Merchant Prince and Master Builder: Edgar J. Kaufmann and Frank Lloyd Wright [Hardcover]

Richard Cleary (Author), Dennis McFadden (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

There is no shortage of books about Wright, popularly recognized as America's greatest architect. But this catalog, produced for an exhibition at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, manages to provide a slightly new and intriguing perspective on the last decades of the "master builder's" career. Among the catalog's original offerings is an insightful essay by architectural historian Cleary on Wright's relationship to the Kaufmann family in the context of contemporary design, commerce, and urban planning in the 20th century. Central to the catalog is also, of course, a collection of drawings from Wright's studio. And included in the splendid selection of reproductions are unbuilt proposals for Fallingwater and visionary projects for Pittsburgh's Point Park. The quality of reproduction is generally fine, but the necessary reduction in scale may have viewers reaching for a strong magnifying glass. Essential for libraries specializing in American art and architecture; libraries with general collections should be sure to have Edgar Kaufmann Jr.'s lavishly illustrated Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House (LJ 2/1/87).ADavid Soltesz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Carnegie Museum of Art (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880390360
• ISBN-13: 978-0880390361
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,514,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wright and Fallingwater, August 1, 1999

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This review is from: Merchant Prince and Master Builder: Edgar J. Kaufmann and Frank Lloyd Wright (Hardcover)

Frank Lloyd Wright advised in his autobiography that "no home should ever be on a hill"; instead, it should be "of the hill, belonging to it." Just as gestalt theory described the holistic connections between figures and backgrounds, Wright emphasized the interdependence of an architectural structures and their surroundings. It is said that he always decided the site before considering a building's style, its spatial orientation, or the materials with which to build it. Of all his projects, there may be no better example of that than Fallingwater (c. 1938), a small but elaborate home in the woods (commissioned by a wealthy Pittsburgh department store owner named Edgar J. Kaufmann) in which the building is embedded in the landscape, making it inseparable from the waterfall, woods, and cantilevered rock ledges of its location. While much has been written about Fallingwater as a completed structure, less has been said about its preparatory drawings, the friendship between merchant prince and master builder, and the dozen projects that Wright and the Kaufmanns intended to build (few of which were ever realized) from 1934 until the architect's death in 1959. This is the full-color catalog for an exhibition of fifty of the more than 600 Wright drawings for projects commissioned by Kaufmann, which opened on 10 April and continues through 3 October 1999 at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. (Copyright by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14, No. 4, Summer 1999.)