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Monday, July 16, 2018

Taliesin and ice cream


Presenting this very interesting day is difficult. Ann, Laura and I toured Taliesin on Tuesday, last. I'll put a brief description of each picture, and end with my overall impression.


Lunch at the visitor's center. We shared a savory bun, for starters.


A typical picture of the beauty of the glacial moraine. 


Taliesin from one approach.


A retaining wall with opposing curved ends.


We used the back entrance to the house. Typical stone construction.


The architectural lines of the house are too overwhelming for a novice to assimilate in one go.


Wright was a recycler before recycling. These are old barn stanchions. 


Stone, stacked artistically.


Solomon's Seal in a garden. Look at the size of the seed pods!


These small tiles are signed by FLW, and inserted many places in the exterior.


One of my few interior shots. The house was too overwhelming for me to assimilate.
This is a formal dining room. You probably must be there to take in the meaning and effect of, for instance, all the ceiling gradations.


A view down to the river. FLW added the flying walkway to enhance a wife's view.


Built in storage in a room.


Leaving the property. The spillway to the lake FLW made, damming a creek. Note the aesthetic wall curve.


Going home on a ferry over the Wisconsin River. Not the fastest way home from Spring Green, but the ice cream across the river is outstanding. I had black chocolate.

Of course I have something to say. First, on a whim, I called Taliesin several months ago. I wondered if they could accommodate an old lady who could not walk long enough to take either of the two hour tours or the four hour tour of everything. They quizzed my limitations and said "Of course. Just give us a two week notice to schedule you into the tour cycle. Do you think you'll need ramps?"

Or, as Ann said, "What did you expect? This is Wisconsin."

Our very gracious guide sized me up, and led a limited tour of outdoors and a fairly complete tour of indoors. Everyone helped me up and down the hill that produced the beautiful picture of the rolling countryside. I love all the glacially formed land in this country.

Taliesin: The house burned and was rebuilt twice. This is its third iteration. In truth, Wright built homes for their eventual demise. I learned of Welsh foundations, a trench of gravel on which footers are laid and construction begun. Its effect is apparent everywhere in the house. The glass corners are no longer true right angles; there are gaps to the outdoors. Roofs no longer meet walls. And so forth.

On the other hand, Ann's engineer husband Pat informed us over supper, Wright's Welsh foundations saved his Tokyo Imperial Hotel from destruction in the 1923 earthquake.

Every room in this house is tiny, and not exquisitely tiny. The only kitchen for the entire house is about six by eight feet. The bedrooms are eight by eight. The bathrooms will not accommodate outstretched arms. And so forth, and so on. 

I found the furniture to be the most arrogant statement of all. Every stick of it is built in. Immobile. That, said our guide, was to prevent owners (yes, houses he built for others!) from rearranging his furniture design.

I believe Frank Lloyd Wright had an architectural vision, and had the moxey and chutzpah to carry it off. The son of a tent preacher, he apparently carried the same charisma that allowed him to construct fantastical buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright also abandoned eight children. Eight! And at least one wife. He eventually married his true love, who shared his passion for art and architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright never declared bankruptcy; he simply walked away from the debt of his constructions. The burden fell on friends, relatives, associates, the unwary.

I hoped to see examples here of form follows function, a maxim I've found useful all my life.  It has helped me find the simplest ways to solve life problems, as well as design. Our guide told me the public is misquoting the man. He actually said Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. Well, that explained the immovable furniture!

No doubt I went to Taliesin to be dissuaded of my impression of the architect. I was not. He is a man who climbed to acclaim of interesting talents on the backs of abandoned children, women and creditors. In my mind it is interesting he built everything to eventually disintegrate, and now legions of disciples work to keep all intact.

Did I mention how good that black chocolate ice cream was. Seventy or eighty percent cocoa. The real deal.  

47 comments:

  1. I had heard some of this before, about Wright. Disappointing to have it confirmed. Well, I was happy to read about the black chocolate!

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  2. How intriguing! I do like the curved retaining wall and, like you, the landscape left by the glaciers - it's similar to what we see here. And I'm impressed by the accommodation you were given for the tour. But from your description of Mr. Wright, I don't think he and I would have gotten along :)

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  3. Unpleasant man....but it was good to have your description of the interior

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  4. He said as a creative man he needed more than one wife, be needed to be surrounded by women in order to work. I have always thought that I would like to visit Taliesin but that it would feel very spooky, knowing about the murders and the fire. Thank you for your photographs as I have recently seen on film, it is as I saw.

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    1. Agreed, the number of women is not relevant, except the first, who bore six of those children, then left destitute. I am unapologetic in my unshakable disdain of men who abandon children. To me, the man has diminished his talent to dust. I looked, to see if his work was redeeming. I did not think so.

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    2. PS--It's not spooky at all. In fact, it's not even the house where all those people were murdered, including the woman for whom he built the house, and her daughter. The woman was not a client, by the way, but his current paramour.
      If the house had some "livability", it could seem tragic. But the whole was molded irretrievably as his tiny vision.

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    3. He seemed to be happy to go off with wives of his clients. In fact any woman was fair game to him. Interesting. We studied his furniture and fittings and how they were part of his whole architectural practice in my Design class. Thanks.

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  5. First of all the black chocolate ice cream sounds like my kind of ice cream. I definitely prefer dark chocolate. The home and grounds are beautiful as are all of his creations. Too bad he was such a cad.

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  6. Well! You have opened my eyes about FLW!

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  7. Oh wow, I didn't know any of that about FLW. I'd only heard he was a fantastic architect. I see now he had many character flaws. It's a pity.

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  8. During our several trips to Spring Green, I never had any interest in visiting this place. It isn't as if it were Monticello or something! From what you say, i certainly don't feel that I made a mistake. Glad you had a good trip,

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  9. Sigh. The more things change... Sadly men acclaimed as geniuses STILL make their way through life on other people's backs.
    Even my non icecream loving self would be tempted by black chocolate.

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  10. My friend Hillary used to live in Madison - on one of our trips to visit I expressed an interest in FLW's house - she had the video and the back story. some of it is spectacular to see, i'm sure. but...

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  11. I have not seen Taliesin but have visited Wright’s famous Falling Waters in PA and it certainly is brilliant architecture. However, after reading about what kind of man he was, and although I am non-religious, I am reminded of this from the Bible, “For what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul”.

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  12. Oh, I am glad you went. Personally, I like looking at Wights designs, but would hate to live in one. Hollyhock house, I toured it in the 60's, was a cold unforgiving building. My mother, an architect, disliked FLW intensely.

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  13. hari OM
    Interesting; I have a BBC doco lined up on my 'to watch' list about FLW; it will now be viewed with a little more insight than I had previously! I do think it is worth seeing these things, even if they are not to our taste and to understand what it is that makes into 'real life' and informs civic structure... it's sad that such pioneers seem to always be rather poor human beings though. Hooraah for dark choco ice!!! YAM xx

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  14. I come from a family of architects so I'm familiar with FLW and knew some of his story... but have never visited any of his works. I'm glad you had this chance to visit. And I think that black chocolate ice-cream sounds fantastic!

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  15. No doubt I went to Taliesin to be dissuaded of my impression of the architect. I was not. He is a man who climbed to acclaim of interesting talents on the backs of abandoned children, women and creditors. In my mind it is interesting he built everything to eventually disintegrate, and now legions of disciples work to keep all intact.....Best paragraph I've read for a long time! Astute. The stone work is amazing and of course the angles. I don't know that I would travel that far to see it however, so thank you, for saving me a trip!

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  16. "In truth, Wright built homes for their eventual demise." How very post modern of him. I never heard that but it is certainly true of Falling Water. What a great trip that was.

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  17. The house looked ok but the things you have told me turn me off small rooms, build in's that can not move not my idea of a house to live in and he sounded like a very self centered man to go with it.
    Merle............

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  18. That ice cream does sound delicious! What an interesting tour of the house. Frank Lloyd Wright built something down here that I think people can tour. Now I'm curious to check it out and see the size of the bedrooms. Not much of a man though for abandoning his 8 children.

    betty

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  19. Such an interesting look at FLW, Joanne. Thank you!

