In 1905, the Pinacoteca de São Paulo was created after the transfer of 20 works from the Museu Paulista at USP and the acquisition of six paintings by artists from São Paulo, such as Almeida Júnior and Pedro Alexandrino. It was the city's first museum dedicated exclusively to the arts. Today, 120 years later, with approximately 12 works in its collection, in a wide variety of languages and media, from a variety of regional and even foreign sources, the Pinacoteca is increasingly diverse and connected to contemporary debates.
There are many people responsible for the transformations and expansions that the museum has undergone over the decades, including directors, employees, governments and, of course, the artists themselves. However, the current management, led by Jochen Volz, has given special attention to the construction of a new identity for the Pinacoteca. A face that is less São Paulo-based, less academic and more attentive to the many voices that have been silenced throughout history, whether from black, indigenous, peripheral or LGBTQIA+ artists.
“Approximately 60% of the public who come here are visiting a museum for the first time in their lives,” says Volz. “It becomes clear that our obligation is to reflect on historical debts, to reflect on the representation and visibility of artists who have been invisible for centuries.”
Occupying three buildings (Pina Luz, Pina Estação and Pina Contemporânea, the latter opened two years ago), in addition to being responsible for the administration of the Memorial da Resistência, the institution of the government of the State of São Paulo is one of the museums with the largest audience in the country, exceeding 800 thousand visitors per year in 2023 and 2024.
With a budget of R$66 million (2024), the Pinacoteca celebrates its twelve decades of existence with 18 exhibitions held throughout 2025, with emphasis on collective exhibitions “Pop Brasil” (opening on May 31) and “Trabalho de Carnaval” (in November), which focus both on pop production from the 1960s and 1970s and the popular cultural wealth in our country.
In interview with arte!brasileiros, Volz talks about his eight years as general director of the Pinacoteca, about plans to make the museum increasingly open to the city and about the importance of culture for the transformation of society. Read below.
arte!brasileiros – Before we talk about the Pinacoteca’s 120th anniversary, I would like to focus a little on your tenure as the institution’s general director. The fact that you are completing eight years as head of the Pinacoteca seems to show that your work has yielded results and has received positive reviews. What do you attribute this to?
I think one important thing was that when I arrived, there was already a very good structure, very well-structured teams. And this is especially the result of a process that has been going on since 2005, when the management work began via a Social Organization – in the case of the Pinacoteca, it was the Friends Association that qualified as a Culture OS – which allowed for a more free and flexible administration of this facility that belongs to the State government. This is now the management model for almost all cultural facilities in the State of São Paulo. It favors a process of professionalization of the institution, since it allows us to create longer-lasting working relationships. You are not so directly linked to the direct management of the Department of Culture. Obviously, the Department sets the guidelines, indicates what the missions are, but you are able to create very professional teams of your own – from education, curation, conservation and restoration to finance and infrastructure, for example. It was a privilege for me to take over the management of the Pinacoteca at a time when everyone was already on very clear paths.
One of the first projects we did, in 2017 and 2018, was a review of the museum plan, which is a kind of master plan for the Pinacoteca. This was very important because it is a collective effort, in which you call all the teams together and try to organize the priorities for the coming years, to reflect on the mission, vision, values, lines of action, and so on. To make it clear what the Pinacoteca wants to be and what it doesn't need to be. And this collective process also helps to build an identification of all the collaborators with the institution. At this moment, therefore – and this is in tune with the context in which the Board invited me to take over as director – we understand more clearly that we want to be a museum of Brazilian art in dialogue with the cultures of the world. Today, this has become our mission: we are a museum of Brazilian art, focused on production from the 19th century to the present day, in dialogue with the cultures of the world, promoting these encounters, in addition to having a major museum education project.
And if we want to be a museum of Brazilian art, we can no longer be just a museum of São Paulo and São Paulo. This means expanding our programmatic scope and collection, looking beyond the Southeast, beyond São Paulo, and also looking beyond a more academic background. Especially because in many regions of Brazil, becoming an artist, in general, does not come from an academic background. It is that person who starts by copying their father or mother, or copying their neighbor, or taking part in a school in the neighborhood… An enormous production that in the past, quite problematically, we called popular art.
arte!brasileiros – Naive art, vernacular art…
Yes, something that is unsustainable. From this moment of reviewing the museum plan, it also became clear that we need to look at all the stories of Brazilian art that have not been told until now and bring them into the Pinacoteca. The production of women artists, black artists, indigenous artists, artists from the outskirts, artists from other regions, and so on.
