Noticing an almost universal difficulty of developing a critical analysis of the work of the architect Oscar Niemeyer, and checking that the current discourse has consolidated a polarization between detractors and uplifting, ruling respectively the idea of a free formalism or of a creative exuberance, it has been searched to initially clarify the reasons for this reductionist reading, relating it to a broader assumptions of the Modern Movement in architecture. For that, was required an historiographical revision of the guiding principles of modern art and the link with the original sources of the formalistic thought making an examination at the inaugural theory from Konrad Fiedler and the unfolding in the field of modern history and criticism. Thereby was formed a theoretical body, which allowed to understand the controversial and radicals reactions that mobilized the main guiding centers of the architecture modern project. From the Pampulha’s project to the construction of Brasilia, Niemeyer s work became at the same time a provocative element and a concrete expression of latent tensions that were part of the Movement. From the contemporary point of view, is put on the agenda a critical analysis of the accession of the modern architecture to the positivist idealism in the predominant side, the functionalism, guided by a moral imperative that supposed a social reform to be leaded by the architecture. However as soon as it became evident the utopian character of this program, the revisionist critique complains the unique aspects of the field of architecture, while Niemeyer is perceived as a precursor because of his refusal to adhere to predetermined principles and dedicate himself to a architecture as a autonomous space of artistic research and associating himself to the principles of formalist theory of art.