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- On a 20th Century Footing
- the whole story
- Racy, readable, delightful.
- Flawed, like the man
- Fascinating book
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The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship
Roger Friedland , and
Harold Zellman
Manufacturer: Harper
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Binding: Hardcover
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Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders
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Reflections from the Shining Brow: My Years With Frank Lloyd Wright and Olgivanna Lazovich
ASIN: 0060393882
Release Date: 2006-08-22 |
Book Description
Frank Lloyd Wright was renowned during his life not only as an architectural genius, but as a subject of controversy—from his radical design innovations to his turbulent private life, including the notorious mass murder that occurred at his Wisconsin estate, Taliesin, in 1914. Yet, as this landmark new book reveals, that estate also gave rise to one of the most fascinating and provocative experiments in American cultural history: the Taliesin Fellowship, an extraordinary architectural colony where Wright trained hundreds of devoted apprentices, while using them as the de facto architectural practice where all of his late masterpieces—Fallingwater, Johnson Wax, the Guggenheim Museum—were born.
A decade in the making, The Fellowship draws on hundreds of new and unpublished interviews, along with countless unseen documents from the Wright archives, to create a captivating portrait of Taliesin and the three mercurial figures at its center: Wright, his imperious wife Olgivanna Hinzenberg, and her spiritual master, the Greek-Armenian mystic Georgi Gurdjieff. Authors Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman reveal how the idealistic community of Taliesin became a kind of fiefdom, where young apprentices were both inspired and manipulated by the architect and his wife. They trace the decades-long war of wills between Wright and Olgivanna, in which organic architecture was pitted against esoteric spiritualism in a struggle for the soul of Taliesin. They chronicle Wright's perennial battles with clients, bankers, and the government, which suspected him of both communist and fascist sympathies. And through it all they tell the stories of Wright's devoted apprentices—many of them gay men—who found an uncertain refuge in the architect's Wisconsin and Arizona compounds, and who helped the master realize his dreamlike architectural visions, often at great personal cost.
Epic in scope yet intimate in its detail, The Fellowship is an unforgettable story of genius and ego, sex and violence, mysticism and utopianism—a magisterial work of biography that will forever change how we think about Frank Lloyd Wright and his world.
Customer Reviews:
On a 20th Century Footing.......2007-08-16
The 20th Century was to have been the era of transformation in which the human race, and indeed human nature itself was to be wholly revised and repaired. There were as many different formulas as there were thinkers and doers. From Lenin to the Ayatollahs, everyone had a plan to bring paradise back from the lost and found. It hardly needs to be said that all of the various visions found themselves at war with each other. More than 100 million people died in the ensuing competition.
Frank Lloyd Wright thought that transformation would be a natural result of living in a dwelling that conformed with his ideas of "organic architecture". The dwelling would be properly sited in a non-urban, highly programmed, planned community. He hated cities.
In the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright had the opportunity to operate his vision the way a model railroad enthusiast operates a miniature transportation network. The results are instructive. The story is a most entertaining read and well told by the authors, Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman. The writing is excellent. The narrative has everything: sex, power, ego, mysticism, a grand vision, vivid characters, tragedy and madness.
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called the greatest architect of the 20th Century. He may be. It will remain an article of debate for as long as people care about 20th Century building. There is no debate that he lived in interesting times. The Taliesin Fellowship is an excellent mirror in which to glimpse both some of the glory and some of the horror of that time.
the whole story.......2007-08-02
Like many former apprentices I learned much more about Olgivanna
than I knew from my own contact during the time I was apprenticed at
Taliesin. It never occurred to me that she was indeed cruel--I just thought she was
FLLW's means to keep himself free of the logistics of housekeeping.
He never expressed much liking for the mystic Gurjieff, and Olgivanna set up the school
following Wright's death which spelled the demise of Wright's ideas in favor of the mystic.
I am sorry that the existing remnants of the Fellowship at Taliesin
seem to have prevailed in denying this exposition. The idolization of
Olgivanna persists!
The book reveals it all and is a great read!
