Roberto Burle Marx
Tribute to Burle Marx, 2014
The creator of the Modern Garden (1909—1994) 1.1 The artist
His early years Life Awards:
1941. Gold medal for painting. National School of Fine Art, Rio de Janeiro
1960. Gold medal. International flower show, Trieste, Italy
1982. Doctor Honoris causa. Royal College of Art, London
1985. ASLA Medal. American Society of Landscape, Cincinatti, USA
1991. Leonardo da Vinci Prize. World Award for Arts. State University, Rio de Janeiro
Roberto Burle Marx was born in São Paulo in 1909 and was the 4th son of a family of 6; his mother, Cecilia Burle came from an old Brazilian family of French and English descent. She had a special love for arts and began to train Roberto’s voice and develop his talent for singing. His father, Wilhelm Marx, was a cultured German Jew who taught his children literature and languages. 1.2 Roberto Burle Marx, 1919
From Singer to Landscape Arquitect
And many more...
Content: His Early years
1
From Singer to Landscape Architect
1
His Style
2
His Design Principles
2,3
His work
3
His Gardens
3,4
Bibliography
4
At the age of 4, his family moved to Rio de Janeiro and bought a large house; their family included Anna Piascek, a Hungarian plants woman whom Burle Marx grew to love like a second mother. Roberto learned from his family how to recognize flowers and nursed his first beds of Bromeliads and other low growing plants collected from the hillside along the seafront.
At the age of 18, his family decided to go to Germany and settled in Berlin. During this year, he abandoned his musical aspirations after being strongly impressed by Vincent Van Gogh’s painting. Burle Marx was determined to become a painter so he enrolled in art school one year later. In search of subjects, he visited Dahlem Botanical Gardens and was astonished by the exuberance of the extraordinary specimens of Brazilian tropical flora growing as curiosities in glasses. Since then, he was convinced he should be growing them back in Brazil. The Marx family decided to return to Rio in 1929. The time spent in Germany was enough for Roberto to capture the essence of his committed
art. In 1930, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Rio to study art while continuing his hobby of gardening. At that time, the school combined Architecture with courses in painting and sculpture, so he was brought into contact with architectural students and lecturers such as Lúcio Costa who exerted the greatest influence on Roberto’s career.
subsequently, Costa invited him to design the garden of Alfredo Schwartz residence in the district of Copacabana. His first commissioned design which was somewhat timid, restricting the plant beds to regular shapes; this experience conducted him into the field of modernism where he was to become a leading figure a few years later
His life as a Landscape architect started around 1932, when he travelled to Recife and began to create compositions, still rectilinear and academic, initially in his garden, then at the homes of his relatives and friends and later in public spaces. In 1934, B.M was appointed director of the parks and gardens in Recife; 1.3 Roberto Burle marx, 1956
Roberto Burle Marx
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Influences Burle Marx is an artist whose accents are perceived through different senses; he was a painter, sculptor, baritone, ceramicist, philosopher, draftsman, cook, jewellery and scenic designer and a polyglot. He balanced his talent and humanism with naturalism and his work is a direct expression of his spirit. “Asymmetry
frees the spirit ”
The need for self-expression preceded his art work. He
2.1 Pablo Picasso painting
did not want to be restricted by any kind of formula or to sacrifice pleasure to concept however he was very receptive to the ideas of other artists. He adopted different concepts from the Avant-garde movements. In Van Gogh’s paintings he saw how intensity and contrast of colour can express emotion and the use of
forms evoking rhythm and movement. He learned to imitate deep order from Cézanne, and also admired the balance in visual composition of Matisse. B.M. explored abstraction and found that it was linked to sensitivity. He applied the use of collage, volumetric interpretation, asymmetry, transparency and perceptive simultaneity from cubism.
Burle Marx
His Design Principles Burle Marx transferred the art principles he had learnt to garden design. He captured the spirit of the place by discovering the dominant lines, the relationship between plants, animals and stones, and created a composition in harmony with the landscape. He introduced organic forms, using curves to break up angles, v-shaped roofs and parabolic surfaces coun-
2.2 The Ministry of Education and Health roof garden. Abstract painting used in its design
B.M. grouped plants of similar textures, forms and colours for emphasis, same species were repeated for their strong foliage, blooms or shape effects. Conversely, certain plants with distinctive features benefited from being planted on isolation. He considered rhythm as the relationship between one form and another, one space and another, one texture, one surface, one colour, and
terbalancing masses and voids. He experimented with the deconstruction of objects into their different facets. His gardens have no central axis, their centre is shifted to avoid symmetry, causing perpetual breaches by changing their direction. Seeking balance and harmony, he used subtle transitions, following the approach of the invisible “ha-ha” in the English gardens or clear contrasts to reconcile architecture,
another. In that sense, he achieved rhythm by recognizing the changeable nature of plants, the cycles of day and night, variations in the light, the noise of water, the wind in the leaves, the fragrances of each season, the controlled balance between wood and a clearing. Flowers come into bloom at different places through the seasons to evoke movement.
natural boundaries and garden. The plant palette is always dependant on the context, sometimes it expresses analogy, where different species with common visual features are planted together to show their formal similarity, whereas other times surfaces of contrasting colours or textures are juxtaposed to exploit the complementary nature of opposites.
Paths were carefully organized to offer a way of reading the composition; their form becomes an invitation to a walk along them; they were designed to evoke the music and dance of the black slaves in the colonial Brazil, a succession of frames, multiplying the viewpoints.
