MASP

Author of projects such as the Ibirapuera Park and Aterro do Flamengo, the architect and landscaper Burle Marx lived part of his youth in Berlin, Germany, in close contact with avant-garde painting. After returning to Brazil, he studied painting and architecture at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (1930–34), in Rio de Janeiro. His first landscaping design was for a residence designed by Lúcio Costa (1902–1998) and Gregori Warchavchik (1896–1972). In his landscape designs, Burle Marx treated the crowns of trees and clusters of shrubs as masses of color, at the same time that he explored the variety of tones and textures of Brazilian plant life. After serving as director of parks and gardens in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, he returned to Rio de Janeiro to work as an assistant to painter Candido Portinari (1903–1962). The painting Marine is particularly influenced by the work of Portinari, with a palette of colors chosen in such a way that the figure is first constructed and then simplified. The character of the marine reappears in another two paintings by Burle Marx and in some sketches made with ink. It is always the same rigid and disciplined face, although the composition of the background and clothing varies in each of the versions.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2020

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