tidr flwright art and craft of the machine

7/26/2019 TIDR FLWright Art and Craft of the Machine

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9 0

FRANK

lLOYD WRICHT [55)

19 1

Frank lloyd Wriyht, The Art

and

Craft of

the

Machine"

I ~ r a n k Uoyd Wright (1867-1959), one of the United States' foremost architt'Cts,

was a theorist as

well

as a creator

of

buildings and furnishings.

Like

most

designers and architects of his generation, he had been reared on the writings

of John Ruskin and William Morris, and his architectural and theoretical

works, including his renowned Prairie S c h o o l ~ houses of the early 1900s, were

clearly shaped in large part by rhe TWO Englishmen's ideals. However,

in

this

well-known essay,

Wright

declared-in

clear opposition

to

Morris's and Ruskin's

sentiments-that the Machine (a word he deliberately capitalized) an inte

gral parr

of

modern society that had the potential

to

do great good, both

socially and artistically.

Excerpted from Frank l.Ioyd Wright, The An and Craft of the a c h i n e ~ an

address delivered to the

Chicago

Arts

and Crafts Society,

at

Hull-Hou.'>C, March 6,

1901, and to the Western Sixiety of Engineers, March 20, 190

I,

and reprinted in

the

Gualogu( tb( Four/untb Annual bibiti on

th

Chiolgo ArchitufUrtii Club

(Chicago: Chicago Architcctural Club, 1901).

A

e work along our various way., there take hape within U , in some

sort, an

ideal-something we

are to

become-some

work

to

be done.

This, I think,

is

denied to very few, and

we

begin really

to live

only when the

thtill of this ideality moves us in what we will to accomplish.

r

n the years which

hllve been devoted

in

y own life

[Q

working

out in

stubborn materials a feel

Ing for the beautiful, in the vortex of diSTOrted complex conditions, a hope has

K OWtl stronger with the experience of each year, amounring now TO a gradually

,kc:lx:ning conviction that in the Machine lies the only futute of art and craft

I

helic:ve,

a glorious future; that the Machine

is, in

fact, the metamorphosis

lJf ancient an and craft; that we 3re at last face to face with the machine-the

modern Sphinll-whoSC' riddle the artist must solve if he would that art l ive

ti,r his nature holds the

key.

I';or one. I promise whatever gods may be to lend

Mtch energy and purpose II.' I m:lY poSSCS5

t,o

hdp make that meaning plain; TO


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Nt t H D U S 1 R I H

DESIGN

REA1HR

19 1: fRANK lLOVO W ~ I H T 57

reflll'lI ag;lin and ag;lin [ the task whenever :llld wherever need

he;

for this plain

The evidence

is

100 substantial.

(lilly

is thus

rclemlessly marked OUI for fhe artisr ill Ihis.

the Machinc

Age.

Art in the gmnd old sense-meaning Art in Ihe sense

of 51tuClUrai

lradi

ahhough

there is involved all adjustmeOl

f'O

cherished gods. perplexing :tnd

lion, whose crafl is filShioned upon the handicrafl ideal, :Incient

or

modern; an

painful in thc exneme;

the

fire of many long-honored ideals shall go down to

art

wherein this form

and

that form as structural

pans

were bboriously joined

:Ishes 10 reappear, phrenix like, with new purposes.

ill

such a way as

to

bC:lllt'ifully emphasil.e the mann er of t'he joining: the million

The great ethics

of

the Machine 3re as yet, in the main, beyond the ken

of

:lnd

one

ways of beautifully s ~ i l i s y i n bare structural necessities, which have

lilt:

artist

or

student of sociology:

but

the artist mind may now approach the

COllle down [ us chiefly through the

books

as KArl.

n:lwre

of

Ihi thing from experience. which has lx'Come Ihe commo nplace

of

his For

the

purpose

or

suggesting hastily

and

therefore crudely wherein

the

fidd, to suggcsl, in time.

