The Pinacoteca is the state of São Paulo's collection of Brazilian art, the best deep collection of Brazilian painting and sculpture anywhere. The building is a 1900 brick exhibition hall that was reworked in the 1990s by Paulo Mendes da Rocha — the original walls left exposed, glass and steel inserted in the courtyards. The architecture won the Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin American Architecture.
The collection runs from 19th-century academic painters through the Modernists — Tarsila do Amaral, Lasar Segall, Anita Malfatti, Candido Portinari — and into contemporary Brazilian art. The annex building Pina Estação, in the adjacent former police headquarters, holds rotating exhibitions and includes the Memorial da Resistência about the Brazilian military dictatorship. Combine the visit with the Estação da Luz next door.