A Note About This Series: A strong indicator of whether a girl decides to enter a STEM field as an adult is whether or not she saw women in the field growing up. We dream of becoming what we see is possible in our world. These posts are dedicated to all of the people doing the work that has inspired us to become Radicle.
In school, Will and I bonded over many synchronicities, one of which was our mutual love of Roberto Burle Marx. I had seen an exhibit of his work at The Jewish Museum in New York City when I was working as a gardener in the city, and Will had spent a year living in Brazil when he was younger and so was enamored not only by his style but his identity as a Brazilian landscape designer.
Burle Marx was a modernist landscape designer known for strong lines in the garden and utilizing mass plantings of colorful plants. Some of his designs have passed the test of time better than others, for plants truly don’t like to be kept in contained spaces. This is part of the magic of looking at a Brule Marx landscape. You can start to tell what plants have outcompeted each other, how the lines have become blurred. In this way, Brule Marx’s landscape become living paintings (he was also a painter), merging the art world and the world of plants.
Burle Marx also existed in a time in Brazil where the height of taste included a European garden, complete with European specimens. Marx instead took his inspiration and materials from the overlooked plant matter around him, effectively making him a conservator and ‘discoverer’ of many rainforest plants. (I say ‘discoverer’ with quotes because we all know that this means to be brought-to-light in a colonial way – with new taxonomies and plants named after the person who thought to name them, rather than indigenous ways of knowing these same plants that have been known for centuries.)
While known for a specific style, the joy, dynamism, and flow of creativity is what inspires us about Burle Marx. His commitment to the land around him and his curiosity about what is natural to place was innovative at the time, and on a personality note, it seems like Burle Marx had a lot of fun with his life. We like this about him.
Further Investigation:
Overgrown, written by Julien Raxworthy, is a beautiful inquiry into several international gardens and their designers/gardeners and delves insightfully into Burle Marx’s work.
-written by Mattie