The Woman is the Client:
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Women Patrons
The Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. is proud to announce a major series of three lectures for 2008. All lectures will take place at the recently restored Babeville (formerly The Church) 341 Delaware Avenue at W. Tupper St. in downtown Buffalo. There is ample free parking next to and behind the Church. Admission is $10; or free for members of the Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. Reservations are not necessary.
The Woman is the Client: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Women Patrons is designed to illuminate Wright’s residential designs for female clients over the course of his long career. In the 20th century, a time in architectural/social history when far more men than women commissioned their own dwellings, several of Wright’s most important designs (including Graycliff itself) were designed for female clients. They range from Wright’s earliest designs (for Wright’s aunts, Nell and Jane Lloyd Jones, in Wisconsin,) magnificent homes from Wright’s Prairie period (roughly 1896- 1909) and an intentionally modest home from Wright’s Usonian period (roughly 1936-1947)
What were the differences, if any, between Wright’s designs for male or female clients? What impact did commissions by women clients have at various cross roads in Wright’s career? What kinds and types of buildings did Wright design for women patrons, at a time (not so different from today) when few women commissioned architects?
The Woman is the Client: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Women Patrons will feature the following speakers:
May 8, 2008, 7 pm: Dr. Diane Tepfer; art historian, will discuss Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch-Winkler Home, one of Wright’s earliest Usonian homes.
October 2, 2008, 7 pm: Donald Hallmark, curator, the Dana-Thomas House, will present a lecture on the Dana-Thomas House, designed by Wright for Susan Lawrence Dana.
October 16, 2008, 7 pm: Mary Jane Hamilton, author of four books on Frank Lloyd Wright, will speak on Wright’s first commission, the Hillside School (Versions I (1887) and II (1903) and the Romeo and Juliet Tower (1896.)
The lectures are presented with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, and in collaboration with Righteous Babe Foundation.
Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch-Winkler Home
Wright designed the Goetsch-Winkler Home for two professors who taught in the art department of Michigan State University, Alma Goetsch and Katherine Winkler. Located in Okemos, Michigan, the Goetsch-Winkler House was one of Wright’s earliest Usonian homes. Usonian (the name a play on USA) homes were designed by Wright as low-cost homes for middle-class families, unlike his earlier Prairie style homes built for wealthy clients. Dr. Diane Tepfer is the author of Edith Gregor Halpert and the Downtown Gallery: 1926-1940. An Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, Tepfer was formerly the curator of the Art in Embassies Program for the US Department of State from 1995-2001, and assistant curator for the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress (1991 -1994) Tepfer curated and wrote the catalog essay for the exhibition Affordable Dreams: Frank Lloyd Wright's Goetsch-Winkler House, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991. She organized a 2007 International Symposium on Islamic Art, in Qatar.
The Dana-Thomas House
Designed by Wright in 1903 for wealthy socialite Susan Dana Lawrence in Springfield, IL, the home contains the largest collection of site-specific, original Wright art glass and furniture. Wright’s first “blank check” commission, the home has 35 rooms in the 12,000 square feet of living space which includes 3 main levels and 16 varying levels in all. Donald Hallmark is the long-time curator of the Dana-Thomas House, and the author of “Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana-Thomas House: Its history, acquisition, and preservation” with James R. Allen and Richard S. Taylor (1992) and “Conservation Guidelines for the Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright" Donald Hallmark and David A. Hanks (The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, 1996.) He is the author of the upcoming Dana-Thomas House.
Spring Green Designs
Wright first true commission was for a progressive, private elementary school established by his aunts, Nell and Jane Lloyd Jones, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It was also the first co-educational boarding school in the United States. Wright’s first design for Hillside School (1887) was followed by a larger, more complex structure (Hillside School II, 1903) and the adjacent Romeo and Juliet Tower (1896) Spring Green, Wisconsin, was to become the site of Wright’s own home, Taliesin. Mary Jane Hamilton is the author of Meeting House, Heritage and Vision (1991;) Frank Lloyd Wright and the Book Arts (1993, Jones Books;) Frank Lloyd Wright and Madison: Eight Decades of Artistic and Social Interaction (1992; Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace: The Enduring Power of a Civic Vision (1999; University of Wisconsin Press)
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