Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of
modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...
. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for
Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
, a
planned city
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the
headquarters of the United Nations
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
in New York. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of
reinforced concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Both lauded and criticized for being a "sculptor of monuments", Niemeyer was hailed as a great artist and one of the greatest architects of his generation by his supporters. He said his architecture was strongly influenced by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, but in an interview, assured that this "didn't prevent
isarchitecture from going in a different direction".
[Salvaing, Matthieu (2002) ''Oscar Niemeyer''. Assouline Publishing. ] Niemeyer was most famous for his use of abstract forms and curves and wrote in his memoirs:
I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein.
Niemeyer was educated at the
Escola Nacional de Belas Artes at the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in th ...
, and after graduating, he worked at his father's
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
house and as a
draftsman
A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans f ...
for local architectural firms. In the 1930s, he interned with
Lúcio Costa
Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa (27 February 1902 – 13 June 1998) was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília.
Career
Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents. His fath ...
, with the pair collaborating on the design for the
Palácio Gustavo Capanema in Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer's first major project was a series of buildings for
Pampulha, a planned suburb north of
Belo Horizonte. His work, especially on the
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi (''Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis'', commonly known as the ''Igreja da Pampulha'') is a chapel in Pampulha region of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. It was designed by ...
, received critical acclaim and drew international attention. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Niemeyer became one of Brazil's most prolific architects, working both domestically and overseas. This included the design of the
Edifício Copan
The Edifício Copan (''Copan Building'') is a 118.44-metre (459 ft.) tall, 38-story residential building in downtown São Paulo, Brazil. It has 1,160 apartments, 70 commercial establishments and is one of the largest buildings in Brazil.
De ...
(a large residential building in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
) and a collaboration with Le Corbusier (and others) on the United Nations Headquarters, which yielded invitations to teach at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
and the
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
.
In 1956, Niemeyer was invited by Brazil's new president,
Juscelino Kubitschek
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
, to design the civic buildings for Brazil's new capital, which was to be built in the centre of the country, far from any existing cities. His designs for the
National Congress of Brazil
The National Congress of Brazil ( pt, Congresso Nacional do Brasil) is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike the state legislative assemblies and municipal chambers, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Sen ...
, the
Cathedral of Brasília, the
Palácio da Alvorada, the
Palácio do Planalto, and the
Supreme Federal Court
The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for consti ...
, all designed by 1960, were experimental and linked by common design elements. This work led to his appointment as inaugural head of architecture at the
University of Brasília
The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...
, as well as honorary membership of the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...
. Due to his largely left-wing ideology, and involvement with the
Brazilian Communist Party
The Brazilian Communist Party ( pt-BR, Partido Comunista Brasileiro), originally the Communist Party of Brazil (), is a communist party in Brazil founded on 25 March 1922 which makes the disputed claim of being the oldest political party st ...
(PCB), Niemeyer left the country after the
1964 military coup and opened an office in Paris. He returned to Brazil in 1985, and was awarded the prestigious
Pritzker Architecture Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
in 1988. A socialist and atheist from an early age, Niemeyer had spent time in both
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
during his exile, and on his return served as the PCB's president from 1992 to 1996. Niemeyer continued working at the end of the 20th and early 21st century, notably designing the
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum
The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (''Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói'' — MAC) is situated in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the city’s main landmarks. It was completed in 1996.
The MAC-Niterói was ...
(1996) and the
Oscar Niemeyer Museum (2002). Over a career of 78 years he designed approximately
600 projects. Niemeyer died in Rio de Janeiro on 5 December 2012 at the age of 104.
Biography
Early life and education
Niemeyer was born in the city of
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...
on 15 December 1907.
His great-grandfather was a Portuguese immigrant who, in turn, was the grandson of a German soldier who had settled in Portugal. Niemeyer spoke about it: "my name ought to have been Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares, or simply Oscar de Almeida Soares, but the foreign surname prevailed and I am known simply as Oscar Niemeyer".
[Botey, Joseph M. (1996) ''Oscar Niemeyer''. Gustavo Gili. ] He spent his youth as a typical young
Carioca
Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone h ...
of the time:
bohemian and relatively unconcerned with his future. In 1928, at age 21, Niemeyer left school (Santo Antonio Maria Zaccaria priory school) and married Annita Baldo,
daughter of Italian immigrants from
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of t ...
.
He pursued his passion at the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro (
Escola Nacional de Belas Artes) and graduated with a BA in architecture in 1934.
Early career
After graduating, he worked in his father's
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
house. Even though he was not financially stable, he insisted on working in the architecture studio of
Lúcio Costa
Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa (27 February 1902 – 13 June 1998) was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília.
Career
Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents. His fath ...
