The "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive" Exhibit (New York City, U.S.A.)

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive

The Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive exhibition, opened last June 12, 2017 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) marks the 150th birth anniversary (June 8, 1867) of legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most prominent and prolific architects of the 20th century.  In a career that lasted seven decades, Wright designed over 1,000 buildings and completed over 500. 

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This major retrospective exhibition, critically engaging the multifaceted practice of one of the most prolific and renowned architects of the 20th century, seeks to open up Wright’s work to critical inquiry and debate, and to introduce experts and general audiences alike to new angles and interpretations of this extraordinary architect. The exhibit ends on October 1, 2017.

 

Architectural drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright

A radical designer and intellectual who embraced new technologies and materials, Wright pioneered do-it-yourself construction systems as well as avant-garde experimentation, and advanced original theories with regards to nature, urban planning, and social politics. 

Frank Lloyd Wright

The MoMA exhibition showcases, up until his death in 1959, the architect's refined draftsmanship, his obsession with strict axial and geometric plans, and his changing style throughout his working life.

 

Model of Price Tower, Bartlesville, Oklahoma (1953)

The exhibition comprises approximately 450 works, made from the 1890s through the 1950s, from 55,000 drawings, 300,000 sheets of correspondence, 125,000 photographs, and 2,700 manuscripts acquired, in 2012, by Museum of Modern Art and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives in Scottsdale and Spring Green.  

 

Perspective sketch of the Johnson Wax Administration Building (Racine, Winsconsin)

They include architectural drawings, models, building fragments, films, television broadcasts, print media, furniture, tableware, textiles, paintings, photographs, and scrapbooks, along with a number of works that have rarely or never been publicly exhibited.   They include drawings and models of some of his most important projects (Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania, Unity Temple in Illinois, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, etc.).

 

Perspective of Falling Water House (pencil and colored pencil)

Structured as an anthology rather than a comprehensive, monographic presentation of Wright’s work, the exhibition is divided into 12 sections that focus on specific projects or themes in Wright's work, each of which investigates a key object or cluster of objects from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, interpreting and contextualizing it, and juxtaposing it with other works from the Archives, from the Museum of Modern Art, or from outside collections.

 

Scaled model of Maison Civic Center (Monona Terraces)

The central hall showcases his most famous buildings while adjacent rooms are dedicated to his ambitious and now-demolished Imperial Hotel (1913–23) in Tokyo, and the unrealized Rosenwald School (1929) and Nakoma Country Club (1923).

 

At the end of the space are a set of drawings that reveals his plans for a mile-high skyscraper presented in 1956. This area leads to a room filled with Wright's projects in New York City, which include the large restored model of his spiraling Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum completed in 1959. 

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Scaled model of Little Farm Unit (painted wood and particle board)

The exhibition was organized by Barry Bergdoll (Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art) and Meyer Schapiro (Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University) with Jennifer Gray (Project Research Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art).

 

Rosenwald School

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive: 3/F, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth Ave.) , New York City, NY 10019, USA. Open 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM (8 PM on Fridays). Admission: US$25/adult, children below 12 years old is free.