Oscar Niemeyer and modern architecture

It would take many pages to talk about the production of one of the most great architects of all time.

Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, just turned 102 years old. But if his work is extraordinary, it is no less so the fact that he continues to work every day, getting up with a thousand things to do, with the same enthusiasm from his beginnings.

Niterói Contemporary Art Museum - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Niemeyer is one of the key figures in the modern architecture of the XX and XXI centuries. From the genius of his stroke, nothing less than 457 buildings on various continents. Pioneer in the exploration of constructive possibilities y fine arts of the reinforced concrete, the Brazilian dared to break with the monotonous rationality that prevailed back in the 40s. originality of his stroke and imagination when projecting the buildings, always sinuous, revolutionary like himself.

Niterói Popular Theater - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Interior of the Cathedral of Brasilia - Brazil

Exterior of the Cathedral of Brasilia - Brazil

For Niemeyer, curved line becomes the protagonist. In this way the brilliant architect sentenced him: «It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight, hard, inflexible line created by men. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve. The curve that I find in the mountains of my country, Brazil, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the waves of the sea, in the clouds of the sky, in the body of the beloved woman. The whole universe is made of curves ".

Palácio da Alvorada - Brasilia - Brazil

Ibirapuera Park Auditorium - São Paulo - Brazil

University of Constantine - Algiers - Algeria

Oscar Niemeyer has always stood out for its rebellious spirit and nonconformist. His expertise is not only evident in his designs, but also in their clarity of conscience and commitment against the injustices of the world. A universal Brazilian and great humanist that leaves us his transformative, physical and immaterial legacy. To the question of what is the role of the architecture in the XNUMXst century, he answers:

"The role of the architect will be to fight for a better world, where he can create architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged men."

Brasilia Museum - DF - Brazil

Headquarters of the French Communist Party - Paris - France

These days we can still see part of his work through photos, films, models and original documents, in the Telefónica Foundation Auditorium of Madrid's Gran Vía, until January 10. Finally, two perspectives on Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, one of his most emblematic works and that, personally, fascinated me from the first moment.