Lua Cinzenta (Grey Moon)

Burle Marx was a modernist artist and landscape architect who sought to intertwine indigenous folklore with contemporary nationalism and industrial cultivation. He was a strong proponent of preservation and believed that increased exposure to Brazil’s indigenous flora and fauna, through urban parks, would inspire movements to maintain the country’s existing landscapes. His application of dense color blocks in Lua Cinzenta suggestively mirrors the grassy promenades of his landscape designs. The gray moon at center, to which the title refers, places nature at the center of his urban landscape, orienting social and architectural space.

Text credit: Produced in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and by Anna Maydanik