There is another great reason to visit the New York Botanical Garden during this summer and it is all about the work of the great Roberto Burle Marx, one of the most influential landscape architects of the last century who produced thousands of gardens and landscapes, including the paving pattern of the promenade at Copacabana Beach and lush gardens across Brazil.
Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx is third exhibition in the US about Burle Marx, just few years after the exhibitions at the Jewish Museum (2016) and Chicago Botanic Garden (2017). Both previous exhibitions presented a collection of paintings, drawings, jewelry and images of the designs of green spaces, but the current NYBG exhibition combines indoor and outdoor areas to the present the life and work of Burle Marx.
The indoor exhibition takes place in the Luesther T Mertz Library building and allow you to discover the artistic process behind his work by going through his drawings, paintings, photos of his gardens and there is also an interactive area where visitors can create their own Azulejo Tile. Another floor exhibits writings and images of El Sitio, his home in Rio de Janeiro recently declared UNESCO Word Heritage site, where he developed his passion for the preservation of the Brazilian native ecosystems. El Sitio was considered a living laboratory which was visited by many botanists, artists, poets, and cultural figures from all over the world
Burle Marx used plants as a palette of colors as in paintings, to do his compositions. As you take a walk through the Ross Conifer Arboretum and head to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory you will find the full-scale garden including numerous flowering plants and philodendrons with exotic and unique colors that were identified first by Burle Marx. This lush garden also features planted beds and palm trees natives of the tropical region and the pavement is painted in black and white waves, a reference to Burle Marx’s work along the waterfront in Copacabana.
The tropical modernism landscape exhibition will be open until end of September. It’s a perfect weekend activity for the summer.
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