We'll, it was certainly worth it! Frank Lloyd Wright and The House Beautiful is an amazing exhibit and one that we'd highly recommend to all Midwest Wright enthusiasts. The opening was today and it will run through May.
There are so many Wright objects of note in this collection! Here's a short list...
...art glass windows from the Martin House, a dining room chair from Wright's Oak Park Home & Studio, a clerestory window from the Schwartz House, an armchair from the Coonley House, a dining room chair from the Bradley House, an origami chair from Taliesin West, plus so much more. The items in this collection are very rare and very significant decorate pieces in Wright's cannon of work.
Aside from the exhibit, we were able to hear Margo Stipe's lecture on the Spiritual & Spatial Integration of Frank Lloyd Wright's work. Margo is the Registrar of The FLW Archives and offered some wonderful insights into how Japanese aesthetics connected with Wright and his own ideas about design. One key element of her message was that Wright didn't try to copy and implement Japanese design into his work, but rather allowed himself to be guided by certain principles and ideals. We can see similarities between traditional Japanese houses and Wright's Prairie-style homes, but one would never be mistaken for the other.
The PrairieMod Squad also walked through two other fascinating Wright-related exhibits at the Midland Arts Center: Shared Vision - Frank Lloyd Wright and Alden B. Dow & Hollyhock House and Olive Hill. These two exhibits run through mid-April and are worth the price of admission.
Provided our travels go smoothly tomorrow, we'll post info about our tour of the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio in Midland, plus we'll include some snap shots of some of the 70+ Alden B. Dow homes here in "the town that Dow Chemical built"!
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