Just when you thought you knew as much about Frank Lloyd Wright as you could, two New York museums bring his entire archive out of storage, giving easier access to learn even more about the man.
The Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library jointly acquired Frank Lloyd Wright’s archives—photographs, manuscripts, letters, drawings, and models that have been stored at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., and Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, Ariz., since his death in 1959.
The massive collection includes “more than 23,000 architectural drawings, about 40 large-scale, architectural models, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence,” Robin Pogrebin reports for The New York Times. The cost of moving and maintaining what Avery director Carole Ann Fabian calls "a national treasure" is undisclosed.
MoMa will house the models, Avery will house the papers. The collection of Frank Lloyd Wright’s furniture and art will stay with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the organization that was previously responsible for the archives. MoMa will do conservation work on the archives, and will display portions of it in special exhibitions.
Might we soon see more of Wright photographer Pedro Guerrero’s photos of Wright and his work? One can hope.
