Roberto Burle Marx Lectures: Landscape as Art and Urbanism
Edited by Gareth Doherty.
Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) remains one of the most important landscape architects in the history of the field. His distinctive and widely acclaimed work has been featured and referenced in numerous sources, yet few of Burle Marx’s own words have been published. This collection of a dozen of Burle Marx’s lectures, most of which have never before been available in English, fills that void. Delivered on international speaking tours, they address topics such as Concepts in Landscape Composition, Gardens and Ecology and The Problem of Garden Lighting. Their publication sheds light on Burle Marx’s distinctive ethic and aesthetic of landscape, as “the real art in living.”
The lectures paint a picture of Burle Marx not just as a gardener, artist and botanist, but as a landscape architect whose ambition was to bring radical change to cities and society.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Roberto Burle Marx Lectures: Landscape as Art and Urbanism.'
Excerpt from “The Garden as a Form of Art ” by Roberto Burle Marx
The planned garden seems to have existed as long as written history; it is one of the oldest forms of art. In literature and mythology, it appears early as a conception of the ideal, as a dwelling place for gods—the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Hesperides, the Garden of Allah.
We do not learn very much in detail about these gardens; it would be quite impossible to reconstruct the Garden of Eden from any specifications that occur in Genesis. But we can deduce, rather than discover, what they were supposed to be like; and they appear to have had one element in common. They are ordered reconstructions of nature herself, natural environments from which the element of fear has been removed and which grow in a most perfect and agreeable way with the laboring assistance of man. Where they occur, the objects to be feared are animal, or reptilian, and this to me seems to show that the garden in its ideal conception is a place where man can demonstrate his control of nature—if you like, his friendship for her—by acknowledging his dependence on her.
The garden is not simply a product of idle leisure, not merely one more way in which a successful egotist can add to his self-esteem. It is not a thing to be considered last when the money for a project has already been spent; not a magic blanket to be flung over bad proportions or conflicting masses or poorly planned volumes. The garden is, it must be, an integral part of civilized life: a deeply felt, deeply rooted, spiritual, and emotional necessity.
FORMAT: Pbk, 5.5 x 8.25 in. / 256 pgs / 73 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $30.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $40 ISBN: 9783037783795 PUBLISHER: Lars Müller Publishers AVAILABLE: 2/27/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Roberto Burle Marx Lectures: Landscape as Art and Urbanism
Published by Lars Müller Publishers. Edited by Gareth Doherty.
Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) remains one of the most important landscape architects in the history of the field. His distinctive and widely acclaimed work has been featured and referenced in numerous sources, yet few of Burle Marx’s own words have been published. This collection of a dozen of Burle Marx’s lectures, most of which have never before been available in English, fills that void. Delivered on international speaking tours, they address topics such as Concepts in Landscape Composition, Gardens and Ecology and The Problem of Garden Lighting. Their publication sheds light on Burle Marx’s distinctive ethic and aesthetic of landscape, as “the real art in living.”
The lectures paint a picture of Burle Marx not just as a gardener, artist and botanist, but as a landscape architect whose ambition was to bring radical change to cities and society.
