`I believe in God,” Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “only I spell it `nature.’ “
To even the most casual observer of Wright’s creations, it quickly becomes obvious that Wright was reverent about his god.
The bands of windows that seem to break down the barriers between indoors and out; the decorative accents with floral motifs in Wright’s tightly geometrical style; and the heavy timbers and muscular stones of his structures all demonstrate the fundamental influence of the natural world on Wright’s work.
This fall, The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation and the Chicago Botanic Garden are collaborating on an exhibit and a series of accompanying events that explore Wright’s understanding of nature. “Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawing Inspiration From Nature” will be at the education building of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, with additional events at the garden and at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park as well as several other Wright buildings in the Chicago area.
The exhibit is limited to Wright’s early career, the years until 1910, when his distinctive style was developing. But the theme it covers ran throughout the man’s momentous career.
“Throughout his life, Wright continued to observe nature and derive the principles of what he called his `organic architecture’ from what he observed,” says Roger Vandiver, the botanic garden’s exhibit manager. “He was passionate about nature as a source of inspiration.”
Adds Cheryl Bachand, curator of collections for The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation: “Wright wanted to get away from the classical or European models of architecture that dominated the era. He wanted to develop a uniquely American style, and the idea was that by going to nature for inspiration, you wouldn’t be so derivative of what had already been built.”
Many influences
A native of southern Wisconsin whose autobiography is full of ardent passages about the landscapes he knew there, Wright tapped a resource that was both unexplored by others and deeply stirring for him.
Incorporating more than 50 artifacts–some of them never before displayed in this country–the exhibit is a comprehensive study of the role of one of the five primary influences that Wright acknowledged during his life. The other four were music, his mentor Louis Sullivan, Japanese art and “Froebel Blocks,” a children’s toy designed by the 19th Century educator Friedrich Froebel to cultivate an understanding of spatial relationships in children.
Although a legendary individualist, Wright was typical of his time in looking to the natural world for guidance, says Michael FitzSimmons, owner of Michael FitzSimmons Decorative Arts, a River North gallery. FitzSimmons has lent a set of four Wright windows for the exhibit and will speak on the topic “Organic Design and the Prairie School” at the Oak Park Public Library Sept. 24.
“In the late 19th Century, the world was very confusing,” FitzSimmons says. “So many things were being discovered–powered flight, the automobile, electricity, telephones. It was chaotic, but because Darwin had recently published his theories about evolution, the chaos and randomness of nature seemed to have clicked into a very simple and logical framework.”
Working together
Philosophers, educators and artists at the time all looked for guiding principles in the natural world, FitzSimmons notes, but “what separates the work of Frank Lloyd Wright from the rest is his rigorous sense that everything in a building should be integrated together, and this is something I believe he perceived to be a characteristic of nature as well.”
Some of the items on display that will demonstrate Wright’s affinity for natural forms are what you’d expect: art-glass windows and doors laced with his stylized portraits of flowers or trees. And some, such as an original pair of doors Wright designed for his Oak Park home during a renovation, are among the things that have not been exhibited in this country before.
But there are other artifacts on display that will go further toward helping visitors appreciate the original forms the way Wright did. They include sketches of native plants he and his wife, Catherine, did while they were courting, and extreme closeup collotype photographs he took of plants. There’s also something Wright called a “weedholder,” a slender copper vase 30 inches high that he designed for displaying specimens of long-stemmed wild plants.
Also on display are Japanese prints from Wright’s own collection; they’ll demonstrate the Japanese love of supremely simplified depictions of nature that enthralled Wright and helped shape his own attempts to evoke natural settings in almost minimalist ways with his buildings.
Beyond the confines of the exhibit space itself are several parts of the Chicago Botanic Garden that even the most frequent visitors will see differently with their new insights into Wright. They are: the three styles of Japanese garden, the restored prairie that suggests the rural Oak Park environs when Wright first arrived in that suburb in 1898, and the woodland walk that represents a Wisconsin forest like those Wright would have explored in his youth.
Although dedicated to a study of Wright’s early work, the exhibit and its many events also might function as a contemporary guide to bridging the gap between nature and our modern lives, such as:
– At the Oak Park Conservatory on Oct. 25 is a session on making flower arrangements from dried prairie plants and seed pods–a way to fill newer varieties of “weedholders” with natural trinkets.
– On Nov. 9 at the botanic garden, quilter Jackie Robinson will describe how to incorporate Wright’s style into quilts.
Enjoying and learning from the exhibit and events, we can explore the same terrain that Wright and his generation did. There is, after all, a clear parallel between our times and Wright’s early career.
Both come near the turn of a century with technological breakthroughs piling on top of each other at breakneck speed.
But on top of that, Bachand notes, “there’s a really strong desire now to spend more time in nature, to live with it in a more harmonious fashion, both in terms of design and in lifestyle.”
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THE FACTS
“Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawing inspiration from nature”
What: Exhibit and events, including tours of some of Wright’s buildings in Oak Park and on the North Shore, and classes sketching and arranging prairie plants.
Where: Exhibit, most of the lectures and other events are at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe; other events are at sites in Oak Park, and at Taliesin, Wright’s home in Spring Green, Wis.
When: Sept. 6 through Nov. 9.
Hours: Botanic garden is open 8 a.m. to sunset daily.
Admission: Entry to the exhibit is free, although non-members of the botanic garden must pay to park ($5 weekdays, $6 Saturdays, Sundays and holidays). Most events are free, but a few have admission prices, starting at $8.
Reservations: None needed to tour the exhibit or the botanic garden’s grounds; some classes and guided tours require registration (consult the botanic garden).
Call: 847-835-5440 for a complete calendar of events or further information, including event prices.
