Issue 344 February 8th 2023

The Headlines

Women Designers Of The Arts And Crafts Movement

The Art Institute of Chicago offers a glimpse of their offerings of the Women Designers Of The Arts And Crafts Movement.

The Arts and Crafts movement originated in mid-19th-century England and gained momentum in Europe and the United States as a solution to the perceived ills of industrialization, mechanized production, and urbanization.

The movement’s advocates celebrated hand-craftsmanship and joy in labor, seeking to unite art and daily life through household furnishings. Designers and craftsmen from both the United States and Europe typically looked to nature and non-Western cultures for aesthetic inspiration, championed the integrity of materials and straightforward construction, and favored minimal ornamentation as an antidote to the ornate revivalist styles of their era.

Many women played pivotal roles in the Arts and Crafts movement, and this highlights tour features a number of these female artists, designers, and craftspeople who were key figures in and were inspired by the movement.

Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) was an influential architect, designer, and artist. She attended MIT and was the first female licensed architect in the United States. In Chicago, Mahony worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park Studio, where she was involved in major architectural projects and helped to define Wright’s iconic Prairie School design style through her breathtaking architectural renderings. In 1911 she married Walter Burley Griffin, a fellow architect, landscape designer, and city planner, and together they founded a successful architectural practice. Mahony Griffin was also a founding member of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society. Click here to view the entire list of Women designers showcased in the exhibit.

"Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw" Exhibit Extended

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum today announced it will extend Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw through May 21, 2023. This is a major exhibition of photographs by Richard Nickel, best known for his role in documenting and preserving the work of the modernist architect Louis Sullivan. Focusing on Adler & Sullivan's Chicago buildings of the 1880s and early 1890s, the exhibition explores the firm's architecture through the lens of Nickel's photography, which provides a detailed record of these buildings and, in particular, Sullivan's signature ornamentation. The exhibition highlights the integral role Nickel played in preserving Sullivan's legacy—the photographer's work is all that remains of many of Adler & Sullivan's major buildings—while ultimately losing his life in an effort to salvage artifacts during a demolition. It features around forty photographs as well as a selection of over a dozen architectural fragments from The Richard H. Driehaus Collection and loans from other private collectors — many initially saved by Nickel himself. The exhibition is curated by David A. Hanks, and the exhibition's Presenting Sponsor is Northern Trust.

Nature’s Partner: Frank Lloyd Wright Lecture Scheduled

The Arts Council of Moore County, in partnership with Bradshaw Performing Arts Center, is pleased to announce the first of four lectures in the upcoming Art Lecture Series. Lectures will be presented at 5:30 p.m., on respective dates, in McPherson Theater, located across the breezeway from Owens Auditorium, on the Sandhills Community College campus at 3395 Airport Road, in Pinehurst.

The first lecture, “Nature’s Partner: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Vision for Architecture,” is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 15, and will be presented by Dr. Molly Gwinn. Gwinn now lives in Oak Park, IL, near the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, where she volunteers as an interpreter. She and her husband, Byrd, were Pinehurst residents for years, and she has led and presented in the Fine Arts Lecture Series since its inception in 2006.

Gwinn’s presentation will discuss the life and artistic endeavors of the brilliant architect Frank Lloyd Wright. From his early Prairie houses in the Midwest to his contrasting designs for houses and hotels in Arizona and California, to his famous Pennsylvania house Fallingwater, Wright’s diversity of design in connection with nature nears perfection.

Cost to attend the Lecture Series is $26 per person per lecture, or $90 per person for all four lectures. Students may attend for free with advance registration. Space is limited, so you are encouraged to reserve your spot now with full payment by calling the Arts Council offices at (910) 692-ARTS (2787) or visit here.

The Untold Darkness Inside The Bright Palm Springs Kaufmann House

From the moment in 1947 that the Kaufmann house in Palm Springs was captured on camera, it became a beacon of modernism and one of the most recognizable residences in the world. But all the attention has focused on three men: the architect, Richard J. Neutra; the owner, Edgar J. Kaufmann; and the photographer, Julius Shulman according to Adele Cygelman of Palm Springs Life.