I

hope, 10 prove, that rhe machine

is

capable of carry

machine has sapped the vil'ality

of

this art, let us assume Arelliteemre in the old

ing ro fruilion high ideals in an-higher than the world has yet seen

scnse as a fitting reprcsenlative

of

Traditional-art. and Printing

:IS

:1 filling rep

Disciples ofWiJliam Morris ding to an opposite vicw, Yct William Morris

resentation of the Machine,

himself deeply sensed the dange r to art

of

the transforming force whose sign and

What printing-the machine-has

done

for architecture-the fine a r t -

symbol

is

lhe machine, and though of the new art

we

eagerly seek he sometimes

will have been

done

in measure

of

time for all art immediately fashioned upon

despaired, he quickly renewed his hope.

the early h:llldicmft ideal.

He plainly foresaw that a blank in the fine arts would follow

the

inevit:1ble

[ I

abuse of new.found power. and duew himself body and soul into Ihe work of

And.

invincible. triumphallf, lhe machine goes

on

gathering force and

bridging i, over by bringing into our lives afresh the beauty of an

as

she had knitting Ihe m ~ l e r i l nec(:SsitiC5 of mankind ever closcr into a universal auto

been, rh:u the new an to come mighl lIOt have dropped too many stitches nor matic ftbric; the engine, the momr, and the baltic-ship, the works

of

art

of

the

h:l\Ie Ilnraveled what would still bc useful

10

her.

century

Th:lt he had abundalll ftirh in [he new

an

his every

< . - S ~ a y

will tcstify.

Thc

Machine

is

Intellect mastering the drudgery

of

earth that lhe plastic

an

Th:H he miscalculated the machine docs nOI marter. He did sublime work lllay live; that the margin of leisure and strength by which man's life upon the

for il when he pleaded so well for Ihe process

of

elimination its abuse had made earth can be made beautiful, may

j m m c a ~ u m b l y

widen; its function

ultimatdy

IIl'CeSS:lry;

when he foughr the

innate::

vulgarity

or

theocratic impulse in arl as

10 emancipate human expression

oppo5C:


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hel

THE

INDUSTRIAL

DESICN READER

and

the

Art to comd A distinction made

y

the tool which frees human boor,

lengthens

ana

broadens the life of the simplesl man, thereby Ihe basis of Ihe

Democracy upon which we insist,

[ I

The Art of old

i d c a l i a ~ d

a Structural

Necessity-now

renaercd obsolete and

unnaTUral by the Machine-and accomplished it rhrough man's joy in the labor

of

his hands,

The

new

will

weave for

the

necessities

of

mankind, which his Machine will

have mastered, a robe

of

ideality no less truthful, but more poetical, with a

rational frcl-dom made p O ~ s i b l e by the machine, beside which the an

of

old will

be as The

~ w e c r

plaimive wail

of

rhe pipe: to rbe

ourpouring

of

full orchcsrra,

Ir will clothe Neccssiry with

the

living Aesh of virile imagination,

as

the liv

ing Aesh lends living grnce to

the

hard and bony human skeleron.

The

nl'W will pass from

the

possession of kings and classes {Q the every-day

lives of all-from duration in poinl of time to immortality.

This distinction

is one

to be fdt now ralher than clearly defined.

The

definition is the poerry

of

this M:lchine Age, alld will be wrinen large

in time;

but

the more we,

as

artists, examine illto this premonition,

the

more

we will find Ihe utter helplessness of old forms to s:lIisfy new conditions, and

the crying n(ed

of

the machine for plastic

trealmerll-a

pliant. sympathetic

treatment of its needs that

the

body of structurAl prccedelll

Co,nnot

yield,

To gain further suggestive evidence

of

this. let us { Urn to the Dt'Corative

ArtS-the

immense

m i d d l e ~ g r o u n d of

all art now mortally sickened by the

Machine-sickened that

il

may slough the art ideal of the construclllml art for

the plaslicity of the new art-the Art

of

Delllocr:lcy,

Here

we

iind the most deadly p e r v c r ~ i o n (Jf all-the magnificent prowess

of

the machine bo mbarding the civilized world with the mangled corpses of stren

uous horrors that once stood for cultivatt' O l i . ~ i b i l i t i e s unwillingly forc(.'(11'O degmda

I,or: IRAi' l l LLOYD

WRICHT

h91

tion in the nalne

of

the

artistic; the machine, as f.,r as its ani.Hic capacil'Y is con

cerned, is itself the crazed victim of the artist who works while he wailS. and the

artist who waits while he works.

