Art Deco In The Works Of Frank Lloyd Wright 1910-1920s

Art Deco In The Works Of Frank Lloyd Wright 1910-1920s
Art Deco In The Works Of Frank Lloyd Wright 1910-1920s

Video: Art Deco In The Works Of Frank Lloyd Wright 1910-1920s

Video: Art Deco In The Works Of Frank Lloyd Wright 1910-1920s
Video: History Of Architecture from 1760 until 1960s | تاريخ العمارة من 1760 الى 1960 2024, March
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The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1867. The fame of his style has long stepped over the range of scientific publications and even in Russia has grown into a real popular love for the "house in the style of Wright." Who has not seen or even designed mansions in this style near Moscow? However, almost none of us have seen these houses of his in nature. All of them, scattered kilometers from the center of Chicago and having survived a century since their construction, form a circle of buildings united by the will of this brilliant master, who literally managed to create his own radical style from scratch. And it seems from Wright's biography that the iconic image of an innovative architect, who draws everything from a doorknob to a skyscraper, is written off. However, was Wright's architectural career a happy one?

Having built a total of more than 350 mansions, Wright found himself squeezed into the framework of his own genre - a country house, freely spread over the territory, at the same time "rooted in the ground" and otherworldly, levitating. As it seems, Wright's houses are always designed with low floors with strongly raised cornices, neatly painted rare details and exquisite stained glass windows. But what was it, a manifestation of luxury or economy? In the context of the construction in New York and Chicago of dozens of richly decorated high-rise buildings of the 1900s and 30s, this is more likely the second.

Known to us today as "houses in the Wright style", these mansions were largely dictated by Japanese culture, familiarity with which took place at the World's Fair in Chicago (1893). It was there that the Japanese pavilion, executed in the traditional style, struck the imagination of the young architect - both with the rigid geometry of forms and the contrasting combination of colors. Wright saw in this not exotic, but the style of the future. [1] Without receiving a classical architectural education, Wright worked in the studio of Louis Sullivan for the first years. However, the contact of these two geniuses - the figure of Sullivan deserves a separate story - gave a spark. They could not work together, one born with a compass in his hand, the other with a square. Everything that Sullivan had drawn curvilinearly, Wright turned out to be orthogonal. [2] And so, starting with Winslow's home in Oak Park (1893), Wright seeks a path to independent architectural work. [3]

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Роби хаус в Чикаго Ф. Л. Райт 1908 Lykantrop / free use
Роби хаус в Чикаго Ф. Л. Райт 1908 Lykantrop / free use
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We emphasize that in the 1900s, Wright laid the foundations for both avant-garde and art deco. Actually, his "teacher" Sullivan can be considered as a pioneer of Art Deco.

[4] Both of them, so different, became the founders of this new style. And only after many years, American architects will finally "see" and appreciate the revolutionary beauty and innovation of the works of Sullivan and Wright. [5] The remote outskirts of Chicago and small neighboring towns are now known only for these buildings. In Chicago, the author of these lines was lucky to see only two buildings of the great master - the famous Robie House (1908) and the monumental Unity Temple (1906), built by Wright in Oak Park. But even that was enough to appreciate the powerful power of this complex, innovative art.

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Вестибюль станции метро «Сокольники», 1935 Фотография: 1935 / Pastvu
Вестибюль станции метро «Сокольники», 1935 Фотография: 1935 / Pastvu
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Robie House, a modest mansion, has become the most famous example of the American avant-garde and so-called. "Prairie style".

[6] However, it has become an amalgamation of a wide variety of aesthetic ideas - its interiors have become the embodiment of Orientalism, and the horizontal cornices seem to already foreshadow the aesthetics of streamline, one of the trends in architecture and design of the 1920s and 30s. A rare imitation of the style of the Chicago master in the USSR was the ground lobby of the Sokolniki metro station (1935). This is indicated by the general proportions and simplified profiles, as well as windows and plinths crowned with characteristic vases. Wright's indirect influence is felt in the works of E. Mendelssohn and O. Perret. [7] Note that in architecture examples of "ribbed style" and streamline appear 10-20 years earlier than similar forms in automotive design.

