A discussion of the legacy Frank Lloyd Wright usually involves taking a side. Was he an anachronism from the start?the greatest architect of the 19th century" Or, as some admirers insist, the greatest architect of any age, stymied only by the hegemony of the International Style" At New York?s Museum of Modern Art this fall, the exhibition ?Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive? and its eponymous catalogue disavow either extreme.
Frank Lloyd Wright. Photographer unknown.
The exhibition title itself carries a marvelous double meaning. Its contents have been literally unpacked after transport from Taliesin to Columbia University?s Avery department of art history?and curators Barry Bergdoll and Jennifer Grey have metaphorically unpacked some of the baggage weighing down the Wright legend. In walls and cases filled with historic renderings, they have included a few ?greatest hits? (with the obligatory Fallingwater rendering), plus lesser-known works, including some that should make us wince. Beyond the iconic landmarks, the faux-indigenous-themed Nakoma Country Club and the Rosenwald School for African Americans bring social issues to the forefront, albeit not in a way that is necessarily flattering to the Master.    Edited by Barry Bergdoll and Jennifer Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright: Unpacking the Archive
?Unpacking the Archive? suggests that while Wright may have offered few enduring solutions, he tackled important questions, including those that still reson...