Frank Lloyd Wright died just six months before the completion of the Guggenheim Museum. He is shown here during its construction, circa 1959. —William Short photo, ©The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
:Recognized throughout the world as an icon of Modernist architecture, the white ribbon of sculpture that is New York's Guggenheim Museum has always been a part of the show. Now, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the building is the biggest thing in a show on its creator, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Granted, there have been great Wright exhibitions before, but none has focused on Wright's interior space the way "From Within Outward" does. Wright believed that interior space was the most important component of design. He believed interiors should enhance individual development, enrich social rituals and encourage meaningful engagement with the world around us. Consequently, his work broke free of the box to deliver free-flowing spaces that impart an air of tranquility.
Early on, Wright commented that most Americans cared little about the effect interior spaces had on them, other than to see them fashionably decorated. He paired the word organic with architecture as early as 1908 and went so far as to proclaim form and function inseparable.
He experimented with solar heating properties and created buildings that blended with the landscape. As late as 1957, at the age of 90, Wright was still campaigning for organic architecture, stating in an interview with broadcast journalist Mike Wallace that if he had 15 more years, he could change the nation.
Wright's advanced notions did not generate the kind of social epidemic he would have liked. With exceptions, architects and builders continued offering a limited inventory of environments, stated Margot Stipe, curator of collections at the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, the primary source of loan exhibitions. The Guggenheim Museum, which took 700 sketches, 200 sets of working drawings and 15 years to complete, drew criticism and nicknames before it matured into the landmark it is today.
With large expanses of glass, the first Jacobs House was warm, inviting and in harmony with the landscape. Completed, 1937. —David Heald photo, ©The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
The organizers of "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" view this 50th anniversary exhibition as an opportunity to project Wright's relevance to a world faced with unique architectural challenges.
"Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward," on view through August 23, is a joint project of the Guggenheim Museum and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the only organization established by the architect as the repository of his life's work.
It is not intended to be a retrospective. Rather, it is positioned as a collection of 64 projects that offer fresh perspective on Wright's driving principles and innovations. In the introduction to the exhibition catalog, Stipe characterizes Wright as having had the ability to "unite human beings, buildings and nature in physical and spiritual harmony." This union was realized through carefully composed plans and elevations based on consistent, geometric grammars.
Ultimately, the Guggenheim Museum is arguably the epitome of form and function united. Within the dramatic white exterior, there is a sense of both repose and purpose. Looking at the space from the top down, as was the architect's intent, the design crystallizes. (Ironically, most people start at the bottom and walk up the ramps, and the exhibition has been organized that way.) "From Within Outward" is mounted on the ascents in more or less chronological order. The earliest work in the show is Oak Park, 1895.