Bill Patrick
Racy, readable, delightful........2007-07-03
What fun this book is! I could hardly put it down. A fascinating, almost embarrassingly readable entree into a group of brilliant, talented and contradictory people who literally changed the face of America. Frank Lloyd Wright comes across as a conflicted and rather scary genius who attracted star-struck acolytes prepared to put up with his mercurial humors; his family and entourage are equally vividly brought to life, as is the fascinating intellectual and artistic spirit of the times in which Wright's unique vision was born and developed. Some critics claim that sources are not cited - not true, they are, dozens of pages of them, but you don't realize they're there until you've finished the book (no callouts in the main text). Treat yourself to this one, you're almost certain to love it, and learn from it too.
Flawed, like the man.......2007-06-14
If you liked muckraking author Seymour Hirsch's sensationalist book about the Kennedy Administration, "The Dark Side of Camelot", then you'll lover "The Fellowship". If you would prefer an objective, concise, and balanced review of Mr. Wright's architecture as well as his personal life, then you would be better served by reading the revered architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable's recent book, "Frank Lloyd Wright", from the "Penguin Lives" series of biographies. Ms. Huxtable is both a Pulitzer Prize winner and a MacArthur Fellow, which puts her credibility head and shoulders above the authors of "The Fellowship", one of whom sounds like he could be a disciple of Gurdjieff himself.
Fascinating book.......2007-06-12
Not only did this book teach me a lot about architecture, it also presented a highly entertaining soap opera about an incredible bunch of people. Fun read.
Book Description
Frank Lloyd Wright exerted perhaps the greatest influence on twentieth century design. In a volume that continues to resonate more than seventy years after its initial publication, Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography contains the master architect's own account of his work, his philosophy, and his personal life, written with his signature wit and charm.
Wright (1867-1959) went into seclusion in a Minnesota cabin to reflect and to record his life experiences. In 1932, the first edition of the Autobiography was published. It became a form of advertising, leading many readers to seek out the master architect--thirty apprentices came to live and learn at Taliesin, Wright's Wisconsin home/school/studio, under the master's tutelage. (By 1938, Taliesin West, in Arizona, was the winter location for Wright's school.)
The volume is divided into five sections devoted to family, fellowship, work, freedom, and form. Wright recalls his childhood, his apprenticeship with Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, the turmoil of his personal life, and the background to his greatest achievements, including Hollyhock House, the Prairie and the Usonian Houses, and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
Customer Reviews:
great story.......2006-03-14
Not just for architects.... the autobiography of Frank Loyd Wright it's a great story for everybody who's interested in passion for life.
Book Description
The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Unaccountably, the details of that shocking crime have been largely ignored by Wright’s legion of biographersâa historical and cultural gap that is finally addressed in William Drennan’s exhaustively researched Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders.
In response to the scandal generated by his open affair with the proto-feminist and free love advocate Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright had begun to build Taliesin as a refuge and "love cottage" for himself and his mistress (both married at the time to others).
Conceived as the apotheosis of Wright’s prairie house style, the original Taliesin would stand in all its isolated glory for only a few months before the bloody slayings that rocked the nation and reduced the structure itself to a smoking hull.
Supplying both a gripping mystery story and an authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs.
Customer Reviews:
All My Life I Have Been Plagued by Fires.......2007-09-29
Ever since I studied FLW as a freshman in architecture school, I wondered how he made it thru such a dark and difficult time. So when I found this book, I had to get it. I have always admired and actually enjoyed studying FLW designs and visiting his works. I had read that he was very arrogant but most of what I had read just glossed over his personal life and focused on his work.........which is ok. In fact when I can, I tend to use his design vocabulary in my designs. After reading this book I am truly sickened to discover how much of jerk and crook FLW truly was. How a father of six children could leave and not just leave but stay away from them for over a year? I am grateful that I did not know him as a person and that I cannot relate to his behavior at any level.
Given that, I have no idea how such a loser could be such an architectural genius? If it takes an ego of this magnitude to BE a genius, I am grateful that I am not one.
It appears that the author has researched the Taliesin murders in great depth. There are over 30 pages of footnotes! Drennan's analysis for me is sound. The only thing I could not agree with was that FLW's houses became fortifications after the Taliesin murders. If you read the book "Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses" you will find that all his houses were sanctuaries of refuge starting with the hidden entrance. That's one of the characteristics of what his clients loved about the houses, security and privacy. Did FLW look for ways to prevent fires after the murders........yes as all competent architects should, would and do.
It is clear that he got caught up in some bad karma. The Spring Green community hated him the most and believed that FLW committed the murders. Even the parts of Taliesin that were burnt (living quarters) versus the parts that remained untouched (design studio) reflected his life.
There is not much evidence to support racial hatred towards Julian Carlton, the alleged murderer and arsonist, but being so close to the time of the civil war, it seems likely that there was. I still don't understand why they let the wife go. She was found hiding dressed in her Sunday's best? She had answers that remained hidden.
No matter how much FLW deserved getting what was dished out to him, you can't help but pity the man when at the end of the book, one of his apprentices heard him walking the grounds of Taliesin in the dark repeating the following statement over and over, "All my life I have been plagued by fires, All my life I have been plagued by fires.............."
Fire is not a plague but a form of spiritual purification.
Brilliantly written. I had a very difficult time putting this book down.
"Enquiring minds want to know" journalism.......2007-05-14
Mixed view of this book. The author has dug deeply to unearth whatever facts are still out there about this tragedy. And, the story is compelling. However, I am bothered somewhat that recent books on Wright have focused soley on the sensational aspects of his life rather than the work which made him famous and which is still relevant today!
As for the content, I am not totally convinced by the timeline of events which he puts forth. However, he does convincingly demolish the long-standing, accepted version. That leaves some big questions which will probably never be answered. Finally, Bill (the author) has an irritating tendency to constantly refer to Frank Loyd Wright as "Frank". Bill needed a more competent editor.
Well Done.......2007-05-07
This is a fascinating book that is written in an interesting style The history of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders in particular are well documented. Well worth the purchase.
This book has it all.......2007-05-03
William Drennan blends brutal murder, sensational scandal, exhaustive research and thought-provoking theory in this important book. A clear style and a flair for the mot juste make this book both scholarly and page-turning.
At last, an author has had the courage, persistence and skill to delve into Wisconsin's crime of the 20th century. It's a wonder no writer previously tackled this topic, given that it involves a horrific killing that claimed the paramour of America's foremost architect, as well as his signature home design, Taliesin. We're all fortunate Drennan accepted the challenge.
A Great Read!.......2007-04-26
Meticulously researched and thoughtfully presented, Death in a Prairie House is also a great read. I recommend it.
Average customer rating:
- The most content in the fewest words
- So Much that is Wright
- Very interesting biography on Frank LLoyd Wright
- Excellent intro to Frank Lloyd Wright
- A Genius, or A Con Man?
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Frank Lloyd Wright (Penguin Lives)
Ada Louise Huxtable
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright
ASIN: 0670033421
Release Date: 2004-11-04 |
Book Description
From the way we build to the way we live, Frank Lloyd Wright's influence on American architecture is visible all around us. Now, Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize- winning architecture writer for The Wall Street Journal—and chief architecture critic for The New York Times for nearly twenty years—offers an outstanding look at the architect and the man. She explores the sources of his tumultuous and troubled life and his long career as master builder as well as his search for lasting, true love. Along the way, Huxtable introduces readers to Wright's masterpieces: Taliesin, rebuilt after tragedy and murder; the Imperial Hotel, one of the few structures left standing after Japan's catastrophic 1923 earthquake; and tranquil Fallingwater, to which millions have traveled to experience its quiet grace. Through the journey, Huxtable takes us not only into the mind of the man who drew the blueprints, but also into the very heart of the medium, which he changed forever. A story of great triumph and heartbreak, Frank Lloyd Wright is, like Wright's own creations, an expertly wrought tribute to a man whose genius lives on in the very landscape of American architecture.
Customer Reviews:
The most content in the fewest words.......2007-06-14
Books about Mr. Wright, especially those that delve into his personal life, tend to grow like kudzu. Their authors start out intending to present a coherent, concise picture of the man, but they find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information, controversy, and innuendo that swirls about him even today. Too many authors abandon any pretense of order and just splash it all down on paper, leaving the reader to hack through the resulting jungle alone.
