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Painting with Plants

9 min read

Painting with Plants: The Lush Modernism of Landscape Architect Roberto Burle Marx

1. Introduction: The Garden as Modern Art

In the world of 20th-century landscape architecture, one figure stands apart for his painterly vision, his revolutionary use of native flora, and his exuberant, tropical modernism: the Brazilian polymath Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994). At a time when modern architecture was defined by the cool, rational geometry of the International Style, Burle Marx forged a new and deeply expressive language for the modern garden. He was a landscape architect, but he was also a painter, a sculptor, an ecologist, a musician, and a passionate plant explorer. He brought all these sensibilities to his work, treating the land as his canvas and plants as his paint. 🌿

Burle Marx rejected the two dominant traditions of landscape design: the rigid, axial symmetry of the formal European garden and the romanticized, naturalistic imitation of the English picturesque style. Instead, he created a powerful and authentic new form of modernist garden that was simultaneously a bold, abstract work of art and a vibrant celebration of Brazil’s immense, and at the time largely ignored, native botanical heritage. His flowing, biomorphic forms and his technique of using large, monochromatic masses of plants to create painterly compositions fundamentally changed the course of landscape design, not just in Latin America, but across the world.

2. The Making of a Visionary: An Epiphany in Berlin

Burle Marx’s unique vision was forged from a fortuitous combination of artistic training in Europe and a deep, scientific love for the flora of his native Brazil.

  • A Painter’s Eye: Burle Marx began his creative life as a painter. In the late 1920s, he traveled to Germany to study art, immersing himself in the avant-garde culture of the Weimar Republic. He was exposed to the work of modern masters like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso, which trained his eye in the principles of abstraction, composition, and color. He was particularly drawn to the biomorphic, organic forms of artists like Jean Arp and the bold compositional power of Cubism. This artistic foundation would become the essential framework for all his future landscape work.

  • The Epiphany in the Botanical Garden: The most pivotal moment of his life occurred not in an art gallery, but in the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden. There, in the greenhouses, he was stunned to discover the incredible beauty, diversity, and sculptural power of Brazilian native plants. These were species he had never seen used in the gardens of his home in Rio de Janeiro, which were still dominated by imported European flowers and formal layouts. He realized that his own country possessed a botanical treasure trove that was completely unappreciated by its own landscape designers. This epiphany set the course for his life’s work: to fuse the aesthetics of modern art with the unique and powerful palette of Brazil’s native flora.

  • The Ecologist and Plant Explorer: Burle Marx’s interest in plants was not merely aesthetic; it was deeply scientific. He became a passionate botanist and ecologist decades before these concerns became mainstream. He embarked on numerous expeditions into the Brazilian rainforests and other biomes, often accompanied by leading botanists, to discover, collect, and propagate new species. He is credited with the discovery of dozens of plants, many of which now bear his name (such as Heliconia burle-marxii). His personal estate was a living laboratory where he cultivated this vast collection, testing the horticultural properties of each plant.

3. The Principles of Burle Marx’s Landscape Art

Burle Marx developed a distinct and highly influential design language.

  • The Garden as an Abstract Painting: He approached landscape design with the eye of a painter. Many of his most famous gardens are conceived as large, abstract compositions on the ground plane, best viewed from the windows of the modernist buildings he frequently collaborated with. He created what he called “carpet gardens” or “parterres,” using the lawn as a neutral canvas and arranging plants and other materials to create bold, biomorphic, and interlocking shapes, much like a Cubist or abstract artist would compose a painting.

  • Massing of Color and Texture: A key technique was his use of monochromatic massing. Instead of the traditional horticultural practice of mixing different individual plants in a flowerbed, Burle Marx would use a large, single mass of one species to create a bold, unified block of color or texture. He would then contrast this with an adjacent, equally bold mass of a different plant, creating a powerful and graphic composition.

  • Championing Native Flora: His most radical and influential contribution was his insistence on using native Brazilian plants. He celebrated the dramatic, sculptural forms of philodendrons, the vibrant colors of bromeliads, the elegant lines of native palms, and the rich textures of tropical groundcovers. By using these plants in his designs, he introduced them into the vocabulary of modern landscape architecture and fostered a new national pride in Brazil’s unique ecological heritage.

  • The Flowing, Asymmetrical Line: Rejecting the rigid, straight lines of formal gardens, his designs are characterized by sensuous, flowing, and asymmetrical curves. These biomorphic lines evoke the natural forms of rivers, clouds, or the contours of the Brazilian landscape itself, creating a sense of dynamism and movement.