There is still a lot to do, such as reducing gaps in the collection, which is something we have already started, but it is a long task; working more on the interface with other artistic languages; and learning and studying more about other regions of Brazil that we may not have reached yet.
arte!brasileiros – The long-term exhibition of the collection, completely reformulated and opened in 2020, is also a significant milestone in this entire process…
Yes. Because, in a way, the Pinacoteca has always had this São Paulo scent, with a hint of the 19th century. So I think that when we reformatted the entire collection and abandoned the idea of a chronological history, organizing it more thematically in an exhibition where the production of the late 19th century and contemporary art are mixed and put into dialogue, I think that this changed the image of a São Paulo museum that brings a bit of the past of the São Paulo elite. Anyway, of course this past exists, but I think the perception has changed, just as the public has changed radically over the last few years.
arte!brasileiros – During these eight years of management, you were in charge of the Pinacoteca throughout the pandemic, during one of the most difficult periods for any cultural institution in Brazilian history. In addition to the initiatives that were carried out, which we followed at the time, I wanted to know: did everything go back to the way it was before? Or were there lessons learned and transformations that are here to stay?
In a very pragmatic way, the pandemic arrived at a time when we were designing the Pina Contemporânea project, which was the institution’s major expansion. It had been a desire since 2005, but it had been worked on systematically since my arrival, with the transfer of that space to the Pinacoteca in 2018. In 2020, during the pandemic, we had already started the executive project for the new building. And at that time, both within the museum team and with the architects, we came to the conclusion that the post-pandemic museum could not be the same as the one planned before the pandemic. So the project was almost entirely shelved and transformed into another project, which is what was built. Some elements about how to use the existing buildings remained – such as the technical reserve – but instead of creating many new galleries to display the collection, we created a large open square.
arte!brasileiros – Has it become a more airy museum?
Yes. In the original project, there was already a street passing through the building, somewhat similar to the main street of Sesc Pompeia, but the idea of it being even more airy, more open, with outdoor seating areas, all of this is a reflection of the pandemic. So today we have a museum that seeks to promote experiences with art and culture for the public in a more direct way. Nowadays, when we have an event at Pina Contemporânea square, with music for example, people come and don't even realize they are entering the museum. They pass through the park (Jardim da Luz), suddenly they are at Pina square, and then they are in the middle of the event, they come across a work by Tunga, there is an educational or cultural program, a library open to go in and borrow a book, read a magazine... and they can also visit the exhibition galleries. So it is not a museum with a lot of barriers, large staircases, controls, etc.
arte!brasileiros – The idea of a museum without turnstiles, so to speak…
Exactly. Because I think the pandemic was a moment when we all realized how important it is to have these open spaces and outdoor socializing, which are rare in São Paulo.
In addition, the pandemic has brought other debates to the fore. Debates about the role of culture in society, the role of art in society, and the role of issues of representation. In other words, when it comes to thinking about who speaks and who listens, who has the power to speak and who is being heard, this has changed radically during the pandemic. It is not a question of the Pinacoteca, but of culture itself – which is urgent and the pandemic has reinforced this. The pandemic or, perhaps, the political administration from 2019 to 2022 [Jair Bolsonaro government] was a time of great attack on culture that had as a reaction a great strengthening of culture. And, here for us, it is important to emphasize that there was a very large investment by the government of the State of São Paulo, which did not follow the federal government's line of cutting all funding for the area.
arte!brasileiros – Speaking of politics, I remembered a statement you made that the place of art, in this world in crisis, is also the place to think about other ways of living in community, more democratic, and to conceive of other possible worlds. Recently, the director of the Afro Museum, Hélio Meneses, speaking about the historical debt that the country has with minority populations, said: “I believe that this debt, which is social, economic and also cultural, will not be resolved solely through the field of art and culture, although it is fundamental for the development of new visions. We must demand greater responsiveness, responsibility, equity and justice from the socioeconomic machinery, and not ask the field of arts to resolve what it cannot resolve”. It doesn’t seem to me that your views are conflicting, but I still wanted to ask you how you see this issue of the transformative role of culture in society today.
Look, I agree 100% with Hélio, it is unquestionable. I think my point, in the statements you mentioned, is not to underestimate the role of culture within society. Because if there is a field that acts between the private and public spheres, it is probably culture. And if we want a debate to be brought into homes, schools and public administration, culture has an important role. You can't bet that it will solve society's problems, because it won't, but it shapes opinions, it has a fundamental educational role. For example, a subject like structural racism, if you don't learn about it at school, at work, or in the press – and nowadays it is difficult to know which sources of information are used and whether they are reliable –, it will probably be cultural places that can spread this issue. And I'm talking about something much broader than museums. The debate that an audiovisual series raises, the debate in literature books, in the theater, in short, in various languages.
