The Art of Frank Lloyd Wright

Description

Anthony Alofsin, Roland Roessner Centennial Professor, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. Anthony Alofsin is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and as an expert on modern architecture. His research and writing on Wright’s first travels to Europe have defined the life and work of the architect in the 1910s. Following his Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellowship (2003-2004) at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Alofsin returned to present an overview of Wright?s contributions to American culture. In this lecture recorded on October 16, 2005, Alofsin describes Wright?s architecture as transcendent works of creativity often associated with fine art. America?s most well-known architect, Wright produced 450 built projects, thousands of drawings, and numerous ideas for other works; his range extended from household objects to entire communities, modest homes to industrial buildings. He revolutionized how one experiences domestic structures and campaigned to create an architecture that spoke to the nation?s identity. Whereas his contemporaries looked to historical styles and European models, Wright?s creative life coincided with the search for forms that represented America at its greatest dreams of freedom and individuality.