,
Gregori Warchavchik and Carlos Leão, even though they could not pay him. Niemeyer joined them as a draftsman, an art that he mastered (Corbusier himself would later compliment Niemeyer's 'beautiful perspectives'). The contact with Costa would be extremely important to Niemeyer's maturation. Costa, after an initial flirtation with the
Neocolonial movement, realized that the advances of the
International Style International style may refer to:
* International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture
*International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art
*International Style (dancing), a term used in ...
in Europe were the way forward for architecture. His writings on the insights that could unite Brazil's traditional colonial architecture (such as that in
Olinda
Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state capital. It has a population of 393,115 people, covers ...
) with modernist principles would be the basis of the architecture that he and his contemporaries, such as
Affonso Eduardo Reidy, would later realize.
In 1936, at 29, Lúcio Costa was appointed by Education Minister Gustavo Capanema to design the new headquarters of the
Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. Costa himself, although open to change, was unsure of how to proceed. He assembled a group of young architects (Carlos Leão, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Jorge Moreira and Ernani Vasconcellos) to design the building. He also insisted that
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
himself should be invited as a consultant. Though Niemeyer was not initially part of the team, Costa agreed to accept him after Niemeyer insisted. During the period of Le Corbusier's stay in Rio, he was appointed to help the master with his drafts, which allowed him a close contact with the Swiss. After his departure, Niemeyer's significant changes to Corbusier's scheme impressed Costa, who allowed him to progressively take charge of the project, of which he assumed leadership in 1939.
Brazilian modernism
The Ministry of Education had assumed the task of shaping the "''novo homem, Brasileiro e moderno''" (new man, Brazilian and modern). It was the first state-sponsored
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
skyscraper in the world, of a much larger scale than anything Le Corbusier had built until then. Completed in 1943,
when he was 36 years old, the building that housed the regulator and manager of Brazilian culture and cultural heritage developed the elements of what was to become recognized as Brazilian modernism. It employed local materials and techniques, like the
azulejo
''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...
s linked to the Portuguese tradition; the revolutionized Corbusian
brises-soleil
''Brise soleil'', sometimes ''brise-soleil'' (; ), is an architectural feature of a building that reduces heat gain within that building by deflecting sunlight. More recently, vertical Brise soleil have become popular. Both systems allow low-l ...
, made adjustable and related to the Moorish shading devices of colonial architecture; bold colors; the tropical gardens of
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredited ...
; the
Imperial Palm (''Roystonea oleracea''), known as the Brazilian order; further allusions to the icons of the Brazilian landscape; and specially commissioned works by Brazilian artists. This building is considered by some architects as one of the most influential of the 20th century. It was taken as a model on how to blend low- and high-rise structures (
Lever House
Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International Style by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) as ...
).
1939 New York World's Fair
In 1939, at age 32, Niemeyer and Costa designed the Brazilian pavilion for the
New York World's Fair (executed in collaboration with
Paul Lester Wiener). Neighbouring the much larger French pavilion, the Brazilian structure contrasted with its heavy mass. Costa explained that the Brazilian Pavilion adopted a language of 'grace and elegance', lightness and spatial fluidity, with an open plan, curves and free walls, which he termed 'Ionic', contrasting it to the mainstream contemporary modernist architecture, which he termed 'Doric'. Impressed by its avant-garde design, Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
awarded Niemeyer the keys to the city of New York.
In 1937, Niemeyer was invited by a relative to design a nursery for philanthropic institution which catered for young mothers, the ''Obra do Berço''. It would become his first finalised work.
[Papadaki, Stamo (2012) ''The Work of Oscar Niemeyer''. Literary Licensing, LLC. . p. 19] However, Niemeyer has said that his architecture really began in Pampulha, Minas Gerais, and as he explained in an interview, ''Pampulha was the starting point of this freer architecture full of curves which I still love even today. It was in fact, the beginning of Brasília ...''.
Pampulha Project
In 1940, at 33, Niemeyer met
Juscelino Kubitschek
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
, who was at the time the mayor of
Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literall ...
. Kubitschek, together with the state's governor Benedito Valadares, wanted to develop a new suburb to the north of the city called
Pampulha and commissioned Niemeyer to design a series of buildings which would become known as the "Pampulha architectural complex". The complex included a casino, a restaurant/dance hall, a yacht club, a golf club and a church, all of which would be distributed around a new artificial lake. A weekend retreat for the mayor was built near the lake.
The buildings were completed in 1943 and received international acclaim following the 1943 'Brazil Builds' exhibition, at the New York
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
(MoMA). Most of the buildings show Niemeyer's particular approach to the Corbusian language. In the casino, with its relatively rigid main façade, Niemeyer departed from Corbusian principles and designed curved volumes outside the confinement of a rational grid. He also expanded upon Corbusier's idea of a ''
promenade architecturale
Promenade architecturale is a concept developed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier that refers to the implied "itinerary" of a built environment. Le Corbusier coined the term in reference to his houses: Villas La Roche and Savoye. In the stud ...
'' with his designs for floating catwalk-like ramps which unfold open vistas to the occupants.
