Oscar Niemeyer: architect of curves and conviction: after over seven decades of unending creative energy, Oscar Niemeyer continues to attract international acclaim for his revolutionary designs that have shaped the modern face of Brazil.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: Biography

When the roster of the most influential architects of the twentieth century is recited, Brazil's Oscar Niemeyer is certain to be mentioned in the same breath with such internationally renowned innovators as Frank Lloyd Wright, R. Buckminster Fuller, Alvar Aalto, and Walter Gropius. But when the question is asked who from among this elite group is still active and flourishing, the list is quickly winnowed down to just one--the diminutive Brazilian whose frenetic pace of creativity seems only to increase as he ages.

Born Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares on December 15, 1907, in Rio de Janeiro, the architect is best known for the revolutionary concepts he incorporated haft a century ago in the design of the most important public buildings for the new federal capital of Brasilia. Amazingly, he continues to produce works of astounding originality. A theater in Italy, a monument to peace in Paris, and projects scattered throughout his native Brazil, including a school for the Bolshoi Ballet project in the southern city of Joinvile, are among a long list of works scheduled for completion in the coming years. Significantly, as attested to by such recently inaugurated works as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi and the new art museum in Curitiba that bears his name, Niemeyer's creative impulses are as fertile as ever--his ability to astound the public just as acute as it was when he first began to attract attention for his uncommon approach to structural design over six decades ago.

Niemeyer's personal convictions and professional accomplishments have sometimes been at odds, revealing him to be a man of profound contradictions. For instance, although he's an avowed atheist he has designed some or Brazil's important modern churches--spaces created reverently to give the spirituality or true believers free reign. A life-long Communist who was an outspoken foe of the succession of military governments that ruled his land from 1964 to 1985, he nonetheless accepted commissions to design facilities for Brazil's armed forces, including the General Army Headquarters in Brasilia. And, while Niemeyer designed office projects for some or Brazil's business elite, he chose to spend most or his professional life sequestered in a small study in an antiquated apartment building on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach--a structure he had no hand in shaping.

It's 10:30 a.m. when I arrive for our interview, but Niemeyer has already indulged in one of his pet personal pleasures. Telltale flecks of ash rest on the mid-section of his navy blue sweatshirt; the butts of two smoked cigars linger in a nearby ashtray. "I smoke a little, of course," he concedes, "but I enjoy smoking I enjoy being quiet, isolated, and thinking about things. Smoking helps me do that."

An arm's reach away in what seems out of place in a small study crammed with books and other artifacts of the architect's trade--is a well-used classical guitar. It's a reminder of what a true Renaissance man Niemeyer is--how his friendships and professional collaborations over the years underscore the point that the practice of architecture is indeed part of the extended family or the arts.

An unrepentant bohemian, Niemeyer was a key member of the vanguard of young intellectuals who in the 1950s began to revolutionize Brazilian society by ushering in new styles of music, art, and cinema. Photos from that era show the square-jawed, nattily dressed architect in the company of the famed poet, lyricist, and playwright Vinicius de Moraes, composer and bossa nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim (himself an architect by formal training), and other luminaries of Rio's arts community. In the mid 1950s, De Moraes asked Niemeyer to create the sets for his stage play Orfeu da Conceicao, the adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus to the setting of Rio's favelas and the annual carnival that three years later was made into the award-winning film Black Orpheus. Asked about his guitar playing...