Design
As Brazil Went, So Did Oscar Niemeyer
The architect’s ability to land big works in his home country before and after his exile speaks to Brazil’s enthusiasm for civic gigantism and Modernism.
Following Oscar Niemeyer’s death in December 2012, then-Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro, Jair Bolsonaro, spoke about his city’s famous architect inside the Brazilian Senate: “He lived in the most expensive square meter not just in Brazil but in the world! And when he felt depressed he would go to Paris and drink the most expensive whiskey!” The far-right Bolsonaro—who was inaugurated as Brazil’s president earlier this month—concluded, “God have mercy on the soul of this [misguided] communist!”
Such sentiments would not be foreign to the late architect, a self-identifying leftist who went into effective exile during Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1965 to 1985. He lived to be 104.