The small restaurant (Casa do Baile), which is perhaps the least ''bourgeois'' of the complex, is built on its own artificial island and comprises an approximately circular block from which a free-form marquee follows the contour of the island. Although free form had been used even in Corbusier's and Mies's architecture, its application on an outdoors marquee was Niemeyer's innovation. This application of free-form, together with the butterfly roof used at the Yacht Club and Kubitschek's house became extremely fashionable from then on.
The
Saint Francis of Assisi church is considered the masterpiece of the complex. When it was built,
reinforced concrete was used in traditional ways, such as in pillar, beam and slab structures.
Auguste Perret, in Casablanca and
Robert Maillart in Zurich had experimented with the plastic freedom of concrete, taking advantage of the
parabolic arch
A parabolic arch is an arch in the shape of a parabola.Article about parabolic arch by The Free DictionaryParabolic arch , Article about parabolic arch by The Free Dictionary accessdate: March 2, 2017 In structures, their curve represents an effi ...
's geometry to build extremely thin shells. Niemeyer's decision to use such an economical approach, based on the inherent plasticity allowed by reinforced concrete was revolutionary. According to Joaquim Cardoso, the unification of wall and roof into a single element was revolutionary for fusing vertical and horizontal elements. The church's exuberance added to the integration between architecture and art. The church is covered by Azulejos by
Portinari and tile murals by Paulo Werneck. It led to the church being seen as
baroque. Though some European purists condemned its formalism, the fact that the form's idea was directly linked to a logical, structural reason placed the building in the 20th century, while refusing to break completely from the past.
Due to its importance in the history of architecture, the church was the first listed modern building in Brazil. This fact did not influence the conservative church authorities of Minas Gerais, who refused to consecrate it until 1959, in part because of its unorthodox form and in part because of Portinari's altar
mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
, which depicts Saint Francis as the savior of the ill, the poor and, most importantly, the sinner.
Niemeyer stated that Pampulha offered him the opportunity to 'challenge the monotony of contemporary architecture, the wave of misinterpreted functionalism that hindered it and the dogmas of form and function that had emerged, counteracting the plastic freedom that reinforced concrete introduced. I was attracted by the curve – the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches.
..I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete.
..This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches and the beautiful suntanned women.'
The experience also marked the first collaborations between Niemeyer and
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredited ...
, considered the most important modern landscape architect. They would be partners in many projects in the next 10 years.
1940s and 1950s
With the success of Pampulha and the Brazil Builds exhibition, Niemeyer's achieved international recognition. His architecture further developed the ''brazilian style'' that the Saint Francis of Assissi Church and, to a lesser extent (due to its primary Corbusian language) the Ministry building, had pioneered. Works of this period shows the traditional modernist method in which form follows function, but Niemeyer's (and other Brazilian architects) handling of scale, proportion and program allowed him to resolve complex problems with simple and intelligent plans. Stamo Papadaki in his monography on Niemeyer mentioned the spatial freedom that characterized his work. The headquarters of the Banco Boavista, inaugurated in 1948 show such an approach. Dealing with a typical urban site, Niemeyer adopted creative solutions to enliven the otherwise monolithic high rise, thus challenging the predominant solidity which was the norm for bank buildings. The glazed south façade (with least insulation) reflects the 19th century
Candelária Church, showing Niemeyer's sensitivity to the surroundings and older architecture. Such austere designs to high rises within urban grids can also be seen in the Edifício Montreal (1951–1954), Edifício Triângulo (1955) and the Edifício Sede do Banco Mineiro da Produção.
In 1947, Niemeyer returned to New York City to integrate the international team working on the design for the
United Nations headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
. Niemeyer's scheme 32 was approved by the Board of Design, but he eventually gave in to pressure by Le Corbusier, and together they submitted project 23/32 (developed with Bodiansky and Weissmann), which combined elements from Niemeyer's and Le Corbusier's schemes. Despite Le Corbusier's insistence to remain involved, the design was carried forward by the Director of Planning,
Wallace Harrison and
Max Abramovitz
Max Abramovitz (May 23, 1908 – September 12, 2004) was an American architect. He was best known for his work with the New York City firm Harrison & Abramovitz.
Life
Abramovitz was the son of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents. He graduat ...
, then a partnership.
Tremaine House (unbuilt)
This stay in the United States also facilitated contact regarding the unbuilt Burton G. Tremaine house project, one of Niemeyer's boldest residential designs. Amidst gardens by
Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredited ...
, it featured an open plan in Montecito, California on the Pacific Ocean. In February–April 1949, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited ''From Le Corbusier to Niemeyer: Savoye House – Tremaine House 1949''. According to the museum, "The theme of this show is based on Henry Russell-Hitchcock's book on the
Miller (Company) Collection of abstract art, Painting toward architecture...". In 2010, Berry Bergdoll, a curator at MoMA asserted the importance of the exhibition as fusing strands of the geometric and organic soon after WWII. Hitchcock's seminal essay in the ''Painting toward architecture'' book included an illustration of Niemeyer's design, and in an associated 28-venue exhibition, Burle-Marx's ''Design for a garden'' (1948) was exhibited in several shows, as was a photo mural of Church at Pampulha.