Ms. Huxtable's admirable book is the first Wright biography I've seen that resists the temptatation to make the reader do all the work. She tells more about Mr. Wright and about his important buildings in fewer words than any other author. Of course there are errors here and there--most of the principals are long dead, and who can reconstruct a conversation that took place eighty years ago with any accuracy? All Wright biographers, except the syncophants associated with the Taliesin Fellowship, disagree on various points. One must also remember that the Fellowship's mythmaking apparatus started up shortly after the Fellowship began, and went into overdrive after Mr. Wright's passing in 1959, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Having to see through this smothering blanket of hagiography makes Ms. Huxtable's accomplishment all the more remarkable.
Even those who think they know all about Frank Lloyd Wright may learn a thing or two from this book, and it would be hard to imagine a better introductory book for those who know they do not.
So Much that is Wright.......2005-12-20
There is so much that is right about this handy and elegant little biographical volume that anyone who wants to know about Frank Lloyd Wright would find themselves in good company with the brilliant Ms Huxtable.
She knows architecture (her skyscraper book is a classic) and her appreciation of Wright comes through. So does her awareness that the same genius that made such serene spaces also led a wildly tempestuous life.
Having read this book, the reader wanting more that is Wright would want to read Brendan Gill's "Many Masks" and Meryle Secrest's bio of the great architect, too.
Very interesting biography on Frank LLoyd Wright.......2005-12-03
Heather Carolyn Riehl holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Design from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and is currently seeking her Master's degree from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
Frank Lloyd Wright, a biography by award winning architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable is a very insightful novel about a man who made such an impact on the art of architecture during his lifetime. Huxtable focuses both on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright both personally and professionally. Although it seems at times to steer more towards a personal biography, it is essential to understand Wright's background and beliefs to truly appreciate him as the artist that he was.
Huxtable takes us all the way through Wright's life, from birth to death. She briefly touches on the impact that Wright's architecture had following his death as well as some unfortunate family matters concerning the placement of his remains.
Frank Lloyd Wright is depicted in this biography as somewhat of a rebel. He lived by his own rules and detested establishment. It may be fair to say that Wright was somewhat of an egotist, but had he not possessed the confidence that he did, it may not have been possible for him to think outside of the box as often as he did. It was his ambition to create his own style that made him stand out from the rest, and no one was able to get in his way from doing so.
Huxtable explains how Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Japanese art and the philosophies of Viollet-le-duc. Sculpture reproductions of the Winged Victory and Venus de Milo were often used in his interiors. Wright was a very intellectual, knowledgeable man although he had no formal training in architecture.
Being involved with several different women, marrying three of them in his lifetime, it would appear that women were very important in Wright's life. Conceiving six children in his first marriage and two in his third, one might see Wright as a veritable family man although this assumption could not be further from the truth. No matter what was happening in Wright's family life, his architecture always took precedence.
Huxtable examines several of Wright's architectural triumphs, including his many prairie homes which lead to a domestic revolution in the Midwest, Fallingwater which was built for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and his two Taliesin estates, one of which endured a murder rampage and three tragic fires.
Frank Lloyd Wright comes across in this biography as a beatnik architect, if there ever was such a thing. Being educated on the subject of architecture, unexplained references to such people as Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Frank Gehry; I was able to understand the passages, where as a reader completely uneducated on the topic may be confused by some topics in this novel. Subsequently, I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in art or architecture as it is a very interesting look into the life of this magnificent architect.
Excellent intro to Frank Lloyd Wright.......2005-11-03
A briskly written, concise biography of Frank Lloyd Wright that manages to be very even-handed about both his enormous talent and his nearly-as-enormous ego. It's not a thorough study of his life and work (I particularly thought it was skimpy on Wright's later projects; for that reason, I'd probably give it only 4.5 stars if Amazon allowed half-star rating increments), but it is an excellent, quick-read introduction to an incredible architect.
A Genius, or A Con Man?.......2005-05-31
This was written not as a biography but as a project for the Penguin Lives Series by Ms. Huxtable who previously had published THE UNREAL AMERICA: ARCHITECTURE AND ILLUSION. Being an architecture critic, you'd think she would have concentrated on his varied styles and master creations. But she dishes the dirt about his personal life and that of this parents.
He was born on June 8, 1867, in Wisconsin and named Frank Lincoln (after Abraham) Wright, later changed to Frank Lloyd Wright which was a maternal family name brought over to America from Wales in 1844. He has been dead since April, 1959, and the Archives have been opened for perusual by 'scholars' so that his real life is becoming known for scandals instead of innovation.