There

is

a nice distinction beTween the

twO,

Neither class will unlock the secrets

of

the be:lllty

of

this timc,

They arc clinging sadly

to

the old order. and would wheedle the

giam

framc

of things back to ils childhood

or

fOlW3rd

10

iI S second childhood, while this

Machine Age

is

suffering for the

attist

who

accepts. works, and sings

as

he

works, with

The

joy

of

the /}n r and IOIV.

We want the man who eagerly Sl'Cks and finds.

or

bl;lIlles himself if he fails

10 find, the bcaury

of

this time; who distinctly acceprs as a singer :Ind a prophet;

for no ,man may work while he waits

or

wait as he works in the sense that

William Morris' great work was legitimately done-in the sense that most an

and craft:

of

to-day is an echo;

the

rime when such work was useful has gone.

Echoes arc by nature decadent.

Anists who feci toward Modernity and the Machine llOW :IS William Morris

and Ruskin were jus[ified in feeling then, had best distillcdy wait and work

sociologically where great work may

still

be

done

by them. In the field of art

:lcliviry they will do distinct harm. Alrcady they have wrought much miscr:tble

mischief.

If

the artist will only opcn bis eyes he will s(.'(' that the m:tchine he dre:lds

has made it possible to wipe out

the

mass of mcaningless lUnure

to

which

mankind,

in

the name

of

the artistic. has been more or

l c ~ ~

subjected since time

began; for that maner, has made possible a cleanly strength . an ideality and a

poetic fire that the an

of

the world not yet seen; for the rn;lchine, the process

now smoOlhle)s away the necessity for petty structllr:tl deceits, soothes this

wearisome struggle to make things seem wh:lt they are not. and can never be;

atisfies rhe simple term

of

the modern art equation as the ball

of

clay

in

the

~ l l l p l O r s hand yields

to

his

desirc-cornforting

forever

t h i ~

realistic. brain-sick

masquerade we arc wom

to

suppose an.

William Morris pleaded well for simplicity as the basis

of

all true an. Let

LIS understand the significance

to an

of thaI word-SIMPLICITY-for it

is

vilal

10

the Art

of

Ihe Machine.

We may find. in place

of

the genuinc thing we have striven for. an

aWccl'a

lion of Ihe na lve, which wc should detest

as

we detest a full-grown woman with

h:lby mannerisms.

English arl

is

saturated with it, from the brand-new imitation of

the

old

hnuse that grew and ramblcd from period to perio


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1601 THE I N D U S T ~ I L

DESICN ~ E D E R

1905:

JOSIF

HOFFMANN

& KOLOM N M O S l ~ 161]

A natural revulsion of feeling leads

us

from the meaningless elaboration of

lJl}ssible to Olll' the mass of meaningless torrure to which wood has been

today

to lay

lOO great suess

on

mere plalitudes, qu ite

as

a clean shecf of paper

.ulJjcCled since Ihe world began, for

il has

been universally abused and mal

is

a relief affer looking at a series

of

bad

dr:awings-bul

simplicity

is

not merely

UCJted

by

all

peoples bUl the Japanese.

a neutral or a negative

qU:llity.

Rightly appreciatcd, is not lhis the very process of elimin:llion (or which

Simplicily in art, rightly understood. is : synthetic, positive quality, in MMris pleaded1

which we: may

see

evidence:

of

mind, breadth

of

scheme, wealth

of

derail, and

Not alone a protest, morcover,

for

the mach inc, considered only tcchnically,

wilhal a sense of complcfencss found ill a rree or a Rower. A work may have the

If

yOll please, has placed in .mist hands

fhe

means of ide:1lizing (he true nature

delicacies

of

a rare orchid

or

thc stanch fonitllde

of

fhe oak, and srill be simple. wood harmoniously with man's spiritual and material needs, without waste,

A fhing to be simple needs only 10 be true ro iuclf in organic sense.

wlrlJin reach of all.

With this ideal of simplicity, let liS glance hastily ar a few innances of the

[ I

machine and

see

how it has been forced

by false

ideals

to

do violence to rhis sim

plicity;

how it has

made possible the highest simplicity, rightly understood and

T

S

so uscd. All perhaps wood is most :wailable of all homely materials and lhere

forc

naturally, Ihe mosr abused-let us glance at wood.

I. The 1893 WorlJ', u l t l l n b i ~ n

E . x l x ~ i t i o n

in Chkago. Wright detem...J

uniform. d;wici1,

Machinery has been invcnlcd for no orhcr purpose lhan lO imilatc. as

ing architectore:. feeling il

w u

an inappropriate rorm uf

nl'rusiun

for lhe modem United

closely

as

possible. the wood-carving of the early ideal-with the immediate

SlaiCS.

rc:sulr thai no ninety-nine cent piece of furniture

is

salable withoul somc horri

2, Richrcl Crvker (1841-1922)

was

an Irish-burn York City polilician who was a nlem

ble bOlchwork meaning nothing unless if means that art and craft h,wc com

her of the OOrtllpl M'l:lImnany Hall- eily govcrnmc11l, who Ix-co.rnl ridl from lhe \'ribes

bined

to

fix in the mind of the masscs lhe old hand-carved chair as the l t plus -prOtection" money he eollt,clcd

whik

in officc.

ultm of l'he ideal.

J

Culmination

or

U m()jit

lillli .

The

miserable, lumpy rribllle fO this perversion which Grand Rapids4 alone

4, Cr :lnd lUrid$, Michig.UI,

w . o ~

Ihe center

of

the U.S. furniture i l l d l l ~ l r y in Ihe

laiC

ninetttmh

yields would mar the f.tce of Arl beyond repair; to S< Y nothing of the e1abonuc

and c:lrly Iwcmil.'fh centuria.

:lIld

fussy

joinery

of

posts, spindles, jig s,1wcd beams and braces, bu tted and st rut

lcd, [ outdo lhe sentimentality of the already over-wrought antique product.

Thus is the wood-working industry glutted, cxcept in rarest instances. The:

whole scntiment of early craft dcgenerated

to

a sentimentality having no longer

dccent significance nor commerci:ll inttgriry;

in

f.,Ct

all

thal

is fussy.

maudlin,

and animal, basing its cxisttnce chiefly on vaniry and ignorance.

19 5

Now ICI us learn from M a c h i l \ ~

It f ~ a c h e s

us

thal Ihe

bC:luty

of wood lies first in its qualities as wood; no

treatment Ihat did not bring our Ihcse qll:lliries all the rime could be plastic, and

Josef HoftllaM and

Kolollan Moser,

therefore not

appropriate-so

not beautiful, the machine tcaches us, if

we

have

lefl

it

1'0

the machine that certain simple forms and handling are suitable

to

The

Work-Pro'Jram of

the

Wiener

Werkstitte"

bring OUt thc beauty of wood and cenain forms are not; thal all wood-crving

is apl 10

be

a forcing of the material, an insult to

irs

finer possibilities as a male

rial

having in itself intrinsically artistic properrics, of which

its

bcauriful mark

'I'he Austrian architcct-designcrs Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) and Koloman

ings

is

one, its texlUre another, its color a third.

Moser (1868-1918), both membc-rs of the VielUla Secession movemcm

oflhe

The

machine, by

its

wonderful cutting, shaping, smoothing, :md repetitive

1890s, cofounded thc Wiener Werlmanc (Viennese Workshop: 1903-1932)

capacity, has made it possible to so usc il without waste that the poor as well as

with the industrialist

:\nd

collcctor

I ~ r i t l

Warndorfer, who provide(l financial

the rich may enjoy to-day hc:wtiful surface treatmcnts of dean, strong f o r m ~

hacking for the endeavor.

I

MoJeled on C. R. Ashbee's Guild of H:1l1dicraft (sec

that the branch veneers of SheratOn and Chippendalc only hinted at, with dire

next selcction), the Wiener Werkstatte

was

an enterprise dediclted to realizing

extravagance, and which the middle ages uuerly ignored. lhe

idc3S of

John Ruskin and William Morris

by

producing exquisitely hand

The machin '

has

emancipalcd thcS

tidr flwright art and craft of the machine

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