{"id":2195,"date":"2017-06-12T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/moma-frank-lloyd-wright\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T06:53:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T10:53:49","slug":"moma-frank-lloyd-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/inspiration\/industry\/moma-frank-lloyd-wright\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafting History: 15 Exquisite Drawings and Models by Frank Lloyd Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Frank Lloyd Wright<\/a> is the most exhibited architect in the history of New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art. The most recent blockbuster exhibition focusing on the famed American architect, \u201cFrank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive<\/a>,\u201d was a 400-object showcase unveiling the detailed drawings, models and plans of the great 20th-century architect. The show attracted thousands of visitors from the architecture profession and far beyond. So, why is this particular architect still so relevant? Why are so many people still fascinated by his work over half a century since his death?<\/p>\n

The fact that many of his buildings have perpetual waitlists to visit them indicates the level of admiration and cultural curiosity his work has continued to receive since his passing. This, in turn, poses another question: If everyone knows him so well, and MoMA itself has exhibited his work so much in the past (Wright was even part of the museum\u2019s inaugural architectural exhibition in 1932), what is there new to say about the world-renowned architect?<\/p>\n

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Fallingwater (Kaufmann House), Mill Run, Pennsylvania. 1934 \u2013 37. Perspective from the south. Pencil and colored pencil on paper, 15 3\/8 \u00d7 25 1\/4\u201d (39.1 \u00d7 64.1 cm). Image courtesy the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (the Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)<\/i><\/p>\n

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Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois. 1905 \u2013 08. Perspective from the west. Watercolor and ink on paper, 12 \u00d7 25 1\/8\u201d (30.5 \u00d7 63.8 cm). The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (the Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)<\/i><\/p>\n

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V. C. Morris Shop, San Francisco. 1948 \u2013 49. Longitudinal section. Pencil and colored pencil on paper, 29 1\/2 \u00d7 36\u201d (74.9 \u00d7 91.4 cm). The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (the Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery generation has new questions and new views, even on well-known material,\u201d said Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design in conversation with MoMA\u2019s director Glenn D. Lowery at a press event last week. \u201cBut inevitably an archive of this hugeness is going to have some revelations and new documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The enormous archive, holding 72 years\u2019 worth of Wright\u2019s work, was jointly acquired by MoMA and Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University<\/a> in 2012. For this summer\u2019s exhibition, the curators had the monumental task of sorting through 55,000 drawings, 300,000 sheets of correspondence, 125,000 photographs and 2,700 manuscripts as well as models, film and even building fragments from that archive.<\/p>\n