LA CERÁMICA ARQUITECTÓNICA EN LA OBRA DE OSCAR NIEMEYER: COLOR, MORFOLOGÍA E INTENCIONES

Abstract

Architectural ceramics have been a legitimizing resource for the inaugural discourse of the Modern Movement architecture in Brazil. Understood as an element that connects with the tradition of that country, and therefore fully identifiable with it, architectural ceramics have been reinterpreted to assume a prominent, sometimes decisive, role in shaping the most important works of this movement. Oscar Niemeyer, a key architect in the recent history of Brazil, has used ceramic tiles throughout his career with different purposes that are linked both to the artistic context around him and to his own personal interests. The present research aims to rescue and to highlight the role that architectural ceramics play in his work as a compositional resource that provides it with significant values and cultural references. The present study has focused on those among the most emblematic Niemeyer buildings in which the use of tiles is more apparent. Analyses are made under an eminently visual perspective, discussing the chromatic, morphological and symbolic characteristics of the ceramic pieces contained in every building, often in relation to the work of the renowned artists who designed them. Also, the contextualization of these works -both architectural and ceramic- has allowed to check the evolution of the intentions and characteristics of the ceramic material in parallel with the professional trajectory of Niemeyer. All this previous inquiry has brought us to formulate a series of conclusions about the (sometimes interwoven) motivations that led the architect to the conscious use of the ceramic material in his creations throughout each stage of his life. Those motivations range from the visual dematerialization of the surfaces to the artistic interests of Niemeyer himself through the allusion to the Brazilian tradition understood as vindication and signification. To sum up, architectural ceramics have played an unquestionable role in some of the most important works of Oscar Niemeyer and have provided constructive, aesthetic and cultural values to them, contributing (sometimes discreetly, other times with unavoidable presence) to the originality of his architecture.; La ceramica arquitectonica ha supuesto un recurso legitimador del discurso inaugural de la arquitectura del Movimiento Moderno en Brasil. Entendida como un elemento que enlaza con la tradicion de dicho pais, y por tanto, plenamente identificable con este, ha sido reinterpretada para asumir un papel destacado, en ocasiones determinante, en la configuracion de las obras mas importantes de este movimiento. Oscar Niemeyer, arquitecto clave en la reciente historia de Brasil, ha empleado la azulejeria a lo largo de toda su trayectoria profesional con distintos propositos que estan ligados tanto al contexto artistico en el que se enmarco como sus propios intereses personales. La presente investigacion tiene por objetivo rescatar y poner en valor el papel que la ceramica arquitectonica desempena en su obra como recurso compositivo que permite aportar valores…