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


T.C. Boyle, The Women, 2009Franklin Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 2007Nancy Horan, Loving Frank, 2007


Who are the major authors of Wright’s cannon?

How have these authors shaped the popular perceptions

and narratives of Wright and his work?


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


Overview


Frank Lloyd Wright (1926)Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-36384

Kaufmann Familywww.fallingwater.org


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


Research Question

and Methods


In what ways did Edgar Kaufmann jr. [sic.] shape the conversation

about Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and influences?


Literature Review


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


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


Kaufmann’s Writings:

Major Themes/Concepts

• Contemporize Wright

• Translate Wright’s architecture and verbiage


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)


-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)


Fallingwater


-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.”


• 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


Summary


Conclusions


• Bias towards the later portion of Wright’s career

• Responsible for defining and translating important Wrightian concepts

• Carefully crafted the Fallingwater experience

writing wright’s legacy - idec 2015 kaufmann copy.pdf · bruno zevi henry-russell hitchcock edgar...

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