And then, going back a little to the Pinacoteca, we have this study that shows that approximately 60% of the public that comes here is visiting a museum for the first time in their lives, because they have never had access to one. It is clear that our obligation is, yes, to reflect on historical debts, to reflect on the representation and visibility of artists who have been silenced and made invisible over decades, centuries. In conclusion, I agree 100% with Hélio's speech, but I think it is important to consider that the field in which we operate is very influential. I mean, we are not talking about opposite things.
arte!brasileiros – In this sense, during his administration there was a growing focus on art produced by minority and marginalized groups. Since “Véxoa”, in 2020, which was a milestone in showcasing contemporary indigenous production, including “Enciclopédia Negra”, “Mulheres Radicals”, among others. Is this a major focus of your management? And how can this not be something merely protocolary – a response to what is expected – at a time when even the market is focused on these issues?
Look, one way of acting that I think is important is to first do and then talk. Talk less, listen more and think of more ways to integrate this into the program in a profound way. And when we started to reflect on the reformatting of the collection, in a seminar in 2018, we invited several speakers, among them Naine Terena – who later became the curator of “Véxoa”. And she asked a question that provoked a great deal of reflection within the institution, which was: “You, Pinacoteca, as an institution from São Paulo and predominantly white in your collection and management, what place do you want to give to indigenous artists?” She didn’t come up with simple answers, but asked us: “Do you want to do a sticker album exhibition or are you open to really opening up spaces, rethinking ways of acting as an institution?” It is no coincidence that “Véxoa” is such an important exhibition, which was not only one of the first shows of contemporary production by indigenous artists, but was also curated by an indigenous researcher.
arte!brasileiros – And that’s why it’s important to think about who you invite, who you listen to, who you bring to the team…
Yes, think about how you build. You see, when Naine asked us the question, in 2018, the Pinacoteca did not have any works by contemporary indigenous artists in its collection. And today, after six years, there are about 40 artists present. So we really need to rethink the ways of creating a collection: think about what is important, what is our responsibility. And this is not something to do once and then move on to other topics, but it must become a continuous line of action, an ongoing commitment.
arte!brasileiros – It’s not about making an exhibition, “checking it out” and thinking it’s good enough…
It can't be that, otherwise it's just that protocol thing. Anyway, and since you mentioned the art market, it's interesting to think that possibly the city's private collections also changed after “Véxoa”, after “Enciclopédia Negra” and after “Histórias Afro-Atlânticas” [MASP], among others. Because these are moments in which institutions introduce debates that change everything.
arte!brasileiros – We’ve already talked about Pina Contemporânea, a space that is more open to the city, but I’d like to delve deeper into the issue of the complex region of the city where the Pinacoteca is located. An area that is so culturally rich, with important facilities, but also very degraded, with problems of violence, inequality, with the issue of Cracolândia, etc. How does the Pinacoteca work to engage with this region, with the real city, without becoming a bunker, so to speak, protected and isolated?
It's always a challenge, obviously. I think there's something very important, let's say, which is the partnerships that we build over the years. So, for example, the educational sector has a very strong presence beyond our walls. And I think there are partnerships with about 23 groups in the surrounding area. Not all of them at the same time, but over the last few years, there's a large network of collaborators, some more distant, others closer, but who help create bonds that go beyond the museum itself. They create emotional bonds with homeless people, with workers here at Jardim da Luz, with women in the park. Another thing is the relationship with other institutions in the region, such as the Museu da Língua Portuguesa, Teatro de Contêiner, Casa do Povo, Museu de Arte Sacra, etc. So, these collaborations, the understanding that we are not an island, but, in fact, we are one hub very strong in cultural institutions, it also helps to think about circuits and possibilities for partnerships.
And, of course, the more lively the city center becomes, the safer it becomes. So, choosing a museum without walls, like Pina Contemporânea, with its three entrances, is part of that. And in the last two years, we realized that the experience in that space, offering an experience for those who are homeless, or museum visitors, or passengers, or someone who just wants to take a shortcut to get to Luz faster, these are ways of promoting coexistence. In a similar sense, in 2017, even before the new building, we renovated the entrance to Pina Estação, opening more doors. It's never easy, but we know that fewer walls, more coexistence, also generates more security.
arte!brasileiros – Speaking of dialogue with the city and the public, the Pinacoteca has seen a significant increase in visitor numbers from before the pandemic [538 people in 2019] to after [880 in 2023]. This has to do with the opening of Pina Contemporânea, of course, but not only. Can you explain?