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The most notable influence Wright's style had on the formation of the architecture of the Amsterdam School.

[8] The Town Hall in Hilversum (V. Dudok, 1928) appears to be the largest example of the European avant-garde, but its forms almost literally cite the Chicago source. In Hilversum, the viewer is presented with the image of Robie House, enlarged to the size of the town hall, retaining all the details of the prototype - monumental window pedestals, horizontal cornices and checkered strips of recessed windows. The chimney of the mansion that has grown into the ground has turned into a bell tower hovering over the reservoir.

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Ратуша в Хильверсуме, В. Дудок, 1928 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
Ратуша в Хильверсуме, В. Дудок, 1928 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
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Юнититемпл в Оак парке, Чикаго, Ф. Л. Райт, 1906 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
Юнититемпл в Оак парке, Чикаго, Ф. Л. Райт, 1906 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
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In the architecture of Unity Temple, Wright's fascination with Japanese culture is evident (especially, as in Robi House, in the interior), and the master's discovery of new stylistic forms - the fantasy geometrization of Art Deco and the abstraction of the avant-garde.

[9] Moreover, the plasticity of this church combines both neoarchaic, Aztec images, and technocratic, machine images. The Unity Temple is the rarest, realized example from a whole series of Wright's projects, created in early Art Deco forms in the 1900-10s. But even this one monument speaks of its creator as a great master who paved a new path along which all new steps could be taken.

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Синагога в Амстердаме, Г. Элте, 1927 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
Синагога в Амстердаме, Г. Элте, 1927 Фотография: Андрей Бархин
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ПроектКолл пресс билдинг, Сан Франциско, Ф. Л. Райт, 1912 Слева: Фрэнк Ллойд Райт рядом с макетом проекта в Сан-Франциско / фотография Bill Ray. Справа: ПроектКолл пресс билдинг, проект, Ф. Л. Райт, 1912
ПроектКолл пресс билдинг, Сан Франциско, Ф. Л. Райт, 1912 Слева: Фрэнк Ллойд Райт рядом с макетом проекта в Сан-Франциско / фотография Bill Ray. Справа: ПроектКолл пресс билдинг, проект, Ф. Л. Райт, 1912
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The period 1910-1920s became an era of exchange of architectural innovations for Europe and the United States, and after the 1925 exhibition in Paris, the fashion for a new style, Art Deco will completely take over the cities of America. However, as early as 1910, a two-volume edition of F. L. Wright's projects and buildings was published in Berlin, and it had a significant impact on the development in Europe of the avant-garde and art deco. Unity Temple responded by building in Amsterdam and repeating its forms, buildings - the Synagogue (G. Elte, 1927) and the Jerusalem Church (FB Jantsen, 1929).

Холлихок хаус в Лос-Анджелесе, Ф. Л. Райт, 1919-22 Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois / CC BY-SA 2.0
Холлихок хаус в Лос-Анджелесе, Ф. Л. Райт, 1919-22 Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois / CC BY-SA 2.0
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In early Art Deco aesthetics, F. L. Wright was willing to create more than just mansions. One of the first examples of the "ribbed style" could have been the Call Building, designed for San Francisco in 1912. The National Life Insurance Building for Chicago (1924) became a masterpiece of the master. However, the community of architects and customers in those years actually rejected the master. Wright was not perceived as an architect fit for high-rise buildings. And this is in the 1920s, that is, the years of mass construction of high-rise buildings and the flourishing of their style - Art Deco.

