Article about the HDFAS lecture on 17th February 2015 given by Marilyn Elm
Full Marks for Brazilian Garden designer
by Jeannette Hatcher
Setting the scene for her lecture, A Brazilian Odyssey: the Works of the Artist and Landscape Designer
Roberto Burle Marx, Marilyn Elm, qualified landscape designer and garden history expert, surrounded
members of Haslemere Decorative and Fine Arts Society with the mellow notes of a Bossa nova.
This genre of Brazilian music, its title literally meaning ‘new trend’, was an apt starting point for her recent
talk which gradually revealed that Roberto Burle Marx (see picture below), the most influential Latin
American landscape architect of the 20th century, was also an instigator of new trends.
Roberto Burle Marx
© dpa/picture-alliance
He was born in 1909 in Sao Paulo, but the family moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913 where, although the
climate of Brazil was varied and even tropical in places, the trend in gardens for the wealthy emulated 19th
century European, particularly Portuguese. In the mind-set of the rich, the colonial baroque style and
gardens with the stiff formality of parterres and clipped box, reflected status.
In the 20’s and 30’s however, the modernist revolution in art and architecture was to have an effect. Artists
like De Stijl and Mondrian; the Art Deco movement and Bauhaus; formed part of a melting pot of new ideas
for Burle Marx which were eventually translated by him into garden design.
When studying painting in Germany, he made many visits to the Dahlem Botanical Gardens in Berlin where
he was amazed to find that Brazilian plants were so valued by the Germans that they had taken the trouble
and expense to create the conditions for their successful growth. Inspired by this, on his return to Brazil in
1930, he began collecting Brazilian plants. He also enrolled in the National School of Fine Arts where his
professor was the modernist architect Lucio Costa. This was the beginning of collaboration with Costa and
later with the architect Oscar Niemeyer which eventually led to Burle Marx gaining international
recognition.
By 1949 his collection of plant material was extensive and realizing that there was a need to propagate
certain plants, he acquired the Sitio de Santo Antonio da Bica, a large estate on the outskirts of Rio de
Janeiro. In the gardens of this building can still be seen many examples of his style. As well as glasshouses
and seed beds, there are architectural plants giving structural form. Modernist stonework designs and
examples of his art work are set between drifts of indigenous Brazilian plants.
A polymath, Burle Marx trained as a musician and artist and produced work in diverse media including
drawing, painting, etching, sculpture, mosaics, tapestry, print making as well as garden design. The studio
at the Sitio has examples of this art work some showing the sinuous, flowing biomorphic forms which
would be reflected in many of his future garden designs. These sinuous lines can also be seen in his wave
pattern paving design for the Copacabana beach frontage in Rio de Janeiro (see picture below).
Calçadão de Copacabana designed by Roberto Burle Marx (photo by Allan Fraga)
As well as strong patterns in hard landscape using stone, concrete, tiles or even pebbles, in many of his
designs he made clever use of lighting and reflection, particularly in his use of water where he liked to
create natural settings for plants such as the Amazonian Water Lily.
By the time of his death in June 1994, Burle Marx had received numerous accolades and awards. He had
discovered many new plants and had at least fifty named after him. His visits, study and exploration of the
Brazilian forests had involved him in the drive to conserve the rain forest and his style, using and
developing the new trends of Modernism, had influenced garden design worldwide.
Although using modernist elements, the ‘genius loci’ or spirit of place was important to him, so his aim was
to create designs where nature was assimilated, controlled and enriched. For private gardens or public
spaces he created designs, that by using indigenous plants in a new way, reflected the trends in modern art
and enhanced the most avant- garde architecture of his day. As Marilyn Elms said as she brought her
lecture to a close, he was truly the real creator of the modern garden.
Full details of HDFAS membership and future lectures, outings and study days can be obtained by contacting
the membership secretary on 01428 683578 or via the HDFAS website www.halsmeredfas.org.uk The next
lecture, The Art of Waterloo, will take place at Haslemere Hall on Tuesday, March the 17th.