Brazil mourns master architect
OSCAR NIEMEYER ( 1907 – 201 2)
BRASILIA, BRAZIL – Hundreds of mourners lined up in the vast open plaza at the heart of Brasilia, Brazil’s modernist capital, to honour internationally renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer during a Thursday memorial in the city that most strongly reflects his signature style in its monumental buildings of flowing concrete and grand, sweeping curves.
Niemeyer’s remains were flown by presidential plane to the capital from his native city, Rio de Janeiro, where he died Wednesday night at age 104. Elisa Barboux, a spokeswoman for the Hospital Samaritano in Rio, said the cause of death was a respiratory infection.
Elegantly attired in a black suit and matching hat, Jose Grilo, 70, was among those lining up to honour the architect who brought grace and flow to a city erected on an immense arid plain. Grilo’s parents were labourers, two among the droves of Brazilians who flocked from all over in 1960 seeking work and a better life in the brand new city.
“I grew up seeing these buildings and always admired Niemeyer,” said Grilo. “I always dreamed of meeting him in life; now I can see him in death.”
After the flight in the plane loaned by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, the remains of the groundbreaking architect rested in the presidential palace, a deceptively simple building of glass and concrete that seems nearly weightless, an airy glass structure held aloft by vast, curving white pillars. Immense white ramps unspool from within the structure. It was on the main walkway that the mourners marched in to see the creator of these quintessentially Brazilian forms.
As an artist, Niemeyer favoured cold concrete and glass, but as a man, he was regarded with great warmth. This affection was visible as the funeral procession paraded his remains through Brasilia, between the airport and the presidential palace. People simply stopped what they were doing and applauded.
In works that ranged from Brasilia’s crown-shaped cathedral to the undulating French Communist Party building in Paris, Niemeyer shunned the steel-box structures of many modernist architects, finding inspiration in nature’s crescents and spirals. His hallmarks include much of the United Nations complex in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi, which is perched like a flying saucer across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that Niemeyer’s work in designing the United Nations headquarters complex “stands as his legacy to the world.”