Еннис хаус в Лос-Анджелесе, Ф. Л. Райт, 1924 Mike Dillon / CC BY-SA 3.0
Еннис хаус в Лос-Анджелесе, Ф. Л. Райт, 1924 Mike Dillon / CC BY-SA 3.0
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«Дом над водопадом», Ф. Л. Райт, 1936 Фотография: Carol M. Highsmith / Библиотека Когресса США / public domain
«Дом над водопадом», Ф. Л. Райт, 1936 Фотография: Carol M. Highsmith / Библиотека Когресса США / public domain
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During those years, Wright worked in Japan, and then in Los Angeles, where he built a magnificent series of private villas and mansions. [10] These are Hollyhock House (1919-1922), Millard House (1923), Storer House (1923), Freeman House (1923), Ennis House (1924), built of concrete in the architecture of the so-called. "Textile blocks". [11] And their plasticity embodied a paradoxical synthesis of neoarchaic and technocratic motives, but this gave the strongest artistic result here. Thus, the evolution of F. L. Wright's style in the 1910s and 1920s consisted in the complication of architectural decoration and an approach to the Art Deco aesthetics.

Wright's work was extremely diverse, it was a sequential movement from one concept to another - from "prairie style" to "textile blocks" and "Yusonian houses". [12] However, if at the turn of the 1900-10s the works of the master were really ahead of their time - both in architectural graphics, and in plasticity and composition of volumes, then at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, when Art Deco architecture reached its heyday, Wright was not in demand. [13] Moreover, while at the turn of the 1910s-1920s in the works of the master there is a certain convergence of the fantasy-geometrized plastics of his mansions with frank neoarchaic, Mesoamerican stylization, the aesthetics of the avant-garde are already emerging in Europe and the USSR. [14] And in the 1920s and 1930s. Wright's architecture, paradoxically, turned out to be no longer relevant either in the capitals erected in the classics - Washington and Moscow, or in the creative laboratories of VKhUTEMAS and Bauhaus. [15]

The most radical gesture in Wright's work in the 1920s and 1930s was the famous House Above the Falls (1936). It was, in the words of the master, a sample of the so-called. "Organic architecture". [16] Such terminology may at first confuse the table a little, because the reinforced concrete consoles of the Houses Above the Falls are as “organic” in the moisture-saturated Pennsylvania forest as the neoclassical porticoes. However, the principles of "organic architecture", "organic architecture" F. L. Wright were the evolution of the ideas of Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), his thesis "Form follows function." Despite the controversy, Wright maintained a permanent respect for his senior colleague, calling him "Lieber Meister", "Dear Teacher." [17]

The House Above the Waterfall became the manifesto of avant-garde abstraction. Not many people who have been to the United States have seen this object. [18] Hundreds of miles from New York and Chicago, and lost in the woods near Pittsburgh, it remains one of Wright's most inaccessible and compelling legacy lovers. However, created in the second half of the 1930s, that is, years after the heyday of the Soviet avant-garde, this monument seems to be a belated response to the innovations of Europe and the USSR. [19]

According to the amazing symmetry of history, the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and the Soviet architect I. V. Zholtovsky (1867-1959) went their way in the same years. [20] So different - Zholtovsky, who worked for more than 30 years for the state and implemented a dozen neo-Renaissance buildings in Moscow, and Wright, an innovator who worked exclusively for a private customer. In this parallel, it seems, there is nothing in common other than the similarity of numbers, dates of birth and death. However, this is seen as a characteristic illustration of two creative strategies - some compose the language, others speak it skillfully. W. A. Mozart was born to create a new harmony, S. T. Richter - to perform this harmony. And the work of Frank Lloyd Wright brilliantly demonstrates to us the triumph of the first principle. Material prepared for Archi.ru and Isolationmag.ru

[1] In 1905, Wright took a trip to Japan (the first of a series) and began collecting Japanese prints. In 1919-23 he designed the Imperial Hotel (not preserved) and the villa of T. Yamamura (1918-1924) in Tokyo.

[2] The architectural firm Adler & Sullivan was among the leaders in the construction of the first skyscrapers at the turn of the 1880s and 1890s. However, the collaboration between Dunkmar Adler and Louis Sullivan was interrupted by the collapse of the stock exchanges in 1893 and the ensuing economic depression. F. L. Wright left the firm that same year. The formal reason for Wright's dismissal was his work on private orders on the side. After the breakup, Sullivan and Wright did not speak for 12 years.

