Frank Lloyd Wright: America's Master Architect

New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1998. Cloth, 144 pages, illustrations (some colour); 24 x 27 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Light edgewear to boards. Small remainder mark/tail edge, near spine. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar book cover. Richly illustrated with colour plates (art, architecture). OVERSIZE! No priority/air, except by special arrangement. "A comprehensive and affordable view of the master architect's entire oeuvre, including private residences, public buildings, furnishings, and decorative pieces. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is unquestionably America's most celebrated architect. Even today, almost forty years after his death, he continues to tower over the architectural landscape. In fact, his career was so long and his accomplishments so varied it can be difficult still to grasp the full range of Wright's achievement. In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Wright's work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant color photographs chart Wright's entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wright's years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wright's drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wright's aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architect's seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces -- a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wright's views on art and nature. Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title 'greatest architect of all time.' Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wright's legacy, Kathryn Smith's authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius. / Kathryn Smith is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and Taliesin West and Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, and Olive Hill: Buildings and Projects for Aline Barnsdall, and is a former professor of architectural history at the Southern California Institute of Architecture." - Publisher.. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Oblong.