Yes, there has been an increase, and this is not only at the Pinacoteca, but at several facilities. This perception that pre-pandemic and post-pandemic visitation has increased means that people were in need of something, of experiences, of public spaces, of contact with culture, of contact with imagination. But, of course, this also brings great responsibility, because it is a very expressive audience. It generates expectations, desires, the challenge of thinking about how we can increasingly be a museum for everyone. And, of course, there is still a huge potential of millions of people who pass by here every day – at Estação da Luz, for example – but do not enter. So, I think that the great challenge for the Pinacoteca and for all museums is to create languages and bonds with an audience that perhaps today thinks that the museum is not for them. Because I firmly believe that the museum is not a place where you need knowledge to be able to enter. Everyone is welcome. But there are social, historical, structural barriers...
For us, for example, the free Saturday, which has been around for a long time, is essential. It is extremely important to offer free admission to the general public on this specific day, because no one will, for example, leave Cidade Tiradentes on a Tuesday to visit the museum just because it is free. But on Saturday, you can perhaps combine it with an appointment downtown, or with a desire to visit another part of the city, and, in this way, you can take advantage and visit the museum. And this does indeed happen. If a normal day has between one thousand and three thousand visitors per day, on a Saturday there are between five and ten thousand. And, in all, about 78% of the Pinacoteca's visitors take advantage of some free admission program, whether it is on Saturdays, for schools, teachers, taxi drivers, police officers... in short, all the free admission programs that we have. It is very significant.
arte!brasileiros – Well, we have now reached the 120th anniversary of the Pinacoteca. There is so much history, it doesn’t make sense to go over it all. But there was something you said that caught my attention, in which you said that, although we often associate the Pinacoteca with the past, it has always been somewhat contemporary to its time, because it is linked to the production of artists of its time. That when it was created, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century, It served to teach young artists and acquired works that were current for the time. Can you talk about that?
I think it has many milestones throughout its history. When it was founded in 1905, it was created as a Pinacoteca, next to a library, inside a school, basically – the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios. But, in 1911, there was a decree that separated the Pinacoteca from the Liceu and founded an independent museum, directly linked to public management. This is interesting because, at that time, it was already defined that the institution had an educational and pedagogical mission.
And why do I always say that since its foundation it has been more or less a museum of contemporary art? Because the most significant acquisitions from the first decades were of works made during that period. In other words, there were two ways in which works entered the collection at the time. One was through the scholarship program. Artists received scholarships to study abroad and upon returning, they would leave their works behind. At the same time, there were times when the state government itself acquired works from artists. The famous “São Paulo,” by Tarsila do Amaral, from 1924, was acquired in 1929. “Mestiço,” by Portinari, is from 1934 and was acquired in 1935. So, they were purchased almost from within the studio, at a time when these artists were still, let’s say, the “new production.” And from then on, this continued. Of course, there were times when they had a more avant-garde outlook than others, but I understand that the Pinacoteca always collected works from its period. Even Almeida Júnior (1850-1899) had just passed away when the Pinacoteca was created; he was not yet “historical”. This was the latest work by someone who was perhaps one of the most expressive artists of the late 19th century in the country.
Then there was a very important moment of society's participation. Back in the 1930s, the Artistic Orientation Council was created, where intellectuals, artists and critics participated to ensure the quality and well-being of the collection. This council still exists today, currently under the presidency of artist Cinthia Marcelle. In the 1970s, for example, under Aracy Amaral's management, education once again became a very valuable and important area. At the time, museum education was still different from what we understand today; it was more about workshops and spaces for experimentation, but this was a very important moment in understanding that the museum is more than just a collection of works. It is a program, an activity and a view of society.
In the 1990s, under Emanoel Araújo's management, it was a bit of a moment of internationalization, when he brought Auguste Rodin, Niki de Saint Phalle and several other international artists. He clearly understood that, yes, it is a collection of Brazilian art, but that it is important to look at national production in light of or in dialogue with production from abroad. This later began to intensify. Another very important milestone was, in 2003, after Paulo Mendes da Rocha's renovation, the creation of the Octagon and the Octagon Project, which was a fundamental project and is now in its 77th or 78th edition. This idea of creating commissioning programs within a museum that has a collection is a phenomenon that began around 2000, with the Tate Modern (London), and here it came soon after, at the same time as the Roof Garden Commission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). So, the Pinacoteca is one of the pioneers in institutions that systematically work with commissioning to insert dialogues with contemporary productions and with the collection.