[3] In 1893, Wright began his independent architectural practice. To his house previously erected in Oak Park (1889), he added a workshop.

[4] Note that Sullivan's thesis “Form must match function” was understood by teacher and student in completely different ways. Sullivan understood by "conformity" extremely complicated floristic plastics, Wright - fantastically geometrized, simplified decor and even austerity.

[5] Note that the Art Deco architects of the 1920s and 1930s were already fascinated by the idea of authentic reproduction of archaic motives. And at the same time they accepted and were ready to apply Wright's fantasy geometrization techniques.

[6] According to the project, the main floor was the second (with a living room and a dining room). This became the realization of the task set by the customer, Frederic Robie - “to see your neighbors without being seen”.

[7] Built in the mid-1930s, Danilovsky department store (G. K. Oltarzhevsky, 1936) became one of the most interesting and striking examples of the streamline style in Moscow, and at the same time, it was the answer to the Moss House in Berlin, 1923. Grandiose the building of the People's Commissariat for Land (A. V. Shchusev, 1933), designed with the contours of the cornices and frames, was the answer to both E. Mendelssohn (Shocken department store in Stuttgart, 1928, not preserved) and J. Terragny (Novokomum house in Como, 1928).

[8] For more information on the early Art Deco of Amsterdam, see the author's article

[9] Larkin Building in Buffalo (1904, not preserved), Bock House in Milwaukee (1916) and Hollyhock House in Los Angeles (1919-1922) were designed in a similar style.

[10] These events in the fate of the architect were preceded by an irreparable tragedy. On August 15, 1914, J. Carlton, who worked for Wright as a servant, burns down Villa Taliesin and kills all the workshop staff and household members, including the master's beloved Martha Borthwick-Chini. Wright was in Chicago for work that day.

[11] The first objects with the so-called. the textile blocks were Midway Gardens (Chicago, 1914, not preserved) and the warehouses of A. D. German (Richland Center, 1915).

[12] Wright sought to find new sources of inspiration and architectural techniques, "not even imitating himself." In the 1930s, Wright created a new concept for his mansions - the so-called. "Usonian houses", the name of which comes from USONA, an acronym for United States of North America (as the United States was called in the 19th century).

[13] Note that the success of their works published in the so-called. portfolio E. Wasmut (1910), Wright, to a large extent, was indebted to the graphic manner of his collaborator Marion Mahoney, who is believed to have prepared more than half of the sheets. However, in 1914 Marion left for Australia, where her husband Walter Griffin won the competition for the project of the new capital - Canberra. [14] Wright did not want to part with the decorative means of his style and therefore could not accept the purism of avant-garde architecture of the 1920s. "Homes shouldn't be boxes glittering in the sun," Wright said. See Goldstein, A. F. Frank Lloyd Wright. - Moscow, 1973.-- P. 38, 50, 54

[15] Note that in these years, Wright's ambitions cannot be called modest. “I not only fully intend to be the greatest living architect, but the greatest who will ever live. Yes, I intend to be the greatest architect of all time,”Wright declared in 1930. See Hite W. L. "Frank Lloyd Wright - an architect and a man for all time", 2003. - P. 269 [16] According to A. F. Goldstein, the translation of "organic architecture" more accurately conveys Wright's idea, excluding biomorphic, plant connotations and emphasizing the rational principle. For more on the semantics of the term, see A. F. Goldstein, Frank Lloyd Wright. - Moscow, 1973. - P. 131 and Haight V. L. "Frank Lloyd Wright - an architect and a man for all times", 2003. - P. 269-270 [17] Interview with F. L. Wright (1953), see https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8EABJrMplY&t=778s [18] Photo report by architect Mikhail Lin see https://carmelist.livejournal.com/229906.html [19] In 1937, Wright was invited to the 1st Congress of Soviet Architects and visited the USSR. [20] F. L. Wright at one time indicated his birth year as 1869 (the year his sister Mary Jane was actually born). He wanted to appear younger in order to impress the interlocutor even more, how early he began his independent architectural practice. In fact, Wright left Sullivan and began working in his workshop in Oak Park in 1893, when he was about 26 years old.

