Share this on

Golden Anniversary Marked with Frank Lloyd Wright Retrospective

The exhibit will run from May 15 through August 23 at the museum on Fifth Avenue in New York's Upper East Side.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 4/30/2009 12:00:00 AM

Frank Lloyd Wright during construction of the GuggenheimNew York, ca. 1959; photo by William Short. Crowds at the opening of the Guggenheim, October 21, 1959; photo by Robert E. Mates. Images © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

After 50 years in Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is celebrating the golden anniversary of the master architect's famed spiral design with an exhibition, "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward."

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1943–59, Perspective, “The Reception”; Ink and pencil on tracing paper. Images © 2009 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Co-organized by the Frank Lloyd Foundation and running May 15 through August 23, the show will feature more than 200 original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, many of which will be on view to the public for the first time. Loosely organized in chronological order, and best viewed upward from the museum’s iconic rotunda floor, the exhibit takes its title from a Wright musing on the importance of interior space in shaping a structure's exterior.

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1937–59, View from prow to drafting studio and original dining room. Image © 2009 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Also included are depictions of more than 64 projects designed by Wright, perhaps the 20th century's most influential architect, as well as newly commissioned models and digital animations. Highlights include displays on Wright's 1937 Herbert Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin and the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania from 1953.

Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California, 1957–62; photo by Ezra Stoller and © Esto. Imperial Hotel, Scheme #2 (demolished), Tokyo, 1913–22. Image © 2009 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona.

"When it opened in October 1959, the museum drew both criticism and admiration, but what was indisputable was that Wright had reinvented the art museum," says museum director Richard Armstrong. "How fitting that we open our 50th anniversary with…an exhibition that documents and challenges how architecture influences the way we live and how we experience art."

Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing, Massachusetts, 1942, Aerial perspective. Image © 2009 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona.

The museum will also host "Now What Architecture?", a symposium on May 14 and 15 that will challenge international scholars, architects, designers, and cultural critics to answer Wright's seminal question through the prism of his own work.