I was expecting a treatise about the complicated and varied buildings he designed. Chicago is full of them, (as is California) a whole neighborhood in Oak Park on the North Side. The week I stayed with my son when he was a student at the University of Chicago, we passed one near the campus and Jeff wanted me to go inside. I didn't see anything unusual about it, but was assured that the interior held a host of beauty, and unique corners, mantles, etc. He was never able to entice me to stop and go inside. After all, there is so much to see in the Windy City and one week left me craving for more.
Ms. Huxtable claims that his surface life was a creative act and manipulated facts -- no truth whatsoever. Instead of praising his talent and achievements with his architectural wonders, she dealt on his 'painful search for love (some of her "illusion"); he married more than once and suffered the destructive impulses, revenge, destruction and emotional ambivalence of his second wife. The man had no peace. Even with his trouble-filled personal life, he lived to be an old man.
Why bring a big name master builder down to ordinary terms in which she wants to prove that his whole life (as presented) was a lie. This writer believes in airing a celebrity's dirty linen. It was his second wife whose crazy antics ruined his finances and almost his professional life. In 1927, he had opened an office in Los Angeles and started designing his unconventional houses. He was not only an innovator, but a hands-on builder as he dictated every detail.
Russian immigrant Ayn Rand wrote THE FOUNTAINHEAD, which became a movie starring Gary Cooper, about an architect modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright. He appeared to be an architectural Don Quixote. Wesley Peters, who married Stalin's daughter, figured in on his 'afterlife' in Arizona at Taliesin West where Wright's third wife formed a commune after his death.
Others in this series include: ROBERT E. LEE by Roy Blount, Jr., CRAZY HORSE by Larry McMurtry, JOSEPH SMITH by Robert V. Remini, ELVIS PRESLEY by Bobbie Ann Mason, and ROSA PARKS by Douglas Brinkley.
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Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey with Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Calder, and Louise Nevelson
Pedro E. Guerrero
Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
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ASIN: 1568985908 |
Book Description
Pedro Guerrero spent his entire career, more than 60 years, photographing houses of some of the most illustrious American architects and artists of the twentieth century. Emerging from a modest background, his first professional job at the age of twenty-two in 1939 was photographing Taliesin West, the Arizona home of Frank Lloyd Wright. For the next 20 years, Guerrero was the chief visual interpreter of Wright's homes. Guerrero was soon photographing houses belonging to such legendary artists and architects as Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Breuer, John Huston, Philip Johnson, Julia Child, Edward Stone, and Alexi Brodovitch.
Spanning nearly a century, Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey is a fascinating memoir illustrated with over 190 of the author's own photographs. Guerrero steps out from behind the camera and, for the first time, tells his own story along with the stories of the contradictory and complex lives of the extraordinary people he has known, including candid anecdotes about the personal quirks of some of America's legendary magazine editors, architects, and artists.
Book Description
Renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright was an avid and important collector and dealer of Asian art. His personal collection included thousands of Japanese color woodblock prints, and it was his discerning eye that helped build the foremost private holdings in the United States, which in turn became the cornerstones of the important collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This lavish bookówhich accompanies an exhibition at Japan Society Gallery in New Yorkóexamines Wright's passion for Japanese art and illuminates the profound impact it had on his personal and professional life.
Author Julia Meech has devoted years to researching this aspect of Wright's life and work. Her fascinating studyówhich spans Wright's entire career and is lavishly illustrated with color reproductions of works of art and scores of archival photographsóadds a rich new chapter to the body of scholarship on the great American architect.
Customer Reviews:
Another passion..........2003-05-18
To anyone familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural designs, the fact that love of Japanese art, design and print work should come as no surprise. The book 'Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan: The Artist's Other Passion' by Julia Melch gives clear details of the influence of the Japanese on his thinking and creativity, both in narrative and in glorious photography and print.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Wright was born in Wisconsin shortly after the American Civil War. He studied in the late nineteenth century with noted architect Louis Sullivan, with whom he had continuing and occasionally strained relationship. Wright is probably best known in America for the design of the Guggenheim Museum of Art In New York City; more generally, though, he is known for a particular style of low-built prairie-style houses and institutional buildings, that utilised open-space planning, and often had an element of interaction with elements such as water (in fact, a perennial complaint of Wright buildings is that they leak!). Wright was an innovator in incorporating engineering principles into the design of his buildings to provide sturdiness and creative forms of support and room design. In Japan, Wright was well-known for his design of the Imperial Hotel in Japan, as well as other buildings, including private residences of many prominent Japanese citizens. His work in Japan did not extend much beyond the early 1920s, however, and even the Imperial Hotel was demolished in 1968. Wright himself passed away in 1959 at the age of 91.