Bibliography

  1. Goldstein A. F. Frank Lloyd Wright. - Moscow, 1973.
  2. Ikonnikov A. V. Architecture of the twentieth century. Utopias and Reality. Volume I - M.: Progress-Tradition, 2001.
  3. Ovsyannikova EB The influence of expressionism on the architecture of the 1930s. / Ovsyannikova E. B., Tukanov M. A. / Russian avant-garde of the 1910-1920s and the problem of expressionism / Ed. G. F. Kovalenko. - M.: Nauka, 2003. S. 387-406
  4. Khayt V. L. "Frank Lloyd Wright is an architect and a man for all time" // On architecture, its history and problems. Collection of scientific articles / Preface. A. P. Kudryavtseva. - M.: Editorial URSS, 2003.-- S. 261-274.
  5. Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture Selected: Selected writings. 1894-1940 / Ed. by Frederick Gutheim. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1941
  6. Hess A. Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses / Hess A., Weintraub A. - NY.: Rizzoli, 2006.
  7. Pfeiffer B. B. Frank Lloyd Wright. - Koln: Benedikt Taschen, 2001.
  8. Bayer P. Art Deco Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1992.
  9. Sandoval H. M. People that Changed the Course of History: The Story of Frank Lloyd Wright 150 Years After His Birth. - Atlantic Publishing Group Inc, 2017
  10. Secrest M. Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography - University of Chicago Press, 1998

Electronic sources

  1. Bronovitskaya A. Yu. "Frank Lloyd Wright". [Electronic resource] // Lecture by Anna Bronovitskaya at the Garage Museum as part of the cycle “Architects of the 20th century. Part 1 "- Access mode: URL. - https://www.youtube.com/embed/9GA_NJtNGE (date accessed: 2020-10-06).
  2. Gorbutovich T. Two houses of Frank Lloyd Wright made of textile blocks amount [Electronic resource] URL: https://gorbutovich.livejournal.com/103205.html (date accessed: 10.06.2020).
  3. "House above the Falls" by Frank Lloyd Wright [Electronic resource] // AD Russia - URL: https://www.admagazine.ru/interior/dom-nad-vodopadom-frenka-llojda-rajta (date accessed: 10.06.2020) …
  4. Frank Lloyd Wright's House of Ennis was sold for a record amount [Electronic resource] URL: https://www.elledecoration.ru/news/architecture/dom-ennisov-frenka-lloida-raita-vystavlen-na-prodazhu-id6786081/ (date of access: 10.06.2020).
  5. Izmailova A. Hyperrealistic renders of now defunct buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright [Electronic resource] URL: https://archi.ru/news/72984/ispanskii-arkhitektor-vossozdaot-v-realistichnykh-renderakh-nesuschestvuyusfrenka-postroiki- raita (date accessed: 10.06.2020).
  6. Lin M. Fallingwater. House over the waterfall. [Electronic resource] // Live Journal. Architects and other images. - URL: https://carmelist.livejournal.com/229906.html (date accessed: 10.06.2020).
  7. Novikov K. Prairie Builder [Electronic resource] // "Kommersant Dengi" No. 21 dated 04.06.2007, p. 73 - URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/771111 (date accessed: 10.06.2020).
  8. Frank Lloyd Wright: Frederick C. Robie House [Electronic resource] // Architecture and Design | Reference - URL: https://arx.novosibdom.ru/node/2052 (date accessed: 10.06.2020).
  9. AD Classics: Frederick C. Robie House / Frank Lloyd Wright [Electronic resource] URL: https://www.archdaily.com/60246/ad-classics-frederick-c-robie-house-frank-lloyd-wright/ (date accessed: 10.06.2020) …

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