Master of Brazilian modernism, designer of Brasília
A Brazilian architect, one of the most poetic representatives of twentieth-century modernism. Unlike Le Corbusier’s straight lines and boxes, he was obsessed with the curve, saying his inspiration came from Brazil’s mountains, rivers, and the female body: "It is not the right angle that attracts me, but the free, sensual curve." In reinforced concrete he built a series of elegant, soaring, sculptural curved buildings. His grandest achievement was, with the planner Costa, to conjure a whole new capital — Brasília — out of the inland wilderness in a few years, its cathedral and congress buildings his work. He shaped hard concrete into a light, soaring poem full of South American warmth. He lived to 104 and created all his life.
Niemeyer once said, movingly: "It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve — the curve I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the waves of the sea, and on the body of the beloved woman." He poured this love of the curve into concrete, making the hardest material dance the most graceful dance.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.