?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
OSCAR NIEMEYER Architectural Study for Brasilia.
Brush and ink on paper. 687x985 mm; 27x38 3/4 inches. Signed and dedicated "Para Tad" in brush and ink, upper left recto.
Acquired directly from the artist; thence gifted to the current owner.
Beginning in 1956, Niemeyer designed a series of buildings for the new Brazilian capital of Brasilia, as planned by President Juscelino Kubitschek. Concepts behind the designs were rooted in Niemeyer's socialist values, including equality across class and political positions within residential buildings. The current lot includes sketches of Niemeyer's designs for the capital, including the famed Cathedral of Brasilia, for which he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988.
Niemeyer was a champion of aesthetics in his architecture, and successfully created buildings which privileged both beauty and functionality. He was a product of the International School, often characterized by the works of Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which was prevalent in Brazil in the mid-twentieth century as the modernizing country strove for cosmopolitanism. Niemeyer's Brasilia designs pushed the bounds of modernism, cementing his place in the canon of architecture (see also lot 281).
