Writing Wright’s Legacy - IDEC 2015 kaufmann copy.pdf · Bruno Zevi Henry-Russell Hitchcock Edgar...
Transcript of Writing Wright’s Legacy - IDEC 2015 kaufmann copy.pdf · Bruno Zevi Henry-Russell Hitchcock Edgar...
Writing Wright’s Legacy: Edgar Kaufmann jr. on Frank Lloyd Wright
IDEC Conference—March 2015
Elise L. King
Assistant Professor
Baylor University
Elise King IDEC 2015
Background
Elise King IDEC 2015
T.C. Boyle, The Women, 2009Franklin Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 2007Nancy Horan, Loving Frank, 2007
Elise King IDEC 2015
Who are the major authors of Wright’s cannon?
How have these authors shaped the popular perceptions
and narratives of Wright and his work?
Elise King IDEC 2015
9
1…
2…
3…
Grant Carpenter Manson
Bruno Zevi
Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Edgar Kaufmann jr.
Wright Scholarship: The First WaveBooks and articles published between 1930 and 1990
Numbers from Robert Sweeney’s Frank Lloyd Wright: An Annotated Bibliography was used to determine the number of writings.
Most Prolific Authors
Elise King IDEC 2015
Overview
Elise King IDEC 2015
Frank Lloyd Wright (1926)Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-36384
Kaufmann Familywww.fallingwater.org
Elise King IDEC 2015
1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
JoinsTaliesin Fellowship
1934
Born1910
Becomes MoMA’s Director of
Industrial Design
1946
Gives Fallingwater to Western Pennsylvania
Conservancy
1963
Died1989
“Plasticity, Continuity,
and Ornament”
1978
Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House
1986
Elise King IDEC 2015
Research Question
and Methods
Elise King IDEC 2015
In what ways did Edgar Kaufmann jr. [sic.] shape the conversation
about Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and influences?
Elise King IDEC 2015
Literature Review
Elise King IDEC 2015
Kaufmann’s Publications on Wright
1950:
“Frank Lloyd Wright at the Strozzi.” Magazine of Art 44 (May1951): 190-192.
“Three New Buildings on the Pacific Coast.” Architecture Yearbook 4 (1952): 55-63.
“The H.C. Price Tower.” Architectural Record 119 (February 1956): 153-160.
“One Hundred Years of Significant Building.” Architectural Record 120 (October 1956): 194.
“Frank Lloyd Wright: Three New Churches.” Art in America 45 (Fall 1957): 22-25.
“Constructive Vision.” Progressive Architecture 39 (March 1958): 246, 248.
“The Form of Space for Art—Wright’s Guggenheim Museum.” Art In America 46 (1958-1959): 74-77.
“Architectural Coxcombry or The Desire for Ornament.” Perspecta 5 (1959): 5-15.
1960:
“Centrality and Symmetry in Wright’s Architecture.” Architect’s Yearbook 9 (1960):120-131.
Kaufmann & Ben Raeburn eds. Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings & Buildings. Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1960.
“Nineteenth-Century Design.” Perspecta 6 (1960): 56-67.
“Frank Lloyd Wright and the Fine Arts.” Perspecta 8 (1963): 37-42.
“Memmo’s Lodoli.” The Art Bulletin 46, no 2 (June 1964): 159-175.
“Frank Lloyd Wright’s Years of Modernism, 1925-1935.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians24, no 1 (March 1965): 31-33.
Kaufmann and Bruno Zevi eds. La Casa Sulla Cascata di F. Ll. Wright. Milan: Et AKompass, 1965.
“The Usonian Pope-Leighey House.” Historic Preservation 17 (May-June 1965): 96-97. 71.
“Crisis and Creativity: Frank Lloyd Wright, 1904-1914.” JSAH 25, no 4 (December 1966): 292-296.
“Design: Sans Peur et sans Resources.” The Architectural Forum 125, no 2 (September 1966): 68-70.
“Frank Lloyd Wright: The Eleventh Decade.” Architectural Forum 130, no 5 (June 1969): 38-41.
2
4
6
8
10
12
1950 1960 1970 1980
Num
ber
of
Public
ations
1970:
“Environment Is an Art.” JSAH 28, no 8 (April 1970): 321-330.
“Viewpoints: A series of interviews with architects, interior designers, product designers and observers of
the design scene.” Interior Design 43, no 9 (September 1972): 142-143.
“The Arts and Crafts: Reactionary or Progressive?” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 34, no2 (1975): 6-12.
“Frank Lloyd Wright: Plasticity, Continuity, and Ornament.” JSAH 37, no 1 (March 1978): 34-39.
1980:
“Precedent and Progress in the Work of Frank Lloyd Wright.” JSAH 39,no 2 (May 1980): 145-149.
“’Form Became Feeling,’ a New View of Froebel and Wright.” JSAH 40, no 2 (May 1981): 130-137.
“Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mementos of Childhood.” JSAH 41, no 3 (October 1982): 232-237.
Frank Lloyd Wright at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.
Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House. New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.
“How Wright was Wright.” House and Garden 158, no 8 (August 1986): 140-144, 168-170.
9 Commentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1989.
Books
Elise King IDEC 2015
0
30
60
90
120
150
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
Work
s
Decades
Fallingwater(1936)
Wright Dies(1959)
Taliesin(1911)
Taliesin West(1937)
Oak ParkHome/Studio
(1889)
Robie House(1909)
Kaufmann Dies(1989)
X X
Wright
Kaufmann
Wright and Kaufmann Productivity Timeline Showing number of works with major life events noted
Elise King IDEC 2015
Kaufmann’s Writings:
Major Themes/Concepts
• Contemporize Wright
• Translate Wright’s architecture and verbiage
Elise King IDEC 2015
Contemporize
• Indeterminacy “Design sans peur et sans ressources”“Frank Lloyd Wright: The Eleventh Decade” (1969)
• Systems“The Usonian Pope-Leighey House” (1965)
“Plasticity, Continuity, and Ornament” (1978)
Frank Lloyd Wright Country House (1968)
Elise King IDEC 2015
-Kaufmann “Plasticity, Continuity, and Ornament”
“Wright’s statements have character and direction, but he often
obscured the underlying thought in turgid, inconsistent phrasing.”
“Translate”“Plasticity, Continuity, and Ornament” (1978)
9 Commentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright (1989)The Non-Residential Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1995)
Elise King IDEC 2015
Fallingwater
Elise King IDEC 2015
-Edgar Kaufmann jr. Entrusting Fallingwater to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
October 1963
“Conservation is not preservation: preservation is stopping life to
serve a future contingency; conservation is keeping life going.”
Elise King IDEC 2015
• Only major Wright-designed house to open to the public with its
furnishings, artwork, and setting intact
• More than 4.5 million visitors
• One of the most recognizable Wright works
Elise King IDEC 2015
Elise King IDEC 2015
Summary
Elise King IDEC 2015
Conclusions
Elise King IDEC 2015
• Bias towards the later portion of Wright’s career
• Responsible for defining and translating important Wrightian concepts
• Carefully crafted the Fallingwater experience