Liliane Kaufmann, Edgar’s wife, is more of an enigma, relegated to the backlit figure who obligingly blocked the pool light in Shulman’s famous photograph. The story has oft been told, but it bears repeating. At Neutra’s request, Shulman drove to Palm Springs to spend three days photographing the house shortly after the Kaufmanns had moved in. “At twilight of the third day, I walked out to view the house from the garden — I had observed the ‘alpenglow’ of the developing evening twilight while in the living room and felt that this would create a scene of unusual impact,” Shulman wrote in his book Julius Shulman: Architecture and Photography. He ran outside with his camera, ignoring Neutra’s request to continue shooting inside, took three separate exposures over 45 minutes, and asked Liliane to recline on one of the seating pads to screen out the pool light. She is now immortalized alongside the house, albeit resembling a Sphinx-like garden statue. The photograph is widely known, but few people realize that there is a person in the shot, let alone that it is Liliane Kaufmann.

Yet far from being a passive prop, Liliane was an equal to her husband in terms of ambition, culture, and creativity and as an advocate of modern design, connoisseur of the arts, and philanthropist.

As was the custom among prosperous Old World families, Edgar Jonas Kaufmann (known as E.J.) married his first cousin, Liliane Sarah Kaufmann. Because it was illegal for first cousins to marry in Pennsylvania, they headed to New York.

Their union may have been a strategic alliance to protect the family’s ownership of Kaufmann’s Department Store in Pittsburgh, but it also produced a son, two of the most famous houses in the world, and ultimately much sadness for Liliane. Read the entire article and see the photos by clicking here.

Willey House Stories Part 22: Calling The Kettle Back — Chapter 5: Benefits Of The Fireplace

In this seven-chapter subseries of the Willey House Stories, Steve Sikora reflects on Frank Lloyd Wright’s fireplaces, their purpose and meaning—and the search for one missing kettle. Subsequent chapters will follow over the next few weeks. Click here to read Chapter 5: Benefits of the Fireplace.

Froebel and Wright

Wally Rogers, teacher, trainer, facilitator, consultant, and author was an interpreter and director of education at one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s finest Usonian homes for 20 years. He was also the director of research for Froebel’s Kindergarten studies for 15 years. In that time he conducted scores of workshops and lessons on the workings of Froebel’s Kindergarten that enabled hundreds of children and adults, individually and in groups, to gain proficiency over brief periods of time—with authentic instruction and inexpensive training materials.

He recently shared information about his book Close-Up View of Froebel’s Kindergarten with Frank Lloyd Wright at the Drawing Table which discusses in-depth Froebel’s Kindergarten design method and its intellectual influence on Wright’s architecture and graphic art works. The book is an in-depth examination on how children learn coupled with what Wright learned in Froebel’s Kindergarten and how he applied it at the drawing table. The work transcends years of commonplace thinking and practices founded upon an unrivaled method that accurately led to patterns of lovely shapes and magnificent angles—the bedrock of Froebel’s historical kindergarten and Wright’s timeless architecture. The book contains 1,056 pages accompanied by more than 900 images to provide readers with a thorough account of Wright’s German Kindergarten experience, developed in terms of steadfast design elements common all the way through the architect's full body of work. Learn more and get your copy to enjoy and study here.

Out and About Wright: Portland & the Willamette Valley

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s spring tour program, Out and About Wright, will celebrate the natural beauty and organic architecture of Portland, Oregon, and the Willamette Valley. Tours will include the Gordon House — Wright’s only work in the state — and designs by Taliesin apprentice Allen Lape "Davy" Davison, modernist Pietro Belluschi, contemporary organic architect Robert Oshatz & more!

Registration opens beginning Monday, February 6. The timeline includes:

Monday, February 6: Conservancy members at the Benefactor level & above will receive an email with the exclusive registration link. Event details will be published on the Conservancy website.

Monday, February 13: All Conservancy members will receive the exclusive link to register.

Monday, February 20: Registration will open to the public via a link on our website.

This event has limited capacity and part or all of it may sell out, in which case we will maintain wait lists.

Please note that the Conservancy will require a negative COVID test result from all participants, as well as masking during indoor tours and on buses when not eating or drinking. Our full COVID safety policy will be included in the event information.

The official event hotel is the Hampton Inn & Suites Portland-Pearl District. The Conservancy has secured a room block with a special rate of $154 per night for event attendees. Instructions for booking will be included in your registration confirmation.

If you have questions - or are interested in upgrading your membership to get early registration access - please send an email to events@savewright.org or call the office at 312.663.5500. You can also join or renew membership online here.

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