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  20. Interesting angle on Frank Lloyd Wright. I never found out anything about him, although I always admired his houses, in theory anyway. In fact, I think that many architects have similar qualities. There was a brilliant TV series on here about 20 years ago called "Signs of the Times" in which people talked about their homes. So fascinating that I remember it still. One of the people was an architect, and he was always angry when his kids' toys cluttered up the lines of the house he had designed for the family. T. worked on a super duper luxury apartment once where the architect had specified no door handles. He wanted people to have the experience of fitting on the handle each time they used the door. We once lived in a house that had been designed with total built in furniture. Made in concrete. It was actually an amazing house. If it hadn't been neglected over the years I would have kept it. The kitchen units were covered in tiny pieces of mother of pearl. Can you imagine.

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  21. I heard that FLW was walking through a park one day when he chanced on an accident where someone had badly cut themselves. The first aider needed to make a tourniquet and asked FWL if he had a pencil (to wind the cloth of the tourniquet up tight). FLW said, "Would HB do?"

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    1. If only I knew what is HB, I'd love the anecdote.

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    2. HB is a hardness (or softness) of the graphite of the pencil. H, H2, H4, etc are hard and the higher the number the harder the graphite and lighter the mark. B is soft so B2, B4, etc the higher the number, the softer the graphite and the darker the mark. HB, if I recall correctly is equivalent to a #2 pencil.

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    3. What Eileen says, but I would not have burden you with as much information.

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  22. That house is certainly different. I kind of like it, but wouldn't want to live in it. I would definitely hate not being able to rearrange furniture. The scenery outside is the best part I think. those gentle rolling hills and the stone walls.

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  23. I lived for a year in the Welsh village of Taliesin, north of Aberystwyth. I wonder how he came to choose that for the name of his house?

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    1. I cannot remember the long explanation we had of his Welsh roots. He changed his given middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd, in recognition. I think his maternal side was a broad Welsh background. I also remember Taliesin means shining or shining hill in Welch.

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  24. I've never been all that enamored of FLW but so many in the design industry think he is a god. arrogant for sure. who else would build a house for someone and then make the furniture built in so that his vision could not be changed. interesting that he built his houses to fall apart over time. I think had I bought one of his houses and it started coming apart I'd be rather pissed.

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    1. There literally are legions of disciples around the world, keeping them in repair. Except for one little one I read of recently, way before I added this jaunt. One of his last homes, built to satisfy a poor family's dreams of having a FLW. Only the youngest child remains there, in the only livable room, the kitchen, with her great memories of the house and trying to crowdfund it's repair before the local building inspectors demolish it.

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    2. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2001-12-26/news/0112260093_1_frank-lloyd-wright-clifton-lewis-spring-house

      Here's one, but not the one I read about.

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  25. As you say, Frank Lloyd Wright may have been a brilliant architect, but he sounds like a thoroughly selfish man in terms of casually washing his hands of children and debts.

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  26. Really interesting! I would like to go there someday. Hard to admire the man, but I do like his artistic vision.

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  27. This spring we visited Fallingwater in PA. for the first time. Impressive but not practical. It did seem the bedrooms were too small to me but I figured that is more a reflection of the change in house design in general.

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  28. enjoy read and see u pic. Inspired me to travel and visit more

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  29. No, he doesn't sound like much of a catch but the houses do sit so beautifully in their settings ....

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  30. Thank you for the story, very interesting. Want the ice cream.

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  31. He left us breathtaking buildings and inspiration..even if he wasn't personally very inspiring.
    I love that red gate!

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  32. I did not know this about FLW. I was at the Art Institute of Chicago earlier this summer where his work was well featured. Back in vogue, I guess, with all the modern architecture going up.

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  33. I didn't know that about FLW. Interesting

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  34. I am missing you and your entries. We now wallow into August, and I truly hope you are well.

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  35. Thank you so much for this post. It was so very interesting that I had to read it to my daughter. He was certainly an architectural genius, but perhaps not the nicest.

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  36. Beautiful architecture but the imagination ran riot on the ice cream!

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