Roberto Burle Marx

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Roberto Burle Marx
BornAugust 4, 1909 (1909-08-04)
São Paulo, Brazil
DiedJune 4, 1994 (1994-06-05) (aged 84)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
NationalityBrazilian
OccupationLandscape architect
Known forDesigning gardens and public spaces
Parent(s)Rebecca Cecília Burle
Wilhelm Marx
AwardsAwards

Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian

modernist landscape architecture to Brazil. He was known as a modern nature artist and a public urban space designer. His work had a great influence on tropical garden design in the 20th century. Water gardens were a popular theme in his work. He was deftly able to transfer traditional artistic expressions such as graphic design, tapestry and folk art
into his landscape designs. He also designed fabrics, jewellery and stage sets.

He was one of the first people to call for the conservation of Brazil's rainforests. More than 50 plants bear his name. He amassed a substantial collection of plants at his home, including more than 500 philodendrons, including some that were discovered by him or bear his name, like Philodendron burle-marxii.

Early life

Roberto Burle Marx was born in São Paulo. He was the fourth son of Rebecca Cecília Burle, a member of the traditional Pernambuco-based family of French ancestry, Burle Dubeux,[1] and Wilhelm Marx, a German Jew born in Stuttgart and raised in Trier. The family moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913.[2]

Burle Marx's first landscaping inspirations came while studying painting in Germany, where he often visited the

Lucio Costa
, the architect and planner who lived down the street from Burle.

Career

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx
UNESCO World Heritage Site
LocationBrazil
CriteriaCultural: (ii)(iv)
Reference1620
Inscription2021 (44th Session)
Farmhouse and chapel gardens in Barra de Guaratiba where Burle Marx died in 1994

In 1932, Burle Marx designed his first landscape for a private residence by the architects

Lucio Costa and Gregori Warchavchik. This project, the Schwartz house was the beginning of a collaboration with Costa which was enriched later by Oscar Niemeyer who designed the Brazilian Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Niemeyer also designed the Pampulha complex in 1942 for which Marx designed gardens. His first garden design was completed in 1933.[3] In 1937, Burle Marx gained international recognition and admiration for this abstract design of a roof garden for the Ministry of Education building.[4]
The design highlighted elements of tension and drama.

In 1949 he acquired the Sítio de Santo Antonio da Bica, a 365,000 m2 (90-acre) estate in the

World Heritage List because of its unique Modernist design and its importance for environmental and cultural preservation.[7] It is 23rd Brazilian location recognized on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. Reference

Roberto Burle Marx founded a landscape studio in 1955 and in the same year he founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. He opened an office in Caracas, Venezuela in 1956 and started working with architects Jose Tabacow and Haruyoshi Ono in 1968. Marx worked on commissions throughout Brazil, Argentina, in Chile and many other South American countries, France, South Africa, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. Additionally his artwork can be found displayed throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro "it is an open-air museum of works displaying his unmistakable style, one wholly his own" (Montero 2001 p. 29). Roberto Burle Marx's 62-year career ended when he died June 4, 1994, at age 84.

He spent time in the Brazilian forests where he was able to study and explore. Burle Marx was one of the first Brazilians to speak out against deforestation. This enabled him to add significantly to the botanical sciences, by discovering new rocks and plants for example. At least 50 plants bear his name.[5] Marx was also involved in efforts to protect and conserve the rain forest from the destructive commercial activities of deforestation for bananas and other crops and clear cutting of timber.

The standard author abbreviation Burle-Marx is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[8]

Style

Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the Ministry of External Relations in Brasília

Burle Marx's artistic style was avant-garde and modern. Much of his work has a sense of timelessness and perfection. He explored an anti-mimetic and skeptical aesthetic developed from modernism with a distinctly Brazilian style.[2] His designs were also influenced by cubism and abstractionism.[5] Another strong influence was Brazilian folk art.

His

aesthetics were often nature based, for example, never mixing flower colours, utilisation of big groups of the same specimen, using native plants and making a rocky field into a relaxing garden. He was very interested in each plant's character and what effect that has on the whole garden. He sought a depth in his designs by understanding how animals interacted with plants and how they bloomed, amongst other plant characteristics.[citation needed] Burle Marx had a great skill in utilising the sculptural form of plants. Burle Marx was mindful of the dynamic of walking through a garden. The sensation of mobility is an important element of experiencing his landscapes.[9] He also made clever use of enormous scale, lighting and reflection
particularly in his use of water. Burle Marx was able to extend the architecture of a building into the garden. He preferred to work on public spaces because, in his words, they are able to provide dignity for the masses.