Niemeyer produced very few designs for the United States because his affiliation to the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
usually prevented him from obtaining a visa. This happened in 1946 when he was invited to teach at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, when his political views cost him a visa. In 1953, at 46, Niemeyer was appointed dean of the
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
, but because of his political views the United States government denied his visa therefore preventing him from entering the country.
In 1950 the first book about his work to be published in the United States, ''The Work of Oscar Niemeyer'' by Stamo Papadaki was released. It was the first systematic study of his architecture, which significantly contributed to the awareness of his work abroad. It would be followed in 1956 by ''Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress'', by the same author. By this time, Niemeyer was already self-confident and following his own path internationally In 1948 Niemeyer departed from the parabolic arches he had designed in Pampulha to further explore his signature material, concrete.
Niemeyer's formal creativity has been compared to that of sculptors. In the 1950s, a time of intensive construction in Brazil produced numerous commissions. Yves Bruand
[Bruand, Yves (1997) ''Arquitetura Contemporânea no Brasil''. Editora Perspectiva. ] stressed that Niemeyer's 1948 project for a theatre next to the Ministry of Education and Health allowed him to develop his vocabulary. In 1950 he was asked to design
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
's
Ibirapuera Park
Ibirapuera Park ( pt, Parque Ibirapuera) is an urban park in São Paulo. It comprises 158 hectares between Av. República do Líbano, Av. Pedro Alvares Cabral, and Av. IV Centenário, and is the most visited park in South America, with 14.4 million ...
for the city's 400th anniversary celebration. The plan, which consisted of several porticoed pavilions related via a gigantic free form marquee, had to be simplified due to cost. The resulting buildings were less interesting individually, which meant that the ensemble effect became the dominant aesthetic experience. Niemeyer developed V-shaped pilotis for the project, which became fashionable for a time. A variation on that theme was the W-shaped piloti which supports the
Governador Juscelino Kubitschek housing complex (1951), two large buildings containing around 1,000 apartments. Its design was based on Niemeyer's scheme for the Quitandinha apartment hotel in
Petrópolis
Petrópolis (; ), also known as The Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2010 National Brazilian Census, Petr ...
designed one year earlier, but never realised. At 33 stories and over 400 meters long, it was to contain 5,700 living unites together with communal services such as shops, schools etc., his version of Corbusier's
Unité d'Habitation
{{Infobox company
, name = Moldtelecom
, logo =
, type = JSC
, foundation = 1 April 1993
, location = Chişinău, Moldova
, key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim
, num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019
, industry = Telecommunicat ...
.
A similar program was realized in the centre of
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
, the
Copan apartment building (1953–66). This landmark represents a microcosm of the diverse population of the city. Its horizontality, which is emphasized by the concrete brise-soleil, together with the fact that it was a residential building made it an interesting approach to popular housing, given that in the 1950s suburbanization had begun and city centres were being occupied primarily by business, usually occupying vertical "masculine" buildings, as opposed to Niemeyer's "feminine" approach. In 1954 Niemeyer also designed the "Niemeyer apartment building" at the
Praça da Liberdade
Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square) is a principal square in the Savassi neighborhood in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Image:Praçadaliberdade.JPG, The square.
Image:Semáforo.JPG, Street sign in the square
Image:Secretari ...
, Belo Horizonte. The building's completely free form layout is reminiscent of
Mies van der Rohe's 1922 glass skyscraper, although with a much more material feel than the airy German one. Also in 1954 as part of the same plaza Niemeyer built a library the (Biblioteca Pública Estadual).
During this period Niemeyer built several residences. Among them were a weekend house for his father, in Mendes (1949), developed from a chicken coop, the Prudente de Morais Neto house, in Rio (1943–49), based on Niemeyer's original design for Kubitschek's house in Pampulha, a house for Gustavo Capanema (1947) (the minister who commissioned the Ministry of Education and Health building), the Leonel Miranda house (1952), featuring two spiral ramps which provide access to the butterfly-roofed first floor, lifted up on oblique piloti. These houses featured the same inclined façade used in the Tremaine design, which allowed good natural lighting. In 1954 he built the famous Cavanelas house, with its tent-like metallic roof and which, with the help of Burle Marx's gardens, is perfectly adapted to its mountainous site. However, his residential (and free-form architecture) masterpiece is considered to be the 1953 Canoas House Niemeyer built for himself. The house is located on sloped terrain overlooking the ocean from afar. It comprises two floors, the first of which is under a free form roof, supported on thin metallic columns. The living quarters is located on the floor below and is more traditionally divided. The design takes advantage of the uneven terrain so that the house seems not to disturb the landscape. Although the house is extremely well-suited to its environment, it did not escape criticism. Niemeyer recalled that
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
, who was visiting the country as a jury in the second Biennial exhibition in São Paulo, argued that the house could not be mass-produced, to which Niemeyer responded that the house was designed with himself in mind and for that particular site, not a general flat one.
