Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx al New York Botanical Garden

New York Botanical Garden’s largest exhibit to date celebrates the work of Brazilian modernist artist, landscape architect, and plant conservationist Roberto Burle Marx. Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx combines walks through gardens inspired by his designs with an exploration of his art and horticultural and botanical work.


The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) presents Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx, celebrating the influential Brazilian modernist artist, landscape architect, plant explorer and conservationist Roberto Burle Marx, from 8 June to 29 September 2019. The largest botanical exhibition ever staged by the NYBG, it is also the first to combine a tribute to Burle Marx’s design work, made of lush gardens, with a gallery of his vibrant paintings, drawings and fabrics, revealing deep connections between his artistic work and his commitment to environmental conservation. 
Roberto Burle Marx (1909-94) was a pivotal figure in Latin America during the second half of the 20th century. During his lifetime he worked on thousands of gardens and landscapes, including the famous curving mosaic walkways at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
Landscape architect Raymond Jungles,  a student of Burle Marx, has designed The Fountain Garden, one of the three gardens in the NYBG grounds, while The Water Garden and The Explorer Garden have been planned by Francisca Coelho along with the staff of NYBG. Three areas highlighting the tropical palette of native plants of Brazil, and including a sculptural water feature, a living wall, as well as other design elements like the signature curved, patterned pathways of this master of modernist gardens.
Expect to see bold specimens on display, including a hybrid of the enormous, much-celebrated Victoria amazonica, and plenty of philodendrons, elephant’s ears, bromeliads, and colourful annuals throughout the Explorer’s Garden and the Modernist garden, where a strikingly-patterned path leads to a pool and relief wall resembling one of Burle Marx’s seminal installations - the rooftop garden at Banco Safra in São Paulo.
These landscapes are enhanced by an exhibition of his work on paper and canvas that brings context to his career and interconnected artistic practices. So visitors can enjoy a series of lithographs depicting Brazilian ecosystems alongside many abstract geometric works exploring the forms of nature.
Because Burle Marx was an avid plant explorer dedicated to preserving Brazil’s stunning biodiversity, an issue that is now more relevant than ever. Visitors to the Britton Science Gallery will see and learn more about plants from three key biomes in Brazil: the dry region surrounding Brasília known as the Cerrado, the world’s most biologically rich savanna, which is home to more than 10,000 species of plants; the geographically isolated Atlantic Coastal Forest, which has one of the highest percentages of species of plants found nowhere else; and the Amazon, Earth’s largest tropical rain forest.
The exhibition Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx at the NYBG is accompanied by a robust schedule of collateral public events, showcasing the sights and sounds of Brazil and its unique celebrations of music and dance evoking the exuberance of Rio de Janeiro, the “Cidade Maravilhosa” (Wonderful City) that Roberto Burle Marx called home and that inspired his life and work in Brazil. There are also hands-on activities for young visitors and their families in the Everett Children's Adventure Garden. What better excuse do you need to combine a visit to New York with a dive into the colourful, varied world of this Brazilian great?

Christiane Bürklein

Exhibition - Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx
from 8 June to 29 September 2019
Curated by Edward J. Sullivan
Landscape Architect: Raymond Jungles, FASLA, Francisca Coleho with NYBG staff
Images: courtesy of NYBG
Find out more: https://www.nybg.org/