Wright and the Art of Japan
This book was produced for the Japan Society Gallery of New York by Julia Melch. It traces early affinities and influences of Japanese art on Wright and his work, continuing interest including Wright's almost voracious collecting habits, and the final selling and distribution of his collection late in Wright's life.
'When Wright died at the age of almost ninety-two, he owed money to several Asian art dealers in New York, and there were six thousand Japanese colour woodblock prints in his personal collection, not to mention some three hundred Chinese and Japanese ceramics, bronzes, sculptures, textiles, stencils, and carpets, and about twenty Japanese and Chinese folding screens.'
Some of this collection remains as part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, but much had to be sold to pay debts, including tax bills.
Japanese art probably first came into Wright's sphere of creative influences with the World's Fair of 1893 in Chicago. Louis Sullivan had many books of Japanese design and art in his offices when Wright first joined the firm of Adler and Sullivan. This probably represents the earliest introduction. However, Japanese art was becoming widely available in American and Europe by this time, and Japanese principles were beginning to be introduced in novel ways to various buildings. Wright's first trip to Japan came in 1905, the first of many.
Wright became well-known in Japan, and entered a period he sometimes referred to as his 'Oriental Symphony'. During the time of his work on the Imperial Hotel, he gave an interview which showed his standing and mis-understanding in the Japanese architectural community:
Wright was not only a collector, but was himself a dealer of some standing. Particularly in Oak Park and the Chicago area, his designs for buildings would often include artistic recommendations that he would provide as dealer.
This lead to a major scandal, which Melch recounts in some (sometimes juicy) detail, including Wright's egocentric way of viewing the world and attempt to 'get away' with various controversial practices of manufacture and transfer of art work.
'Wright was an immodest foreigner operating outside the guidelines of the closed community of Tokyo print dealers. He flaunted his money and exuded the thinly veiled bravado of the ace dealer. Prices were escalating, the stakes were high, and h is jealous rivals were no doubt pleased to take him out of the game. Revamping was a new technique, totally unexpected. Greed and anticipation of huge profits had made him careless.'
Wright left Japan in 1922, before completion of the Imperial Hotel. He never returned. In fact, he had few international dealings in art or architecture after this period. He longed for greater international acclaim and exposure, but save a few unfinished projects in Hungary and Baghdad, he had few foreign assignments, and none of note.
Disposing of the collection, both before his death and by his widow after his death, is a tale in-and-of itself recounted in the book. Trading with friends and other art dealers, auctioning off pieces individually and as collections, and giving gifts away reduced the collection somewhat, but Wright continued to add pieces throughout his life.
Julia Melch
The author, Julia Melch, has had a career devoted to Asian art. Educated at Smith College and Harvard University, she has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art organising exhibitions of Asian art. She is currently a senior consultant to Christie's, the famous auction house, specialising in Japanese art works.
This book is produced by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., which has a strong reputation, well deserved, for producing outstanding volumes of art. The colours are vibrant and attractive; the pages are firm and well-suited to the art represented. This is a reference volume, a great coffee-table book, and an interesting narrative read. Giving a perspective on both Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the lens of each other is a unique perspective, well executed.
The Passion of Frank Lloyd Wright.......2001-04-15
It's almost unimaginable that anyone could find something new to say about this protean figure of the 20th Century. And, in fact, another author, Kevin Nute, has also written in recent years about the architect's lifelong fascination with things Japanese. Yet where Nute concentrates on the Orientalist ideas and design concepts that Wright so readily and brilliantly adapted in his own work, Julia Meech turns her attention to a different--and darker--side of the architect's personality: his passion for Japanese prints and art collecting. As she tells it, this obsession (his print purchases often exceeded the money that he took in on architectural commissions) not only drove Wright into bankruptcy, but ensnared him in a debilitating scandal over the resale of "revamped" artworks to several of his wealthy patrons.