[Maciel, Fabiano (2010)]
''Oscar Niemeyer: A Vida é um Sopro''
/ref> For Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the house at Canoas was Niemeyer's most extreme lyrical statement, placing rhythm and dance as the antithesis of utility.
Depoimento
In 1953 modern Brazilian architecture, which had been praised since Brazil Builds, became the target of international criticism, mainly from rationalists. Niemeyer's architecture in particular was criticised by Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmit ...
in an interview for Manchete Magazine. He attacked Niemeyer's use of free-form as purely decorative (as opposed to Reidy's Pedregulho housing), his use of mural panels and the individualistic character of his architecture which "is in risk of falling in a dangerous anti-social academicism". He even belittled Niemeyer's V piloti, as purely aesthetic.
Niemeyer's first response was denial, followed by a counterattack based on Bill's patronizing attitude, which prevented him from considering the differing social and economic realities of Brazil and European countries. Costa also stressed that Brazilian (and Niemeyer's) architecture was based on unskilled work which allowed for a crafted architecture based on concrete, expressing a tradition of (Brazilian) church builders, as opposed to (Swiss) clock builders.
Although it was badly received and to an extent an exaggeration, Bill's words were effective in bringing to attention the mediocre architecture coming from less talented architects, who employed Niemeyer's vocabulary in the decorative fashion that Bill had criticised. Niemeyer himself admitted that for a certain period he had "handled too many commissions, executing them in a hurry, trusting the improvisational skills he believed to have". The Califórnia Building (Edifício Califórnia) in São Paulo is an example. Usually neglected by its creator, it features the V piloti which had worked so well in isolated buildings, creating a different treatment to that space without the need for two separate structural systems as Corbusier had done in Marseille. Its use in a typical urban context was formalistic and even compromised the building's structural logic in that it required many different sized supports.
Berlin's 1957 Interbau exhibition gave Niemeyer the chance to build an example of his architecture in Germany along with the chance to visit Europe for the first time. The contact with the monuments of the old world had a lasting impact on Niemeyer's views, which he now believed was completely dependent on its aesthetic qualities. Together with his own realisations of how Brazilian architecture had been harmed by untalented architects, this trip led Niemeyer to revise his approach, which he published as a text named ''Depoimento'' in his Módulo Magazine. He proposed a simplification, discarding multiple elements such as brises, sculptural piloti and marquees. His architecture from then on would be a pure expression of structure as a representation of solid volumes. His design method would also change, prioritizing aesthetic impact over programmatic functions, given that for him "when form creates beauty, it has in beauty itself its justification".
In 1955, at 48, Niemeyer designed the Museum of Modern Art in Caracas
The Museum of Modern Art in Caracas ( Spanish: ''Museo de Arte Moderno de Caracas'') was a proposed art museum in Caracas, Venezuela. It was designed in the form of an inverted pyramid, and proposed to be placed on a cliff in the neighborhood o ...
. The design of this museum was the material realization of his work revision. Meant to rise from the top of a cliff overlooking central Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
, the museum had an inverted pyramid shape which dominated and overpowered its surroundings. The opaque prismatic building had almost no connection to the outside through its walls, although its glass ceiling allowed natural light to enter. An electronic system was used to keep lighting conditions unchanged throughout the day using artificial light to complement it. The interior, however, was more recognizably done in Niemeyer's mode, with cat-walk ramps linking the different levels and the mezzanine made as a free-form slab hung from ceiling beams.
This aesthetic simplicity would culminate in his work in Brasília, where the qualities of the buildings are expressed by their structural elements alone.
Design of Brasília
Juscelino Kubitschek
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
visited Niemeyer at the Canoas House in September 1956, soon after he assumed the Brazilian presidency. While driving back to the city, the politician spoke to the architect about his most audacious scheme: "I am going to build a new capital for this country and I want you to help me ..Oscar, this time we are going to build the capital of Brazil."
Niemeyer organized a competition for the lay-out of Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
, the new capital, and the winner was the project of his old master and great friend, Lúcio Costa
Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa (27 February 1902 – 13 June 1998) was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília.
Career
Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents. His fath ...
. Niemeyer would design the buildings, Lucio the layout of the city.
In the space of a few months, Niemeyer designed residential, commercial and government buildings. Among them were the residence of the President (''Palácio da Alvorada''), the chamber of deputies, the National Congress of Brazil
The National Congress of Brazil ( pt, Congresso Nacional do Brasil) is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike the state legislative assemblies and municipal chambers, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Sen ...
, the Cathedral of Brasília (a hyperboloid structure
Hyperboloid structures are architectural structures designed using a hyperboloid in one sheet. Often these are tall structures, such as towers, where the hyperboloid geometry's structural strength is used to support an object high above the grou ...
