The New York Botanical Garden’s Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx celebrates the wide-ranging works of influential Brazilian modernist artist, landscape architect, and plant conservationist Roberto Burle Marx by bringing together a selective exhibition of his vibrant artworks and a horticultural tribute designed by Raymond Jungles, one of his protégés. Join Karen Daubmann, Associate Vice-President for Exhibitions and Public Engagement, and Todd A. Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice-President for Horticulture and Living Collections, as they discuss Burle Marx’s boldly creative paintings, drawings, textiles, lush gardens, and botanical explorations in his native Brazil. “The garden is, it must be,” Burle Marx emphatically declared, “an integral part of civilized life: a deeply felt, deeply rooted, spiritual, and emotional necessity.”

Roberto Burle Marx (1909–94) was a pivotal figure in the modernist art and garden movement in Latin America during the second half of the 20th century. Born in São Paulo and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Burle Marx traveled to Berlin in 1928 to study painting; his visits to the city’s Dahlem Botanical Gardens inspired a long-life pursuit in exploring the artistic possibilities of tropical plantings. After returning to Brazil in 1930, Burle Marx designed his first garden for a private residence by modernist architects Lúcio Costa and Gregori Warchavchik; the former would later commission him to design hanging gardens for the landmark Ministry of Education and Health building in Rio. In collaboration with noted architects, most famously with Oscar Niemeyer, Burle Marx produced thousands of gardens and landscapes, including for the iconic curving mosaic promenade at Copacabana Beach and Flamengo Park in Rio, the rooftop garden at Banco Safra in São Paulo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília, the Brazilian pavilion at the Brussels International Exposition of 1958, the UNESCO Building in Paris, and the Parque del Este of Caracas in Venezuela. In addition to landscape gardening, Burle Marx was a noted painter and designer of jewelry, textiles, and theater sets. One of the first Brazilians to speak out against deforestation, he was also a significant environmentalist and conservationist, devoted to the study of horticulture, who often sourced new plant specimens during excursions from his estate called the Sítio in Barra de Guaratiba, on the outskirts of Rio, into the rainforests of Brazil.

Crew Credits -

Production:
Creator and Executive Producer - Hernan Diaz Alonso
Producers - Marcelyn Gow/Reza Monahan
Segment Producer - Kavior Moon
Director - Reza Monahan
Director of Photography - Lauren Murphy
B Camera - Tyler Marchewski
Sound Engineer - Pablo Gho Gho

Post-Production:
Story Producer - Caroline Post
Editors - Sean Morris/Cal Crawford/Reza Monahan

Soundtrack by: Sara Johanne and Jason Breeden

Additional Images courtesy of New York Botanical Gardens

Special thanks to: Nicholas Leshi

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