Wright, the driven, self-absorbed genius, is everywhere apparent in this fascinating, well-researched saga. But so is the conflicted man behind the famous persona. (This isn't to say that he emerges as a particularly sympathetic figure: Meech relates, for instance, how Wright helped organize a memorial exhibition following the untimely death of his Japanese mentor, the young and talented printmaker Hashiguchi Goyo. She adds, however, that no evidence exists to show that Wright ever owned one of Goyo's prints--a bit ironic given the high regard in which Goyo's work is held today.)
Equal to Meech's riveting account, I would have to say that this is one of the most beautifully-designed catalogs (it accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Japan Society Gallery in New York City) that I have ever encountered. It is both lavish and tasteful, if that's possible, with gorgeous color plates and scads of rare photographs of the architect and his cronies, his places of refuge (including hotel suites and other temporary dwellings chock-a-block full of art treasures), and persons and places relevant to the story. For Frank Lloyd Wright fans already burdened by a surfeit of wonderful books, make room on your shelf for a fine new acquisition.
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Tales of Taliesin : A Memoir of Fellowship
Cornelia Brierly , and
Cornelia Brierly
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship
ASIN: 0764913352 |
Book Description
Cornelia Brierly was one of the first apprentices to attend Frank Lloyd Wright's school of architecture. Before long, she was a working colleague of the master architect; during the last thirty years of his career, she made important design contributions to many of his building projects. Brierly has spent most of her life at Wright's Taliesin (Wisconsin) and Taliesin West (Arizona).
This lavishly illustrated memoir tells the story of nearly seventy years spent with the Taliesin Fellowship. It is an important work, not only because of the author's closeness to the twentieth century's foremost architect but because she has observed at first hand the unfolding of organic architecture -- Wright's design precepts made manifest. In an affectionate, honest, and preceptive book, she celebrates the fellowship as a way of life and brings to life a vibrant community that is still going strong, forty years after Wright's death.
176 pages, size: 10" x 10." 150 color and black-and-white photographs, hardbound book with dust jacket.
Book Description
Fortunately for the many admirers of his architecture, theories, and designs, Frank Lloyd Wright was not only a lover of space and a man of vision--he was also a man who liked to save things. Since he opened his first office in Chicago in 1893, Wright held on to drawings, sketches, notes, photographs, manuscripts, and correspondence. Many of those artifacts survive today in his official archive at Taliesin West in Arizona. Produced in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, this extraordinary book offers a fresh presentation of the documents of one of the world's most famous architects. It is, in effect, a museum in a book. The unique book experience contains 25 interactive, three-dimensional features, removable facsimiles of original documents, never-before-published architectural sketches, and an audio CD containing excerpts from Wright's weekly addresses at his architectural compound, as well as television interviews. Following the proven success of other Wright titles, this is an engaging journey into the life and work of the iconic American architect through words, pictures, and artifacts.
Customer Reviews:
A super book.......2007-07-08
This is a unique book, nothing else like it around. A great coffee table book or a gift for anyone interested in architecture or the works of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Highly recommended.
Very cool.......2007-06-21
A must-have for FLW fans. Can be found remaindered for less but this price is decent. Make sure its in good shape. Well-made, written & produced, worth every penny.
Introduction to FLW visions and growth.......2007-04-04
My first real adventure into FLW's buildings and his visions. I was amazed at the vast size of his buildings and use of nature and the surroundings. Hearing him on the DVD brought additional insights. Review his drawings and letters included. A world of new experience for me.
A Look Inside his Life.......2005-01-24
This book is almost a scrapbook that you might have collected if you had gone through life at Frank Lloyd Wright's side. It's got a book in it, but it's not very big. There an Audio CD of him speaking at various interviews, lectures and other talks. There are removable facsimilies of original documents, both photographs and never before published architectural sketches. There are some hand written notes written by him, including a hand drawn wedding invitation. In short, this is a collection of things that Frank Lloyd Wright saved. It appears that he liked to save things, and remarkably much of it remains in the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's fascinating to look into the life of a genius.
