Prominent Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, son of a German-Jewish father and a Brazilian mother of French, Portuguese and Dutch descent, was an early modernist, and one of the most important of the 20th century. In an exhibit unfolding May 6 to September 18, the Jewish Museum will present his work in New York for the first time in over 20 years, and it’s the first show to focus on the architect’s full scope of work.
Some of Burle Marx’s projects include gardens in Brasília and mosaic pavement design for Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach seaside avenue. But he was also known for his work as a painter, sculptor, and designer of textiles, jewelry, theater sets and costumes, as well as for his collections of Brazilian popular and religious art and his work as an ecologist. His impact as an artist will also be explored via the work of contemporary artists, among them Juan Araujo of Venezuela, Beatriz Milhazes and Paloma Bosquê of Brazil, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster of France, Luisa Lambri of Italy, and Americans Nick Mauss and experimental musician Arto Lindsay.
After its New York run, the exhibition will next travel to Deutsche Bank KunstHalle in Berlin (July 7 to October 8, 2017) and Museu de Arte do Rio in Rio de Janeiro (November 2017 to March 2018).
