usually it is 15 reals). 

Here I saw works of art by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Picasso, among others. The theme was how art started out with everything painted in minute details, so for eg a portrait of a person would include the accessories he or she was wearing like a pocket watch (including the time!), necklaces, etc, and then through time details became less and less, and now, we have modern art which has almost no details. It was quite enjoyable, except that I had no idea how to appreciate some of the art work there, especially from the modern era. And I had no idea what is an impressionist and an expressionist painting. But I'm glad I went in the end.

Almost directly across the avenue from MASP is one of Sao Paolo's smallest but nevertheless delightful parks, the Parque Trianon. I strolled along the winding paths in the park for some time and then continued on along Avenida Paulista.

The last place I visited was a place called Conjunto Nacional, it is a place with theaters, cinemas, restaurants, stores and boutiques. And then I was done with Avenida Paulista.

I took a cab to Estadio do Pacaembu or the Pacaembu Stadium, and went to the Museu do Futebol. Here there were all things football in Brazil. There was even a mini-football field to test how fast you can kick. Of course I didn't try this, why unnecessarily embarrass myself? I know Philip would have stayed here forever so I took as many pictures as I could for him. But what interested me was the history. Football was first introduced in Brazil by an English man named Charles Miller in the early 20th century, and at first it was only played by the white elites because it was around that time that slavery was abolished, and there were still class distinctions. At that time, the blacks, mulattos and mestizos were shunned, but they played football nevertheless on their own, and it turned out that they had great skill and mastery that they just had to be accepted into the football society.