| is there a non-american (or at least
| a non pro-american evaluation of FLW?
| we are perplexed as to how he still remains
| relevant, or was ever relevant beyond the early
| period... as compared to his European contemporaries
New Wright book worries foundation
Kate Nolan
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
A book about to hit the shelves already has the markings of a
public-relations problem for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the
Scottsdale group that promotes the legacy of America's most prominent
architect.
Publisher Regan Books touts The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank
Lloyd Wright & the Taliesin Fellowship as "a twisted and haunting tale
of genius and ego, mysticism and charlatanism, violence, deep sexual
dysfunction, and more."
The 664-page volume by sociologist Roger Friedland and architect Harold
Zellman has already been cited on the New York Post's Page Six for its
"torrid revelations" about Wright, his wife, Olgivanna, and the Taliesin
Fellowship, which endures today at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and at
another campus in Wisconsin.
Citing the book, Page Six says Wright called homosexuals "degenerates"
but surrounded himself with them at Taliesin West "where studly
apprentices roamed the grounds in bathing attire and harem costumes" and
"his drug-addicted daughter Iovanna tried to kill his wife twice, once
with a meat cleaver."
The Wright Foundation, still recovering from recent board struggles that
curbed the power of the fellowship and a national accrediting group's
sanction of its architecture school, now faces a national promotional
blitz for the book. The foundation operates the Frank Lloyd Wright
School of Architecture, a vast archive and a tourist business.
Insiders who did not want their names used said foundation and
fellowship members are concerned about the book and that school
administrators fear enrollments could fall after it comes out in late
August. Commentary about the fellowship on the school's Web site
recently has been condensed.
According to the foundation's chief executive, foundation archivists
found 300 to 400 factual errors in a prepublication proof of the volume.
"We know about the book because the archives were involved in the
research, but it doesn't really have much to do with what the foundation
is about or where it's going," said Phil Allsopp, the British architect
hired in March to helm the foundation.
Allsopp said his organization is focused on Wright's architectural
legacy, particularly on using his ideas about the environment to sustain
the future.
Wright died in 1959 at age 92.
Fountain Hills architect Kamal Amin, author of Reflections from the
Shining Brow, a memoir of his 26 years in the fellowship, has been
acknowledged in The Fellowship.
Amin doubts the book will have a negative impact.
"I reviewed the period I was there for the authors. If you are looking
for trash, you'll be bored," Amin said, though he admitted there is
opportunity for controversy.
"As cold facts, the authors are more or less right," he said. "But how
they spin them, that's their deal."
cont'd....
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0705taliesin0705.html