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America's Greatest Architect:
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Karen Brosius, executive director of the Columbia Museum of Art, said, “We are very pleased to bring this exhibition to Columbia, which will be the only venue to see it in the Carolinas, northern Florida, and Georgia." |
Brosius added, "The museum also has many wonderful programs planned in conjunction with the exhibition to further engage visitors in the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright through program collaborations with nationally recognized experts, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as well as Historic Columbia, Columbia Classical Ballet, Columbia Design League, the Columbia Film Society and the Columbia Convention and Visitor Bureau, among others.”
Title: Light screen, Darwin D. Martin House, pair of pier casement windows, Buffalo, New York, 1903
Image Courtesy: The Columbia Museum of Art
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The exhibition focuses on the architect’s relationship to the House Beautiful movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that grew out of a renewed focus on domestic life in the late Victorian period. |
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Wright believed families would “be improved” by living in a tasteful and well-designed house.
Title: Thaxter Shaw House, living area, Montreal, Canada, 1906.
© Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ
Image Courtesy: The Columbia Museum of Art
It consists of nearly 130 objects, many of which have never been on view to the public, and are representative of Wright’s 70-year career.
Title: Japanese Print Table, 1898.
Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ
Image Courtesy: The Columbia Museum of Art
The objects illustrate that his concept of the House Beautiful emphasizes harmony between architectural form and interior function. He had a passion for creating a new way of life for Americans through design and architecture.
Title: Frederick Robie House, dining area, Chicago, Illinois, 1908.
Photograph taken 1916.
Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ
Image Courtesy: The Columbia Museum of Art
In particular the exhibition highlights Wright’s skill in creating harmony between nature, architecture and interior design in a uniquely American way. The exhibition is one of the largest that the museum has presented to date and will occupy all six of the museum’s main floor galleries covering more than 5,000 square feet. Examples of metal work, stained-glass windows, furniture, light fixtures, drawings and architectural plans, textiles, publications and accessories, as well as photographs of home interiors tell the story of Wright’s main contributions to modern life in America.
Highlights are an imaginative wood chair the architect designed for the Sixty Years of Living Architecture Usonian House exhibition (1955), and a dynamic, angular metal and glass hanging lamp from the Dana Thomas House (1903). These two items are from the collection of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Title: Hanging Lamp, Dana Thomas House, 1903.
Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ
Image Courtesy: The Columbia Museum of Art
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Frank Lloyd Wright was the preeminent American architect of the 20th Century. This is an exhibit dedicated to one of the most creative and famous Americans that ever lived. |
Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautiful
Columbia Museum of Art:
November 10, 2006 - February 4, 2007