Product Description

In an ongoing search to carve their unique visions from the natural world, the artists and architects of the twentieth century have transformed both our physical landscapes and the way we perceive outdoor space. This quest for harmony between the natural and the manmade has yielded some of the most spectacular gardens ever created.

The Modern Garden is the first fully illustrated overview of the great gardens of the 20th century. It portrays hundreds of gardens, from the works of Geoffrey Jellicoe to Roberto Burle Marx, Russell Page to Dan Kiley, Isamu Noguchi to Richard Haag, created throughout the century and around the world. Twelve "masterwork" gardens are explored in special detail; photographed in spectacular color and supplemented by never-before-seen historical images, they come alive in this beautifully produced volume. Masterwork gardens featured: Guevrekian's Hyeres, France; Ludwig Gerns garden, Germany; Geoffrey Jellicoe garden, London; Fletcher Steele, Naumkeag, Massachusetts; Dan Kiley, Miller House, Indiana; Walter Gropius at home, Massachusetts; Mien Ruys, Dedmsvaart Garden, the Netherlands; Roberto Burle Marx, Brazil; Pietro Porcinai, Villa Il rosetto, Italy; Russell Page, Villa Silvio Pellico, Italy; Arne Jacobsen,St. Catherine's College England; Isamu Noguchi, the California Scenario.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #662204 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Library Journal
The image of the garden is ever changing, reflecting the styles, needs, and technology of the times. These three books are fine examples of the current approach to the planning, development, and realization of gardens that utilize human-made materials and innovative spatial design to create nontraditional settings. Cooper's The New Tech Garden employs materials and methods quite unlike anything in the past, e.g., metals; plastics; glass, recycled or new; synthetic fabrics; and solar panels. Examining various sites, both public and private, throughout the world, Cooper provides a glimpse into radical designs for unconventional spaces that result in instant, mobile, and architectural gardens. What is most interesting about these gardens, which the book effectively illustrates, is the feeling of serenity and space afforded by even the most unconventional designs. In The Modern Garden, English cultural historian Brown offers a more conventional work, tracing landscape design and its most important figures over the past century. A wide geographic range of gardens is featured, along with 11 "masterworks," specific sections examining in detail the work of one important artist, from Gropius and Barrag n to Kiley and Burle Marx. Political, cultural, and ecological thinking, which shaped modern garden movement in Europe in the 1920s and the United States in the 1930s, is well explored in the lucid text, which is accompanied by excellent photographs and extensive plans. Finally, Keeney's On the Nature of Things offers an image of landscape architecture from the studios of American professionals. Taking a much more theoretical approach than the other two works, this book deals with a sense of the community and its interaction with nature in the many public spaces addressed. Many of the sites, in the United States and across the world, are new or still in the planning stage, and the philosophy behind their construction is the major component of this work. The final decision as to the universality of the designs and their eventual utilization remains to be seen, but the author does present an interesting aspect of the unique discipline of the architecture of our landscape, external and internal. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
'The most influential gardening book of the year' - The Financial Times 'Read eagerly and enjoy' - The Garden 'Scholarly, yet highly accessible' - The Sunday Times 'Breaks new ground... marvellously fluent text' - The Sunday Telegraph 'Jane Brown's admirable and informed work is very welcome' - Gardens Illustrated

About the Author
Jane Brown has written books on garden design and 20th century culture, including Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, The Pursuit of Paradise, and The English Garden.

Customer Reviews

A Textbook Study of 20th Century Modern Landscape Design
This book was a Christmas gift from my wish list. I did not have a chance to look through it before requesting it, but had seen an enthusiastic blurb in one of my favorite shelter magazines. I was a little surprised to find it contained little "cutting edge" contemporary landscape design. Instead, it is more of a history of "modern" designs in the Twentieth Century. I was hoping for examples of gardens such as those pictured on the cover and featured on this website, but this was not really the case. Many of the photos are in black and white, from past decades and the most intriguing color shots are already on the jacket. There is a great deal of history and detail provided in the text. I think the book is a "must have" for landscape architects, but for a homeowner looking for inspiration for a mid-century house, it wasn't what I'd hoped for. Nevertheless, it has given me a new understanding of the principles which have changed landscape design.

Leave the words; take the pictures.
This is yet another in a series of picture books of pretty gardens. Ms. Brown, no stranger to publishing or to garden history, has assembled, with the help of the beautiful photographs of Sofia Brignone and Alan Ward, a lovely coffee table book, the compact size of which makes it perfect for the small apartment dweller. The text, although lightly footnoted, breaks no new ground. The choice of garden designers is less curious and is the choice of their gardens -- particularly in the case or Pietro Porcinai as the garden at the Villa il Roseto in Florence is far from his most striking works, the well-framed photographs in the book notwithstanding. It is, in fact, one of his more simplistic designs and not the most modern of his works. Perhaps Porcinai's most provocative landscape (as landscapes are also included in the book) is his work on the autostrada near Belluno.

As for the "Gropius Garden," there seems little evidence, even from the lovely photographs, that there is much of a garden to speak of. A stone wall, a tree, and a few stones for a path hardly make a "master work." Moreover, if there was a significant landscape program at the Gropius house in Lincoln, Massachusetts, it is unlikely that Gropius had much to do with it -- his wife Ise would have been far more the guiding hand. It seems that within such a limited book, there are other "master works" far more deserving of note than the remnants of a stone wall and a tree from the "Ise Gropius Garden."

This is NOT a text book ? at least not for a university level course v?but it would be a lovely addition to one?s living room.