A Book You Have Been Waiting For.......2004-10-22
Readers are likely to discover that this is a book they have been waiting for. Margo Stipe leads readers through various stages of Frank Lloyd Wright's life with remarkably lucid and concise writing. While countless books on Wright include stunning pictures like the ones appearing here, this book's distinctive design sets it apart. Throughout one finds illustrative documents bound into the pages, or in envelope-like enclosures, or in page-size translucent sleeves, or on foldout pages. Handling them gives one a sense of having been present at their creation. Listening to the 60-minute compact disk of excerpts from Wright's speeches and interviews, pocketed inside the cover, has the same effect. This "interactive portfolio" is certain to claim a place in the library of persons wishing to learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright. Offered at a bargain price, it will bring its readers immeasurable pleasures.
Book Description
A must-have for Wright fans and lovers of architecture and design. This comprehensive guide to the life and times of the man widely considered to be one of the most innovative and influential figures in modern architecture provides an A to Z chronicle of Wright's work, family, friends, and the major events that shaped his career. Over 1,000 stunning color photographs include interior and exterior shots of his most acclaimed architectural masterpieces.
Customer Reviews:
Paperback, info is encyclopedic, photos are good sample.......2007-03-28
It does feel comprehensive, with a paragraph on each of the homes he designed. Thank goodness for the size. At 12" tall it can accomodate lots of big color photos. There's about 15 photos that fill the page and another 15 that cover both facing pages. Excellent usage of the size. There is a key system for the listings, Buildings: Private, Religious, Corporate, Public, Commercial or Civic. And keys for Textile Block, Solar Hemicycle, Usonian, Prairie, Demolished, Planned/never built, Remodeled/altered/reconstructed, Exposed concrete black, Desert rubblestone, General information. Once you get it down it does help identify these various categories more readily. There's a 56 page Chronology listing in the back that uses the key code plus distinguishes between houses built and plans or projects as well as some small photos.
The information is comprehensive without being very in depth while also being quite interesting. Twenty-two structures are with numerous photos and further information from about 4 to 10 pages each. It really is an enjoyable book. I feel like I want to give it 4 1/2 stars because it doesn't feel like a masterpiece. But I'll gladly err on the side of 5 over 4 because it really does cover a wide range and I could keep reading it over years learning new things about his various buildings accompanied by very pleasant pictures almost all in color. chrisbct@hotmail.com
Lovely!.......2003-02-24
We collect books on FLW's work, and this one is particularly beautiful.
Wonderful photographs-leave you wanting more information.......2001-01-05
An encyclopedia gives brief information on a subject. This one is no different. Sometimes however, I was left wanting to know the significance of the work. What was it that stood out about Mr. Wright's accomplishment on a particular work. The pictures were very nice but left me craving more information and more detailed pictures of the same house or building. This book is a wonderful start and quick reference with good cross links higlighted in each description. You will be left wanting more information however.
Misses its mark.......2000-06-29
This could be a valuable book, but its worth is diminished by a fairly large number of mistakes. Buildings are mis-identified. Some photos of Wright's decorative features are printed upside down. Other photos are backwards. Several of the aerial views are dramatic, but others seem to be space fillers. One in particular of Forest Avenue in Oak Park shows no details of the homes except for the roofs. With a bit more care in the choice of prints, the photos could have a far greater impact on the reader's understanding of Wright's design genius.
very nice book.......2000-03-07
i got it by 30 canadian dollars from a bookstore in toronto?
Book Description
A complete biography based on a wide range of previously untapped primary sources, covering Wright's private life, architecture, and role in American society, culture, and politics. Views Wright's buildings as biographical as well as social statements, analyzing his work by type, category, and individual structure. Examines Wright's struggle to develop a new artistic statement, his dramatic personal life, and his political and economic ideas, including those on cities, energy conservation, cooperative home building, and environmental preservation. Includes over 150 illustrations (photographs, floor plans, and drawingsâmany never before published), extensive footnotes, and the most exhaustive bibliography of Wright's published work available.
Customer Reviews:
Everything about the life and work of Wright.......2000-06-14
This book is very good to understand the works of Wright. The biography put always in parrallel his life with his works, so it is interesting to understand why he makes one project or another at a certain time. the books has also a good selection of photography and drawings not seen in must of the others books.
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