), diverse ministries. Viewed from above, the city can be seen to have elements that repeat themselves in every building, achieving a formal unity.
Behind the construction of Brasília lay a monumental campaign to construct an entire city in the barren center of the country., hundreds of kilometers from any major city. The brainchild of Kubitschek, Niemeyer had as aims included stimulating industry, integrating the country's distant areas, populating inhospitable regions and bringing progress to a region where only cattle ranching then existed. Niemeyer and Costa used it to test new concepts of city planning: streets without transit, buildings floating off the ground supported by columns and allowing the space underneath to be free and integrated with nature.
The project adopted a socialist ideology: in Brasília all the apartments would be owned by the government and rented to employees. Brasília did not have "nobler" regions, meaning that top ministers and common laborers would share the same building. Many of these concepts were ignored or changed by other presidents with different visions in later years. Brasília was designed, constructed, and inaugurated within four years. After its completion, Niemeyer was named chief of the college of architecture of the University of Brasília
The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...
. In 1963, he became an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...
in the United States; the same year, he received the Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
from the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
.
Niemeyer and his contribution to the construction of Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
are portrayed in the 1964 French film '' L'homme de Rio'' (''The Man From Rio''), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
.
In 1964, at 57, after being invited by Abba Hushi, the mayor of Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...
, Israel, to plan the campus of the University of Haifa
The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming I ...
on Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ( he, הַר הַכַּרְמֶל, Har haKarmel; ar, جبل الكرمل, Jabal al-Karmil), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias ( ar, link=no, جبل مار إلياس, Jabal Mār Ilyās, lit=Mount Saint Elias/ Elijah), is a ...
, he came back to a completely different Brazil. In March President João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...
, who succeeded President Jânio Quadros
Jânio da Silva Quadros (; January 25, 1917 – February 16, 1992) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from January 31 to August 25, 1961, when he resigned from office. He also served as the 24th ...
in 1961, was deposed in a military coup. General Castelo Branco assumed command of the country, which would remain a dictatorship until 1985.
In 1987, Brasilia was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
. Niemeyer is the first person to have received such recognition for one of his works during his lifetime.
Exile and projects overseas
Niemeyer's politics cost him during the military dictatorship. His office was pillaged, the headquarters of the magazine he coordinated were destroyed and clients disappeared. In 1965, two hundred professors, Niemeyer among them, resigned from the University of Brasília
The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...
, to protest against the government's treatment of universities. In the same year he traveled to France for an exhibition in the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
The following year, Niemeyer moved to Paris. In 1962 he visited Tripoli, Lebanon
Tripoli ( ar, طرابلس/ALA-LC: ''Ṭarābulus'', Lebanese Arabic: ''Ṭrablus'') is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Gover ...
to design the International Permanent Exhibition Centre. Despite completing construction, the start of the civil war in 1975 in Lebanon disrupted its launch.
He opened an office on the Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...
and found customers in diverse countries, especially in Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, religi ...
where he designed the University of Science and Technology-Houari Boumediene. In Paris he created the Headquarters of the French Communist Party, Place du Colonel Fabien, and in Italy that of the Mondadori publishing company. In Funchal on Madeira, he designed a casino.
While in Paris, Niemeyer began designing furniture that was produced by Mobilier International. He created an easy chair and ottoman (furniture), ottoman composed of bent steel and leather in limited numbers for private clients. Later, in 1978, this chair and other designs, including the "Rio" chaise-longue were produced in Brazil by Tendo company, then Tendo Brasileira. The easy chairs and ottomans were made of bent wood and were placed in Communist party headquarters around the world. Much like his architecture, Niemeyer's furniture designs evoked the beauty of Brazil, with curves mimicking the female form and the hills of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...
.
Later life and death
The Brazilian dictatorship lasted until 1985. Under João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, João Figueiredo's rule it softened and gradually turned towards democracy. At this time Niemeyer returned to his country. During the 1980s, he made the Memorial Juscelino Kubitschek (1980), the Pantheon of Fatherland and Freedom, Tancredo Neves, Pantheon (''Panteão da Pátria e da Liberdade Tancredo Neves'', 1985) and the Latin America Memorial (1987) (described by ''The Independent'' of London to be "an incoherent and vulgar construction"). The memorial sculpture represents a wounded hand, whose wound bleeds in the shape of Central America, Central and South America. In 1988, at 81, Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...
, architecture's most prestigious award. From 1992 to 1996, Niemeyer was the president of the Brazilian Communist Party (1992), Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). As a lifelong activist, Niemeyer was a powerful public figure who could be linked to the party at a time when it appeared to be in its death throes after the USSR's demise. Although not politically active, his image helped the party survive its crisis, after the Brazilian Communist Party#Crisis and split of the PPS, 1992 split and to remain as a political force on the national scene, which eventually led to its renewal. He was replaced by Zuleide Faria de Mello in 1996. He designed at least two more buildings in Brasilia, the Memorial dos Povos Indigenas ("Memorial for the Indigenous People") and the Catedral Militar, Igreja de N.S. da Paz. In 1996, at the age of 89, he was responsible for the design of the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum
The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (''Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói'' — MAC) is situated in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the city’s main landmarks. It was completed in 1996.
