Will Wiles
Glass House & Fallingwater
Architecture’s Odd Couple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson
By Hugh Howard
Bloomsbury 333pp £20
Bracket any two figures together and the eye naturally hunts for similarities – and tends to find them. Still, there are some telling parallels between the American architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson. Both men lived into their nineties and never stopped talking, which makes them appealing subjects for biography. Both courted scandal, early failure and obscurity, but both also had a talent for reinvention that rescued them. And then, in the other column, there are the differences, not least aesthetic: Wright sought a homespun, naturalistic American idiom while Johnson was a zealous prophet of the icy wind from Europe, international modernism. Their relationship, the subject of this study by Hugh Howard, was destined to be antagonistic.
In the early years of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright rose to prominence with a series of distinctive ‘Prairie Style’ houses and inventive office buildings that hinted at an authentic American architectural style very different to the overripe Beaux-Arts opulence that dominated the era. But this promise was followed
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
Give the gift that lasts all year with a subscription to Literary Review. Save up to 35% on the cover price when you visit us at https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe and enter the code 'XMAS24'