Perhaps the quintessential architect of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright’s lasting influence on modern design simply cannot be underestimated. His iconic buildings range from New York City’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum to remote private residences such as Fallingwater in Fayette County, Pennsylvania and Taliesin in the Iowa County, Wisconsin.
Although much has been said about Frank Lloyd Wright and his work, the new book Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive offers some intriguing new insights by taking a unique approach to the subject. Book editors Barry Bergdoll and Jennifer Gray have drawn upon the efforts of 14 different authors to address a specific series of inquiries into Wright’s extensive oeuvre. These authors include experts, such as Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library Director Carole Ann Fabian and Harvard Professor of History of Art and Architecture Neil Levine, who write chapters on a key objects from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, “unpacking” its various meanings and connections in significant detail. The result is a book that explores a range of scholarly subjects rather than attempting to construct a master narrative around Wright and his work. The release of Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive was published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth.