TY - JOUR T1 - G 59: A Manifesto for an Ambivalent Modernism JF - Landscape Journal SP - 236 LP - 251 DO - 10.3368/lj.26.2.236 VL - 26 IS - 2 AU - Annemarie Bucher Y1 - 2007/09/21 UR - http://lj.uwpress.org/content/26/2/236.abstract N2 - The first Swiss Horticulture Exhibition, known as G 59, took place on Lake Zürich in 1959. Despite its horticultural label, G 59 was intended to demonstrate that landscape architecture was a modern profession with defined boundaries, a strong theoretical foundation, and recognizable contemporary aesthetics. However, G 59 was also a contested field between professional landscape architects and gardening trade organizations. In an effort to distance themselves from the more service-oriented discipline, landscape designers established a rapprochement with contemporary art and theory, specifically, Concrete Art and Tachism. This paper investigates the reorientation of Swiss landscape architecture from a profession with roots in horticulture to one with theoretical and aesthetic claims. G 59 can be seen not only as a venue for and an expression of this reorientation, but also as a manifesto through which landscape architects communicated their beliefs to design colleagues and the wider public. ER -