CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/12/2017

Extending the possibility of ornament: Frank Lloyd Wright's design universe

The architecture blockbuster of 2017, Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive, opens to the public Monday at The Museum of Modern Art, and with it comes a renewed interest in the work of the most quintessentially American of all American architects. Reproduced from the stellar exhibition catalog, “March Balloons” is a 1955 drawing based on one of Wright’s 1926 cover designs for Liberty—all of which were rejected by the magazine. A variation on this design was also used for a custom rug, which was detailed in a 1950-51 plan for the living room of Wright’s son, David, and daughter-in-law, Gladys. It is fascinating to see through projects large and small how Wright was able to create his own design universe. "While turning from the three-dimensionality of artifacts to the flatness of the printed page, Wright's colorful designs for the cover of the magazine Liberty (1927-28) offered him the opportunity to extend possibilities of ornament's transference across materials and scales," Spyros Papapetros writes.