Smeared Type

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 A little over a month ago some three hundred people gathered in the soaring atrium of the striking white spiral that is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to honor the memory and (141st) birthday of its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was also the 50th anniversary of the museum’s opening and the 50th anniversary of FLLW’s death which happened a few months before the museum actually opened.

We were there to view an amazing collection of original FLLW drawings and plans, many of which have not been out of the FLLW Archives for decades, and to inspect tantalizingly detailed and newly created models of some of his most famous projects.  In addition, we were also able to walk through a chronologically organized display of the work of the apprentices at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. The school, by the way, awards both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture and has been in continuous existence since 1932.  The apprentice show detailed the shelter design projects the students participate in and featured work from the earliest to the most recent of apprentices.

Finally, we were there to partake in an amazing benefit dinner, the proceeds of which would support the educational programs of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation which was a co-sponsor with the Guggenheim Museum of the exhibit.   

Despite some criticisms from the architectural critics community, the exhibit was memorable and historic.   Yes, some of the drawings appeared faded, some of our favorite buildings were not included, and some of the more technical aspects of the display failed to catch our imagination.  But, so many of these old Wright projects tackled such 21st century issues, and with such contemporary vision.  Many of the new models were a delight to inspect and wonder at—the edges of the pillars in the Unity Temple model come immediately to mind.  Finally, much of the apprentice work achieved FLLW’s educational philosophy of ‘learning by doing’ and creatively reflected his principles of organic architecture.  All this made many of us feel the trip to NY was well worth our time.

I always look up when I first enter the Guggenheim—how can one not—but this time I was seated in the atrium for hours during which looking up was truly easy.  It is not just a flight of fantasy to wonder if  FLLW intended exhibit viewers to become part of the architecture as they walked the spiral.  Looking up at the clean lines of the design, repeated arcs reflecting delicately and differently in the light, the movement of the viewers seemed to add a charge to the scene, as they slowly wound their way up of the ramps.  The amazing display of the Hilllside Theatre Curtain designed by FLLW to reflect his vision of the Wisconsin River valley at Taliesin just hit a high note.

The exhibit closes on August 23rd and reopens at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain on October 21st.  It is well worth seeing and one can wonder just what he would have been designing if he was still alive.

Sandra Shane-DuBow,     Author of academic books and articles on judicial decision making