Marta Montero

The value of the plant in the composition, like the value of colour in paintings, is always relative. The plant is made valuable by the contrast or harmony created by its relation to the other plants. –Roberto Burle Marx

Marta Montero, a landscape designer now living in Argentina, was Marx’s disciple and partner participating in his great Amazonian plant expeditions. She wrote the book, Burle Marx, the Lyrical Landscape and says that the great Brazilian.. artista, innovated the art of landscaping and laid the foundations for the contemporary garden. Having conceived over 2,000 projects in different parts of the world..  parks like Flamengo, and Petrobus marked the urbanism of Rio de Janeiro.  He influenced America and Europe and attained renown for the Copacabana Promenade...

In Brazil today, Burle Marx’s flowing lines and great swathes of colourful plants have been absorbed into a range of styles.

Montero says Brazil is, a country of action and passion, nourished by hopes and dreams.  All these characteristics are present in (his work)..  He lived in Rio de Janeiro, where the landscape is omnipresent.. with its huge bay and granite hills in dramatic and voluptuous formations..  

Perhaps Rio itself is Burle Marx’s greatest testament?  But it is in his gardens where we most deeply savour the supreme artist.

A Garden is the interaction of man and nature, where the right balance between the small interior  world and the immensity of the exterior world recreates harmony and achieves serenity.   –Burle Marx