Frank Lloyd Wright, Complete Works, Vol.2, 1917-1942
The definitive publication on America's greatest architect
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is widely considered the greatest American architect of all time; his work ushered in the modern era and remains highly influential today—half a century after his death. TASCHEN's three-volume monograph covers all his designs (numbering approximately 1100), realized and unrealized. Made in collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Taliesin, Arizona, this collection leaves no stone unturned in examining and paying tribute to Wright's astonishing life and work.
Whereas the first volume covers the early Chicago years , this second volume deals with the work after World War I, beginning with the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and covering Wright’s quest to design affordable houses with systematic construction methods and the Usonian concept house, with the forest-sited villa Fallingwater being the dramatic climax.
The years spent working in Japan were followed by personal turmoil. In late 1922, Wright divorced from first wife Catherine, and the following year married Miriam Noel. Yet barely six months later she left, initiating a bitter divorce. Shortly after, Wright met his third wife, Olgivanna. During this difficult period a second fire at Taliesin strained his already parlous finances; the bank foreclosed, leaving him without home or studio. With nowhere to practice, he started writing magazine articles, and his autobiography (published in 1932 to great acclaim).
From 1917 through the Depression, up until 1942, though he designed continually, Wright saw many projects go unrealized, but nevertheless had the chance to build on new concepts and in new regions. His block building system led to idiosyncratic works like the famous Ennis house in Los Angeles, and in 1936 he completed the Herbert Jacobs house, using his new "Usonian" techniques, designed to be affordable for the middle-American family. The same year he moved to Arizona where, at the age of 71, Wright embraced his rugged new life in the desert, and with his students started building the Taliesin West complex. After receiving a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, he returned to see his Johnson Administration Building opened to great fanfare, nationwide publicity, and lines around the block waiting to tour inside. Despite adversity, Wright emerged from this era with reputation restored and vitality renewed—as manifested in Fallingwater and the Johnson building—while his Usonian homes began to alter the way Americans lived.
About the author:
Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer became Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice at the Taliesin Fellowship in 1949. In 1957, he attended the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, returning in 1958 to continue his apprenticeship with Wright until his death in 1959. He remains at Taliesin to this day, as director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, a vice-president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and author of numerous publications on Wright's life and work.
About the editor:
Peter Gössel runs a practice for the design of museums and exhibitions. He is the editor of TASCHEN's monographs on Julius Shulman, R. M. Schindler, John Lautner and Richard Neutra, as well as the editor of the Basic Architecture Series.
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Frank Lloyd Wright, Complete Works, Vol.2, 1917-1942
Gössel, Peter (Editor)
Brooks Pfeiffer, Bruce Hardcover, 40 x 31 cm (15.7 x 12.2 in.), 488 pages $ 200.00 |
- Reviews (22 items)
"Couvrant la période qui constitue le milieu de sa vie d'architecte, et qui l'aura vu traverser les pires épreuves, ce deuxième volet des oeuvres complètes de Frank Lloyd Wright est certes monumental par son format, mais tout autant par la profondeur de son contenu. Débordant de dessins pour témoigner des nombreux projets qui n'ont jamais vu le jour, il contient aussi des photographies époustouflantes, notamment de Taliesin West et de Fallingwater. Ce n'est que pur bonheur de butiner d'un projet à l'autre, de découvrir ou de redécouvrir ce vocabulaire si particulier qui était propre au grand architecte, lui qui savait aussi se réinventer en fonction des lieux et de la commande. On a déjà hâte de mettre la main sur le troisième volume de la série."
Esquisses, Québec, Canada
Esquisses, Québec, Canada
- Clippings (16 items)
The Frankophile’s Library
metropolismag.com, United States, May 28, 2010
metropolismag.com, United States, May 28, 2010
- See also (12 items)
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Julius Shulman, Modernism Rediscovered, 3 Vols. The revelation of Julius Shulman’s concealed treasures: modernist architecture highlights seen through the eyes of the world famous photographer |
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Jean Nouvel by Jean Nouvel, Complete Works 1970-2008 The work of France's internationally celebrated contemporary architect—and recipient of the 2008 Pritzker Prize—in a book designed by the master himself. |
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Frank Lloyd Wright, Complete Works, Vol.3, 1943-1959 The first book in an exhaustive three-volume monograph featuring all of Wright's 1,100 designs, both realized and unrealized. This volume covers the postwar years and the "living architecture" period. |