by Josep Botey
Oscar Niemeyer (Rio de Janeiro, 1907) studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, and began his career working as an assistant to the architect Lucio Costa, who introduced him to Le Corbusier. During the period 1940 to 1954, his work was centred on three cities: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte. Subsequently, with Lucio Costa, he designed the urban facilities for the city of Brasilia. In 1964 political motives led him to seek exile to Europe, where amongst other works he constructed the building for the French Communist Party. With the end of the dictatorship he returned to Brazil, immediately resuming his professional activities. With more than 400 illustrations, this is the most complete study yet published on the work of the architect Oscar Niemeyer. Set out in ten chapters, arranged typologically, the book presents a selection of buildings and projects by an architect who has managed to combine the great tradition of this native Brazil with curvilinear forms, obtaining results that have frequently earned him the accolade of maestro.
