Artists, Designers, and Craftsmen at the Studio
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Artists, Designers, and Craftsmen at the Studio Bold, innovative and architectural, the furnishings and decorative arts of Wright’s Chicago years were conceived as integral elements of his Prairie interiors, designed in unity with each specific commission. This integration of art and architecture would not have been possible without the work of the skilled artists, designers and craftsmen who collaborated with Wright. Wright contracted with several Midwestern firms to fabricate his furniture and leaded glass designs. He also partnered with independent artists and artisans who contributed their unique talents to his architecture. To ensure a harmony of design key figures worked in close contact with Wright and his draftsmen, occupying space in the balcony level of the drafting room. While each individual brought their particular talents to bear on a commission, Wright maintained strict control ensuring every detail met with his encompassing vision. The sculptor Richard Bock, whose creations enriched many of Wright’s most famous Prairie buildings recounts the exacting process of working with Wright, Frank… wanted me to do a standing figure for the entrance of the Dana House. His idea for the figure was well-conceived but far from solved… we frictionized and fraternized, often coming to the verge of tears, for Frank could not make up his mind how it should be done. So we were building it up and tearing it down constantly. Finally he was out of town on business for a number of days. During this time I finished the whole thing. When he returned and saw what I had done, he beamed and threw his arms around me. “You have done it, Dicky” he exclaimed, “This is going to make you famous.” Bock’s sculptural talents were employed at Wright’s Isadore Heller (1896), Susan Lawrence Dana (1902), and William E. Martin (1903) houses, and the Larkin Administration Building (1903). Examples of his work can also be seen in the stork panels and crouching figural sculptures that grace the entrance to the Studio. In several houses, Wright incorporated dramatic fireplace surrounds of iridescent glass fabricated by the Chicago firm of Giannini and Hilgart. The firm’s designs feature natural forms of vines and foliage rendered in a “great variety of opalescent glass combined [with] metallic effects in gold, silver and bronze.” They bring a flash of brilliance to Wright’s restrained interiors. Orlando Giannini, a partner in the firm, first worked with Wright at the architect’s Oak Park Home in the 1890s, executing a pair of murals for the master bedroom. Giannini’s known commissions for Wright include the Joseph Husser (1899), Ward Willits (1902), Darwin Martin (1904), and Charles Ennis (1923) houses. One of the most important of Wright’s collaborators during the first decade of the twentieth century was George Mann Niedecken, founder of the Milwaukee design firm of Niedecken- Walbridge. Niedecken described himself as both an architect and an interior designer—an interior architect—“someone with knowledge of all building or decorative materials which come into the scope of the interior development of buildings.” The Niedecken-Walbridge Company produced murals, furniture, rugs, embroidered textiles and sophisticated paint and finish treatments for many of Wright’s most significant Prairie buildings including the Avery Coonley (1907), Meyer May (1909) and Frederick C. Robie (1910) houses. Niedecken’s earliest documented association with Wright occurred in 1904, when he worked intermittently at the Studio. “Niedecken, the artist, has returned for a few days a week,” writes the draftsman Charles White, “He certainly has great individual talent as a decorative painter. He’s just about my age, so we are very good companions. He is to make a few perspectives.” Niedecken’s work during this period focused on the mural for the Dana House (1904), a naturalistic landscape featuring prairie flora of sumac, asters and goldenrod. The sculptor Albert Van Den Berghen at work in the Studio balcony, ca. 1903 Collection of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust Richard Bock (left) and William Drummond, ca. 1907 Courtesy of Greenville College, Richard W. Bock Sculpture Collection George Mann Niedecken, ca. 1900 Courtesy of the George Mann Niedecken Archives, Milwaukee Art Museum Richard Bock, The Flower in the Crannied Wall, Susan Lawrence Dana House, 1904 Illinois Historic Preservation Agency/Dana-Thomas State Historic Site Orlando Giannini, Mural, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, ca. 1890s Photograph by James Caulfield Collection of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust Orlando Giannini, Glass mosaic fireplace overmantel, Charles Ennis House, 1923, Los Angeles, CA George M. Niedecken, rendering of dining room for Susan Lawrence Dana House, 1904 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University George Mann Niedecken, ca. 1900 Courtesy of the George Mann Niedecken Archives, Milwaukee Art Museum George Mann Niedecken, Design for Robie House table lamp, 1909 Courtesy of the George Mann Niedecken Archives, Milwaukee Art Museum .