"Recipient of 2019 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize, Foundation for Landscape Studies
2021 On the Brinck Book Award Winner
""Burle Marx created a new and modern grammar for international landscape design.""
-Lauro Cavalcanti, quoted in the New York Times
""The real creator of the modern garden.""
-American Institute of Architects
Presenting the first English translation of Burle Marx's ""depositions,"" this volume highlights the environmental advocacy of a preeminent Brazilian landscape architect who advised and challenged the country's military dictatorship.
Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) is internationally known as one of the preeminent modernist landscape architects. He designed renowned public landscapes in Brazil, beginning with small plazas in Recife in the 1930s and culminating with large public parks in the early 1960s, most significantly the Parque do Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. Depositions explores a pivotal moment in Burle Marx's career-the years in which he served as a member of the Federal Cultural Council created by the military dictatorship in the mid-1960s. Despite the inherent conflict and risk in working with the military regime, Burle Marx boldly used his position to advocate for the protection of the unique Brazilian landscape, becoming a prophetic voice of caution against the regime's policies of rapid development and resource exploitation.
Depositions presents the first English translation of eighteen environmental position pieces that Burle Marx wrote for the journal Cultura , a publication of the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Culture, from 1967 through 1973. Catherine Seavitt Nordenson introduces and contextualizes the depositions by analyzing their historical and political contexts, as well as by presenting pertinent examples of Burle Marx's earlier public projects, which enables a comprehensive reading of the texts. Addressing deforestation, the establishment of national parks, the place of commemorative sculpture, and the unique history of the Brazilian cultural landscape, Depositions offers new insight into Burle Marx's outstanding landscape oeuvre and elucidates his transition from prolific designer to prescient counselor."
By:
Catherine Seavitt Nordenson
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 254mm,
Width: 178mm,
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9781477327609
ISBN 10: 1477327606
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 31 May 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: Roberto Burle Marx and the Ecological Modern Chapter 1. Constructing Culture in Brazil: Politics and the Public Landscape Chapter 2. Forest Narratives Brazilian Landscapes, April 27, 1967 Suggestions for the Preservation of National Parks, August 1967 Forest Politics and the Destruction of Forests, March 25, 1969 Forest Conservation, February 12, 1971 Chapter 3. Landscapes of the Baroque Interior Parks, Gardens, and Public Plazas, May 23, 1968 Cultural Contribution, November 28, 1968 Defense of Nature Reserves, June 27, 1969 Defense of the Landscape, August 25, 1969 Chapter 4. Large Parks, Statues, and Disfigurement Statues in Gardens, August 29, 1968 Sacrificed Landscape, January 28, 1969 Preservation of Landscape Conditions, September 17, 1970 Landscape Complex, July 7, 1973 Green Spaces, July 11, 1973 Chapter 5. The Scientific Park Current Conditions at the Botanical Garden, February 7, 1968 The Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, September 27, 1968 The Botanical Garden and Woodland Nursery, August 26, 1969 The Botanical Garden of Belo Horizonte, May 6, 1970 Chapter 6. Military Gardens Garden and Ecology, July–September 1969 Epilogue: The Counselor Acknowledgments Notes Index
Catherine Seavitt Nordenson is a professor and director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the City College of New York. is an associate professor at the City College of New York. She coauthored On the Water: Palisade Bay and coedited Waterproofing New York.
Reviews for Depositions: Roberto Burle Marx and Public Landscapes under Dictatorship
Depositions offers an understanding of Burle Marx beyond his gardens and parks; it is a solid introduction to both his work and Brazil’s quest to establish its cultural identity. * Architectural Record * Depositions is a well-researched, well-written, and laudatory study that substantially adds to, and significantly amends, our view of Burle Marx as a landscape architect and cultural figure. * Landscape Journal * [Depositions] opens new perspectives on Burle Marx's work, revealing facets of his celebrated projects and legacy that too often go unspoken…This seminal book will enable greater understanding not only of Burle Max's position as a designer operating under dictatorial conditions but also of the convoluted circumstances underlying Brazil's modern architectural history. * Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians * [Depositions] sheds new light on Burle Marx’s intellectual position and serves as a valuable map of the local sociopolitical context, in its complexities and contradictions since colonial times. * ABE Journal *