Arte!brasileiros – Well, regarding this year’s exhibitions, I think there are 18 openings. There would be a lot to talk about, but I wanted to know a little about the themes that run through most of them, something that has to do with both the popular and the Pop in Brazil, which will be, for example, in the exhibitions “Pop Brasil” and “Trabalho de Carnaval”…
I think you can understand this, perhaps, from the exhibition that is currently on display, “Caipiras: from the felling to the longing”, which starts from some The cornerstones that started the Pinacoteca collection: “O caipira picando fumo” (The country bumpkin chopping tobacco) and “Amolação interruptado” (Interrupted grinding), two paintings by Almeida Júnior that were included in the first transfer from the Museu Paulista to start the Pinacoteca, in 1905. And they are, in a way, works in which the academic artist looks at the popular person. It is the country bumpkin, the countryman, the field worker, the anonymous person, the common person… This naturalism of the time. The artistic production of this period looks at the field worker to find in him the true Brazilian. So there is already a first relationship between the popular and the erudite.
Then, thinking over the decades, there is that issue we already discussed, of how in Brazil most artists did not have access to academic training. So, looking at the popular, the so-called popular, makes a lot of sense and, in fact, the idea of separating the categories between erudite, academic and popular does not hold up. The exhibition “Tecendo a manhã” (Weaving the morning) addresses this explicitly. It speaks of an experience of modern life and mixes works by self-taught artists – or so-called popular artists – with Di Cavalcanti, Tomie Ohtake and many others who had access to training.
In the question of Pop art, it happens again. Because, for me, “Caipiras”, “Pop Brasil” and “Trabalho de Carnaval” are all part of a discussion that has many facets. In the 1960s, many artists looked at a popular aesthetic of the street. This was not only in Brazil, but in Brazil it opened up the possibility of talking about live issues in society [in a period of repression] in a somewhat hidden way. So, this pop is not pop. In other words, the so-called New Figuration looks at the figures of its time, at popular life – whether on the bus, in the bar, or the football player, etc. They are all images of society, popular images that are incorporated, and many messages are conveyed in a somewhat more subliminal way.
So, in short, we didn’t want to make a big exhibition about the 120 years of the Pinacoteca. We wanted, in a way, to cover everything from “Caipiras”, to Gabriel Massan, to the 1960s, to the most recent production… For example, the film by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca [You are seeing things] is a representation of a popular movement from Pernambuco, pop brega, tecno brega, which is a wonderful global phenomenon, with an existence somewhat separated from the world of pop music. And that interests us.
arte!brasileiros – It struck me that the vast majority of solo exhibitions this year are by women artists. Mônica Ventura, Marga Ledora, Ad Minoliti, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Beatriz González, Neide Sá, Juliana dos Santos, Olinda Tupinambá, Lucy Citti Ferreira, Renata Lucas… Was this something thought out, let’s say, as a curatorial proposal, or did it just happen that way?
If you look over the last few years, since “Radical Women” it’s a little bit like that. It’s part of a concern that is ongoing, it’s not a statement, it is not rhetoric, it is a process of how we want to think about the museum for the next 120 years. That all these narratives naturally have space, and so we have the presence of female artists, male artists, black artists, white artists, indigenous artists... all in a natural way, configuring a program. And, as I said, there is still a long way to go.
arte!brasileiros – Finally, I wanted to ask you about the Sculpture Garden, located in Jardim da Luz, which will undergo a renovation. How is this being planned?
Most of the things that are there will stay. Some will only be left for restoration and preservation, after all, many of the works have been there for 25 years, but they will return. Most of the works were installed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, during the management of Emanoel Araújo, at a great time to try to take the museum outside its walls and, basically, create a collection of sculptures that would be impossible to display inside.
But it is still a predominantly male, white, and São Paulo-based exhibition. So, the idea is to at least add a few works throughout the year that can diversify the discussion about sculptures a little. And I also understand that this is a mission for the coming years, but it is a start. Our current project is to add five sculptures, renovate some, and create another way of presenting them. Sculpture, especially large-scale outdoor sculptures, is a medium that has long been more masculine… or generally more linked to artists who have had a little more privilege. Because it is not easy to produce. Who has, for example, access to a foundry to make a bronze sculpture, or to make a large sculpture? So I see this as something we want to take care of, to have a debate about sculpture and the various artistic languages in a slightly more diverse way.
