Frank Lloyd Wright: American Master

by Kathryn Smith, Alan Weintraub (Photographer)

Frank Lloyd Wright presents a stunning overview of the work of this towering American genius, encompassing the entirety of Wright’s long and extraordinarily prolific career. From his earliest work, such as the Home and Studio in Oak Park, IL, of 1889, to the wonderfully evocative textile block houses of Los Angeles of the mid-1920s, to such seminal masterpieces as Fallingwater, of 1935, in the Pennsylvania wilderness, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, of 1956, in New York, the book offers an extraordinarily abundant trove of architectural riches. Featuring more than a hundred discrete works, from the well known to the obscure, expertly discussed in the text of highly respected Wright scholar Kathryn Smith, Frank Lloyd Wright weaves a gorgeous tapestry that will engage the mind and delight the eye.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Nonfiction, History, Biography

400 pages, Hardcover

Published April 21, 2009

About the author

Kathryn Smith is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West (1997) and Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, and Olive Hill: Buildings and Projects for the Aline Barnsdall (1992). Smith is former Professor of Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

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Reviews

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ought to give it 4 stars for the abundance and quality of photographs and the minimum of interpretive text (which some readers might want - I didn't) but if I say that it ought to have been subtitled 'one stiflingly oppressive domestic interior after another' you'll understand my response to Wright. I bear it as a burden.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is a combined commentary on both Frank Lloyd Wright - A Life - by Ada Louise Huxtable and at the same time Frank Lloyd Wright - American Master by Alan Weintraub and Kathryn Smith - the second being primarily a book of photographs.

I began the Huxtable book, in Kindle format, during a long vacation which by its nature discouraged carting around heavy books. I have to mention that as there were virtually no photos in the Kindle book and when I have found photos in Kindle editions they are sometimes less voluminous and less good than in bound books - and my Kindle lacks color too.

Well Frank Lloyd Wright came out in the biography and his trials and struggles and ego and talent and character seemed to be well explained (albeit with some seemingly accurate prejudices or judgments of the author showing through) and presented from several perspectives, Wright’s (as the author thought), the press, the industry, his customers etc etc.

When I returned from the trip I picked up the photo book I had bought for my wife and started to follow his progress and to look at the projects and was able to compare them to the descriptions in the book. The photos are of the projects in a chronological order so both books progress together and once they are meshed there is no need to go back in the pages of either.

Except for the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum and the short exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (both New York City museums) in 2014 on Density vs. Dispersal I really had not seen so much of Wright’s work (except the the Guggenheim Museum in New York as I live there) and a visit for a half day at Taliesin West a few years a go.

So now I was able to see may of the projects as I read the text and the enormity of this mans talents and gifts just come rushing out. It is overwhelming what he could accomplish in that he was more than an architect, not just the building, but the furnishing and decor etc. And further the volume of work that he seems to have turned out.

So I would say that if there is interest in the man or in 20th century architecture, or American architecture, or in romantic tragedies with action this is the combo for you to read. You can get the romantic action tragedies without the photo book but for the other aspects you need a good photographic record to go with the biography I think. Either book alone would no have gotten four stars from me.

[Lenore Kuipers-Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Lloyd Wright was an "American Master". He was an architect, town planner, furniture designer, and author of countless books and articles. He dominated the whole first half of the twentieth century. His career spanned 70 years, starting with the Industrial Revolution and ending in the missile age.
I had no idea that his homes were all over the country; even where I live. They are all over the world! He built more than 500 buildings, and designed so many that never even left the drawing board.
He began in 1893 challenging the way homes/buildings had been built up until that time. He believed his buildings to be "art". It was in Chicago, 1901, that he reinvented the single family American family house. He designed an "open plan", walls and windows were "abstract solids and voids", and space was layered through at the porches, terraces, and gardens beyond. All of the homes designed were in beautiful, spacious, open settings in the hills, mountains, seashore, and in town. Each was different.
He also began his work designing institutional buildings like schools, churches and offices.
Shortly before World War I he traveled on a self-discovery journey to Japan, and then to California and Arizona. During the Great Depression he came back to the Midwest where he began designing radical town planning. At the age of 91, in 1959, he passed away leaving work that was a combination of futurism and nostalgia.
This book is full of full of his work, and explanations of the "period of designing' he was in. The photography of his work is exceptional, as is the unique work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is full, on 98% of the pages, photos of Frank Lloyd Wright's work, I'm still a bit disappointed. His most famous works like outside of Fallingwater and the inside of the Guggenheim museum, aren't the best photographs. I realize the photographer took his own photos, and they couldn't use others copyrighted photos, I still think they could have done a better job. I couldn't really see the inside spiral walkways inside the Guggenheim museum because he only showed glimpses. The waterfall from Fallingwater was shown in a distant shot where the landscape is huge and the house is tiny. As it's so magnificient, why couldn't we get a closer shot to see more! So although the book is good, I thought it could be better.

[Root_rambler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly pictures, very interesting!

[Diane B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well curated collection.

[Dr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like quality, dislike content.

[CD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things keep this from being a 4 star book. The size of the books presentation and the ordering according to the FLW credo.

The latter complaint first is that only certain buildings and houses are 'worthy' of inclusion and then only the official legends of the houses or buildings. Intermediate history including FLW original concepts and ideas are glossed over to a rather pablum versions and we are left with pretty pictures of the 'ideal' Wright house. Even if they weren't Wright's or the clients idea or use.

There is thus no new ground explored as to how the houses were really used. Examples of this include everything from the Robie house that is only briefly mentioned and its role as a major gathering point for cultural figures, to the Bradley house and its 'other' name which FLW enthusiasts' poo-poo even in the face of historical evidence from contemporary publications and business records, to the Dana House built for entertaining.

Each of the aforementioned three as individual sites make sure that visitor are truly aware of there design purpose and use, seemingly to the continued chagrin of the self-appointed 'offical' Wright aggrandizers.

With this brief commentary in mind, most of this work comes off as a catalog of museum sites around the United States Midwest, for the most part, as opposed to anything else. Pretty pictures with no meaningful commentary or commonality in selected imagery that truly displays more than FLW's use of interior light in a period of otherwise dark architectural work.

The 'line' of FLW work while magnificent would be better served with more detail of fewer buildings, and overviews of the entire sites to illustrate truly how FLW incorporated his building in the surrounding landscape.

FLW as an American Master is a secure position denied by none. Now if the keepers of the flame would stretch themselves a notch or two and encourage and assist those with different views than their own in portraying and preserving this great heritage, better books than this would quickly emerge. The material is all there, just look at the photographs that exist. I know the other documentation, from FLW's own drawing and parallel historical records, to buildings that hardly ever are detailed, to views of some those works included here that are the revolutionary evidence as opposed to the 'fancy' and pleasing that we are most often given, all would root FLW as great Master, and not just the creator of the 'Prarie House'.

The pages are just too small at 7 inches high by 10 inches wide to do Weintraubs masterful photographs justice. The color and quality of repro is terrific, but they are just too small for architectural photographs.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of FLW's works, from early on in his career to the end. Brief text on the architecture was helpful, but the pictures let the work speak for itself. Not much text about FLW's biography. Nice horizontal layout complemented the amazing photos. There are lots of books about FLW, but this one is visually artistic in its own right.