Roberto Burle Marx
Water is an essential element in all Burle Marx’s gardens. He knew how to use its natural forms: rivers, springs and brooks; and when there was none, he created artificial lakes, pools or waterfalls. Still water acts as a mirror and draws an unexpected iridescence from the land. When in motion, it is a vehicle, a way
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for nature to reach the garden. He studied nature recording what he saw, observing the wind, light and shade to define volume, structure and texture, capturing shadows of a pergola, studying branches, roots and leaves to create patterns, forms and colours. His planting composi-
tions were enhanced by the exuberance of tropical plants and were mainly based on the use of primary colours: red, yellow, blue or striking contrast. This is how he expressed sensuality.
His Style Burle Marx was very clear about the role of a garden, it was nature designed and controlled by man for man. His early gardens were strictly ordered, but appear natural and harmonious. They are associated with English landscape gardens because of his formal similarity. Their main subject was the focal point, but a rejection of European academicism had led him to move away from the conventional garden schemes and promote local culture using free forms, applying collage techniques and destroying geometrical shapes. His work was very
influenced by the Brazilian modern architecture stream which steered away from the “angle droit”: the rejection of the right angle.
birds, butterflies, bodies, hills and coast lines.
He freely incorporated local elements into his designs to create tension and provoke surprise and discovery by bringing varied elements together such as preColumbian graphics, rhythms from Black art, and features from Iberian gardens such as murals, mosaic floors and ceramic tile walls. His gardens reflect the vivid contrasting colours of Brazilian flowers, leaves,
Each time he created a garden, he felt the excitement and joy of a birth. 3.1 Copacabana Promenade. 1969-72 “O jardim é a natureza ordenada pelo homem e para o homem”
His Gardens
3.2 Aterro do Flamengo. Rio de Janeiro
Burle Marx revolutionized gardening in Brazil. His brilliant creativity added so much to the quality of Rio’s life by designing many radical, elegant and stimulating private and public spaces in the city.
Burle Marx
In 1949, he bought a 90 acres state in Rio, to experiment his radical idea of introducing some of the Brazil indigenous plants to his designs. Since then, his own private garden known as El Sitio, became his longlife passion. Roberto became obsessed with collecting and protecting these native plants; in fact, El Sitio contains more than 3000 species of tropical flora that he collected during his plant expeditions. B.M. learned from botanists how study plants in situ before embarking on a design. By studying how they
grow in their natural habitat and by multiplying them successfully from his collections, he became familiar with their needs, enabling him to provide the conditions they require, thus ensuring their survival in cultivation. Public gardens: Over a period of 50 years B.M. created a series of public gardens, he was responsible for some of the most transgressive elements of modern Brazil. He always showed a deep desire to create South American art at a worldwide scale that transmits
his enthusiasm for his native landscape. He designed by heart, integrating art, science and his personal intuition and sensibilities to give meaning and form to the environment. The Ministry of Education and Health (1938), Pampulha complex (1941-1945), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1965), Petrobras building (1969), Ministry of the Army (1970), and many others, were some of the projects on which Burle Marx collaborated with almost all the architects of Brazilian Modernism. Some of the gardens were located along the coastline of Guanabara Bay; the most popular are: Praça Senador Salgado Filho, The Museum of Modern Art, The World War II Memorial, Aterro do Flamengo and the
beaches of Botafogo and Copacabana. Perhaps the most celebrated feature of Rio de Janeiro is the legendary Copacabana Promenade in 1970. He had combined his painting with the landscape of Rio, taking the lines and the swells of his art work and applied them to the surface of Copacabana beach. The scale of this project is enormous and amounts 2.5 mile long abstract pavement. Stone from Portugal was imported and skilled Portuguese craftsmen followed typical of Portuguese walkways, entirely covered in alternating black-andwhite waves composed of small stones cut and laid by hand. Copacabana Promenade is one of the largest public gardens in the world; its full length can be appreciated from the 27th floor of a hotel.
Private gardens: The aesthetic quality of his private gardens made him very prominent between his friends and general public. His gardens transmit an intense sensation of beauty; they are penetrated through sight, sound and smell and also through memory, evoking an emotional resonance in the visitors. The most significant private gardens are: Olivo Gomes Residence (1950 & 1966), Moreira Salles (1951), Odette Monteiro (1953, 1988 and 1994), Edmundo Cavanellas (1954), Alberto Kronsforth (1955), Celso Colombo (1965, 1981 and 1987), Mangrove Fazenda (1974), Vargem Grande Fazenda (1979) and Raul de Souza Martins Residence (1983).
Bibliography MONTERO, Marta Iris. Burle Marx. The Lyrical Landscape. Thames & Hudson. 2001. 208 pages. ISBN 0-500-51046-6
South America - Around the World in 80 Gardens (Travel Documentary). BBC Series. August 2013.
CAVALCANTI, Lauro; EL-DAHDAH, Farès and RAMBERT, Francis. Roberto Burle Marx: The Modernity of Landscape. ACTAR Publishers,
Images.
2011. 344 pages. SIQUEIRA, Vera Beatriz. Burle Marx. Serie espacos. Editora Cosac Naify, 2004. 127 pages. SILVA, Roberto. New Brazilian Gardens: The Legacy of Burle Marx . Thames and Hudson Ltd, 8 May 2006. 192 pages
1.1 www.webflakes.com 1.2 www.sefaz.es.gov.br 1.3 www.dsmimarlik.com 2.1 www.cultofmac.com 2.2 echolandscape.blogspot.com 3.1 www.greekarchitects.gr 3.2 www.riofilmcommission.rj.gov.br
Video Documentary / Series: Burle marx. De Lá Pra Cá Series . Tv Brasil. April 2009.
4.1 www.rio.com
4.1 Portuguese mosaic detail. Copacabana Beach