The MAC-Niterói was ...
in Niterói, a city next to Rio de Janeiro. The building cantilevers out from a sheer rock face, offering a view of Guanabara Bay and the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Niemeyer maintained his studio in Rio de Janeiro into the 21st century. In 2002, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum complex was inaugurated in the city of Curitiba, Paraná. In 2003, at 96, Niemeyer was called to design the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, a gallery that each year invites a famous architect, who has never previously built in the UK, to design this temporary structure. He was still involved in diverse projects at the age of 100, mainly sculptures and adjustments of previous works. On Niemeyer's 100th birthday, Russia's president Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship.
Grateful for the ''Prince of Asturias Award of Arts'' received in 1989, he collaborated on the 25th anniversary of the award with the donation to Asturias of the design of a cultural centre. The Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre (also known in Spain as Centro Niemeyer), is located in Avilés and was inaugurated in 2011. In January 2010, the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer Ravello was officially opened in Ravello, Italy, on the Amalfi Coast. The Auditorium's concept design, drawings, model, sketches and text were made by Niemeyer in 2000 and completed under the guidance of his friend, Italian sociologist Domenico de Masi. The project was delayed for several years due to objections arising from its design, siting, and clear difference from the local architecture; since its inauguration the project has experienced problems and was closed for a year.
After reaching 100, Niemeyer was regularly hospitalized. In 2009, after a four-week hospitalization for the treatment of gallstones and an intestinal tumour, he was quoted as saying that hospitalization is a "very lonely thing; I needed to keep busy, keep in touch with friends, maintain my rhythm of life." His daughter and only child, Anna Maria Niemeyer, Anna Maria, died of emphysema in June 2012, aged 82. Niemeyer died of Cardiac arrest, cardiorespiratory arrest on December 5, 2012, at the Hospital Samaritano in Rio de Janeiro. He had been hospitalised with a respiratory infection prior to his death.
The BBC's obituary of Niemeyer stated that he "built some of the world's most striking buildings – monumental, curving concrete and glass structures which almost defy description", describing him as "one of the most innovative and daring architects of the last 60 years". ''The Washington Post'' said he was "widely regarded as the foremost Latin American architect of the last century".
File:Museu de Arte Contemporânea.jpg, The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum
The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (''Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói'' — MAC) is situated in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the city’s main landmarks. It was completed in 1996.
The MAC-Niterói was ...
, Brazil
File:Olho Neimayer Curitiba 03 2007.jpg, Oscar Niemeyer Museum (NovoMuseu), Curitiba, Brazil
File:Museu Nacional, Brasilia 05 2007.jpg, Brazilian National Museum, Brasilia, Brazilian National Museum, Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
, Brazil
File:Estação Cabo Branco 2011.JPG, Estação Cabo Branco, João Pessoa, Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil
File:CentroNiemeyer72.jpg, Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, Asturias, Spain
File:Parque da Cidade do Natal.jpg, Natal City Park Tower, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil
File:WSalcher O Niemeyer Ravello Italy o.JPG, Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium, Ravello, Italy
Personal life
Niemeyer married Annita Baldo in 1928. They had one daughter, Anna Maria, in 1929 (she predeceased her father on June 6, 2012). Niemeyer subsequently had five grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren. Annita died in 2004, at 93, after 76 years of marriage. In 2006, shortly before his 99th birthday, Niemeyer married for the second time, to his longtime secretary, Vera Lucia Cabreira at his apartment, a month after he had fractured his hip in a fall.
Oscar Niemeyer was a keen smoker of cigars, smoking more in later life. His architectural studio was a smoking zone.
Political and religious views
Niemeyer had a left-wing political ideology. In 1945, many communist militants who were arrested under the Getúlio Vargas, Vargas' dictatorship were released, and Niemeyer sheltered some of them at his office. He met Luís Carlos Prestes, perhaps the most important left-winger in Brazil. After several weeks, he gave up the house to Prestes and his supporters, who founded the Brazilian Communist Party. Niemeyer joined the party in 1945 and became its president in 1992.
During the military dictatorship of Brazil his office was raided and he was forced into exile in Europe. The Minister of Aeronautics of the time reportedly said that "the place for a communist architect is Moscow." He subsequently visited the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, meeting with a number of the country's leaders, and in 1963 was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
. Niemeyer was a close friend of Fidel Castro, who often visited his apartment and studio in Brazil. Castro was once quoted as saying "Niemeyer and I are the last communists on this planet." Niemeyer was regularly visited by Hugo Chávez.[Jonathan Glancey, Glancey, Jonathan (2007)]
'I pick up my pen. A building appears'
nbsp;– ''The Guardian''. Published August 1, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
Some critics pointed out that Niemeyer's architecture was often in opposition to his views. His first major work, the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi (''Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis'', commonly known as the ''Igreja da Pampulha'') is a chapel in Pampulha region of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. It was designed by ...