4. Landmark Projects: Painting the Brazilian Landscape

  • The Ministry of Education and Health (Gustavo Capanema Palace), Rio de Janeiro (1938): This was Burle Marx’s first major commission, a collaboration with a team of Brazil’s best young architects, including Oscar Niemeyer, all under the guidance of the great Le Corbusier. Burle Marx designed the rooftop garden, which is widely considered one of the first truly modern gardens in the world. Its free-flowing, organic forms and exclusive use of native Brazilian plants were a radical departure from any garden that had come before.

  • Copacabana Beach Promenade, Rio de Janeiro (1970): This is his most famous and monumental public work, a four-kilometer-long mosaic that runs the length of one of the world’s most famous beaches. Using the traditional Portuguese technique of stone pavement, he created a giant, abstract, black-and-white wave pattern. The serpentine design is a brilliant work of large-scale public art, a graphic representation that echoes the movement of the nearby ocean, the curves of the surrounding hills, and the vibrant, rhythmic energy of Carioca culture.

  • Sítio Roberto Burle Marx (His Personal Estate): Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, this vast estate outside Rio de Janeiro was Burle Marx’s home, studio, and personal botanical laboratory. Here, he cultivated his immense collection of over 3,500 plant species, many of which he discovered himself. The gardens he designed on the property are a living museum of his design philosophy, a series of stunning compositions that seamlessly blend his artistic vision with his deep scientific knowledge of plants.

  • Parque del Este, Caracas, Venezuela (1961): This large public park is one of Burle Marx’s most significant works outside of Brazil. He designed the 200-acre park as a diverse and engaging landscape that masterfully balances areas for active recreation with spaces for quiet contemplation. The park is organized into several zones, including a large water garden with a mosaic mural, an open grassland area meant to evoke the Venezuelan savanna, and a dense, forested section. It is a brilliant example of his ability to work at a large, urban scale, creating a rich and varied sequence of experiences for the public.

5. A Legendary Collaboration: Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer

Burle Marx’s career was inextricably linked with that of Brazil’s master architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Their long and fruitful collaboration produced some of the most iconic works of Brazilian modernism. Niemeyer’s bold, curving, and sculptural concrete forms found their perfect complement in Burle Marx’s equally fluid and painterly landscapes.

  • The Pampulha Complex, Belo Horizonte (1940s): This early project was a watershed moment for Brazilian modernism. Niemeyer designed a series of free-form, curving buildings around an artificial lake. The rigid geometry of the International Style was abandoned. Burle Marx’s gardens for Pampulha were equally revolutionary. Instead of imposing a formal grid onto the landscape, his gardens responded to Niemeyer’s architecture with their own sinuous, flowing forms, creating a seamless and harmonious fusion of building and landscape.

  • Brasília (1960s): When Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer designed the new capital city of Brasília, they called upon Burle Marx to design many of its most significant public landscapes. In a city defined by the vast, open spaces and the monumental scale of its architecture, Burle Marx’s work provided a vital and humane counterpoint. He designed the sprawling gardens of the major government ministries, the private gardens of the presidential palace, and large public squares, using masses of native Cerrado and Amazonian plants to bring a lush, organic, and distinctly Brazilian character to the heart of the new capital.

6. Conclusion: The Artist of the Garden

Roberto Burle Marx was a true Renaissance man of the 20th century. He was a singular talent who fused the roles of the abstract painter, the passionate ecologist, and the designer of large-scale public spaces. He single-handedly created the discipline of modernist landscape architecture in Latin America and was a crucial voice in the development of Brazil’s modern architectural identity. His work is a powerful testament to the idea that a garden need not be a nostalgic imitation of a European past, but can be an authentic, powerful, and forward-looking work of modern art. He created a legacy of living, breathing sculptures that celebrate the unique ecological and cultural identity of place, and he taught the world to see the immense artistic potential hidden in the plants of the native landscape.

References (APA 7th)

  • Adams, W. H. (1991). Roberto Burle Marx: The Unnatural Art of the Garden. Museum of Modern Art.

  • Leenhardt, J. (Ed.). (1994). Roberto Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape. The Monacelli Press.

  • Eliovson, S. (1991). The Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx. Timber Press.

  • Berrizbeitia, A. (2005). Roberto Burle Marx in Caracas: Parque del Este, 1956–1961. University of Pennsylvania Press.

  • Marx, R. B. (1982). A Garden Is a Work of Art. In The Garden as a Work of Art. University of California Press.

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