Marx's work "can be summarized in four general design concepts—the use of native tropical vegetation as a structural element of design, the rupture of symmetrical patterns in the conception of open spaces, the colorful treatment of pavements, and the use of free forms in water features" (Vaccarino 2000, p. 17). This approach is exemplified by the Copacabana Beach promenade, where native sea breeze resistant trees and palms appear in groupings along Avenida Atlantica. These groupings punctuate Portuguese stone mosaics which form a giant abstract painting where no section along the promenade is the same. This "painting" is viewed from the balconies of hotels, and offers an ever-changing view for those driving along the beach. The mosaics continue the entire two-and-a-half-mile distance of the beach. The water feature, in this case, is of course the ocean and beach, which is bordered by a 30-foot wide continuous scallop patterned mosaic walk (Eliovson 1991; Montero 2001). Copacabana Beach is "the most famous in Brazil" (Eliovson 1991 p. 103).

Awards

Roberto Burle Marx has received the following prizes, diplomas of merit and honorary memberships: The landscape architecture prize at the 2nd International Exhibition of Architecture (1953), title of Knight of the Order of the Crown from Belgium (1959), Diploma d’Honneur in Paris (1959), the Santos Dumont Medal of the Brazilian Government (1963), the Fine Arts Medal of The American Institute of Architects in Washington (1965), doctor of the Royal College of Art, London (1982) and an honorary doctorate from the Queen of the Netherlands. The Missouri Botanical Garden awarded him the Greensfelder Award and the Kentucky Botanic Garden proclaimed October 14, 1985, in his honor (Eliovson 1991).[10]

Works

Parque del Este, Caracas
Copacabana
beach promenade
  • Landscape design of some gardens in the public buildings of Brasília

Exhibitions

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0810933578
    . Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  2. ^
    ISBN 1861891466
    . Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  3. ^ 2 artworks by or after Roberto Burle Marx, Art UK. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  4. ^ Fraser, V. (2000). Cannibalizing Le Corbusier: The MES Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 59(2), 180–193. https://doi.org/10.2307/991589
  5. ^ a b c Rohter, Larry. (January 20, 2009.) A New Look at the Multitalented Man Who Made Tropical Landscaping An Art. New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  6. ^ UNESCO (2021). Roberto Burle Marx: a journey with the artist to UNESCO patios in Paris. Paris: UNESCO.
  7. ^ "Sítio Roberto Burle Marx". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  8. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Burle-Marx.
  9. ISBN 0203352602
    . Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  10. ^ "Roberto Burle Marx | TCLF". www.tclf.org. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
  11. ^ (c. 2019). Roberto Burle Marx. Design for a garden, (1948). artdesigncafe. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  12. ^ From Le Corbusier to Niemeyer: Savoye House - Tremaine House 1949 exhibition webpage. Museum of Modern Art, New York. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  13. ^ Roberto Burle Marx: The unnatural art of the garden exhibition webpage. Museum of Modern Art, New York. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  14. ISBN 978-0-87070-197-9
    .
  15. ^ Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist exhibition webpage. Jewish Museum, New York. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  16. ISBN 978-0-300-21215-0
    .
  17. ^ Farago, Jason (June 20, 2019). "Roberto Burle Marx and His Leafy Vision of the Tropics". The New York Times.
  18. ISBN 978-0-89327-956-1
    .

Bibliography

Tributes

On 4 August 2011, Google celebrated Roberto Burle Marx’s 102nd Birthday with a doodle.[1][2]

In 2014, Roberto Burle Marx was commemorated on his 20 year legacy reference: https://issuu.com/alejapv/docs/moderndesigners

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roberto Burle Marx.
  1. ^ Desk, OV Digital (August 4, 2023). "4 August: Remembering Roberto Burle Marx on Birthday". Observer Voice. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  2. ^ "Roberto Burle Marx's 102nd Birthday". www.google.com. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
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