, informally known also as the Church of Pampulha, had a ''bourgeois'' character and Brasília was famous for its palaces. Niemeyer never saw architecture in the same way as Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
, who defended a rational and industrial architecture capable of molding society to make it suitable for the new industrial era. Skeptical about architecture's ability to change an "unjust society", Niemeyer defended that such activism should be undertaken politically. Using architecture for such purposes would be anti-modern (as it would be limiting constructive technology). Niemeyer says: "Our concern is political too – to change the world ... Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings."
Niemeyer was a lifelong Atheism, atheist, basing his beliefs both on the "injustices of this world" and on cosmological principles: "It's a fantastic Universe which humiliates us, and we can't make any use of it. But we are amazed by the power of the human mind … in the end, that's it—you are born, you die, that's it!". Such views never stopped him from designing religious buildings, which included small Catholic chapels, huge Orthodox churches and large mosques. He also catered to the spiritual beliefs of the public who facilitated his religious buildings. In the Cathedral of Brasília, he intended for the large glass windows "to connect the people to the sky, where their Lord's paradise is."
Criticism
Nicolai Ouroussoff, the architecture critic of ''The New York Times'', published an article asking whether Niemeyer's last work had been affected by advanced age. Ouroussoff found the "Niterói Contemporary Art Museum" to be of significantly lower quality than the architect's earlier works. He argued that "the greatest threat to Mr. Niemeyer's remarkable legacy may not be the developer's bulldozer or insensitive city planners, but Mr. Niemeyer himself." He considers iconic works at "Esplanada dos Ministérios" to "have been marred by the architect's own hand."
Legacy
Since 1984 the Rio de Janeiro carnival parade is held in the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí, Sambadrome designed by Oscar Niemeyer. In 2003 the GRES Unidos de Vila Isabel, Unidos de Vila Isabel Samba School celebrated the life of Niemeyer in their carnival parade. It was the first time that Vila Isabel paid tribute to a living historical figure. The parade's theme song
''O Arquiteto no Recanto da Princesa''
nbsp;– was composed by the Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila.
Oscar Niemeyer's projects have also been a major source of inspiration for the French painter Jacques Benoit. In 2006 Benoit presented in Paris a series of paintings entitle
''Three Traces of Oscar''
paying tribute to the legacy of Niemeyer in France. In 2010 the Brasilia Jubilee Commission chose Benoit's works for an exhibition that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the city. The exhibition
nbsp;– displayed 27 canvas divided into three series, all of them inspired by the architectural landscape of Brasilia and the history of its construction.
Shortly before Niemeyer's death in 2012, artist Sarah Morris filmed Niemeyer in his office for her 2012 film ''Rio''.
In 2013, soon after Niemeyer's death, the Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra and four other painters paid their tribute to the architect with a gigantic mural, covering the entire side of a skyscraper at Paulista Avenue in São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
's financial district. The artwork is inspired by Niemeyer's architecture, his love of concrete and Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
.
Niemeyer is featured in the film ''Urbanized'' discussing his design process and architectural philosophy.
During the homage to Oscar Niemeyer on December 15, 2012 (it would have been his 105th birthday), the citizens movement released "Sentimiento Niemeyer" at the Centro Niemeyer in Spain. The verses were written by different people through a Facebook event and put together by musicians. The song was released under a Creative Commons license (attribution, non-profit, no-variations) so that other artists who shared the ''feeling'' around the world could make their own cover of the song, keeping the melody and translating the lyrics.
In July 2015 the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MoT) organized the first major retrospective of Niemeyer in Japan, curated by Yuko Hasegawa in collaboration with Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA.
Decorations and awards
See also
* List of Oscar Niemeyer works
References
Further reading
*
*
* ''Oscar Niemeyer, un architecte engagé dans le siècle'' (dir. Marc-Henri Wajnberg, 2001, 60 minutes)
* ''A Vida É Um Sopro'' (''"Life Is a Breath Of Air"'') (dir. Fabiano Maciel, 2007)
*
External links
*
May 2006 Interview with Niemeyer, age 98, in Metropolis Magazine
Niemeyer's Brasilia Photo Gallery: Year of Brazil at Queens College, CUNY
Tribute to Oscar Niemeyer by Sancar Seckiner
Oscar Niemeyer Architecture on Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemeyer, Oscar
1907 births
2012 deaths
20th-century Brazilian architects
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Architects of cathedrals
Brazilian architects
Brazilian atheists
Brazilian centenarians
Brazilian communists
Brazilian Marxists
Brazilian people of German descent
Brazilian people of Portuguese descent
Brazilian socialists
Commanders of the Order of Prince Henry
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Arts
Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
International style architects
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