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Lot 282
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Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Nine Page Typescript on the Modernists: "IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE" Signed and Inscribed to Architecture Luminary, Lewis Mumford
Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Nine Page Typescript on the Modernists: "IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE" Signed and Inscribed to Architecture Luminary, Lewis Mumford
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Description:

Wright Frank

Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Nine Page Typescript on the Modernists: "IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE" Signed and Inscribed to Architecture Luminary, Lewis Mumford

 

Typescript Signed and Inscribed, "To Lewis — F. L. Wright." with usual hurried last name appearing like a "WT", 9 pages, 8.5" x 11", Taliesin West, February 1953, signed and inscribed at top in blue ink by Wright to Architecture critic, Lewis Mumford being the typescript of an essay entitled: "IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE THE 'INTERNATIONAL STYLE'," typed in Wright's studio at Taliesin West with his unmistakable type face and spacing (inviting the possibility that Wright typed this himself), with several pencil emendations and corrections in an unknown. Lewis Mumford adds a penciled note at the top right: "Feb 1953." Extremely light toning at right margin, minor crease at top left corner from paperclip, else very fine.

 

Wright, who today stands with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe as some of the most important figures of modernism, was for much of his career, at odds with these same men. Wright's European counterparts became champions of the International Style, a form which Wright found sterile, stifling and antithetical to individual creativity, as well as a direct threat to democracy.

 

Borrowing from the old cliché about the Holy Roman Empire, Wright declares "THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE IS NEITHER INTERNATIONAL NOR A STYLE," and declaring, "Internationalism is Totalitarianism." Wright denounces "All ISMS" as "merely derivative." Rather, according to Wright, "An ISM is only a notion. At most the notion becomes a fashion and a Fashion is – always – some passing show of imitation: probably and imitation of a bad imitation by a bad imitator. In any Intentional 'Style', therefore, we would have more invasion than invention. Though unfortunately serviceable to the commerce of Education as it now runs is this latest propaganda, 'BUILT IN THE U.S.A.: POSTWAR ARCHITECTURE', sold by he Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. I see in it a cliché for the rising tide of mediocrity. You will find that it merely betrays what was originally individual in true Democratic sense of the much abused term – Organic Architecture - The Architecture of Democracy."

 

Wright, who firmly believed that the International Style stifled individual creativity, asked, in conclusion: "Why do I distrust and defy Internationalism as I do Communism? Because it must do this very leveling in the name of Civilization whether willing it so or not. Communism (factual religion of collectivism) one established, the sun of creation goes down. Life does agree to be embalmed alive. I see collectivism in all forms - especially in Architecture - already becoming too expedient in our midst. Such drift toward all forms of standardization away from quality toward quantity can only mean the success of Communist or Totalitarian. All collectivism such as Internationalism as a Style tends to diminish the human soul because it relieves the individual of a developed conscience and takes form him therefore the reward of being true to himself as himself. This reward of individuality as been the Star of Creation since time immemorial. That Star cannot set for America in any standardized Style. When and where Life - unaware - might consent to be embalmed alive, intellectuals seem last to waken to the rescue. Sleep lasts longest for them because light from within hurts their eyes most of all."

 

Wright published this essay in February 1953 as the final issue (No. 17) of his Taliesin Square-Paper series - an occasional publication that began in 1941.

 

Lewis Mumford and Frank Lloyd Wright first began corresponding in the 1920s, after Mumford had contributed an essay to the Dutch journal Wendingen in 1925 in which he discussed Wright's work as a continuation of a line of innovation begun by H. H. Richardson and Louis Sullivan, as well as placing Wright in contrast to the European modernists like Le Corbusier. Mumford also characterized Wright's work as an ideal of form and expression suited to the American landscape. An article along similar lines authored by Mumford for The American Mercury, elected a response from Wright in August 1926, in which the architect questioned the depth Mumford's understanding of his work. A set of exchanges culminated in their first meeting, a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel in New York, during the winter of 1926-1927 that would begin a long and productive dialogue and friendship.

 

This friendship, born of mutual respect and a love of argument, came under enormous strain in the years leading up the Second World War. Mumford, a liberal Democrat, viewed the rise of Nazism and Fascism anxiously—as he detailed in numerous articles and two full-length works: Men Must Act (1939) and Faith For Living (1940). Wright held a different view. His general distrust of empire compelled Wright to take a stand against American involvement in the escalating European conflict that struck many as merely isolationist—a charge that the architect roundly rejected.

 

The final straw for Mumford came in a broadsheet published by Wright: A Taliesin Square-Paper, subtitled as "A nonpolitical voice from our democratic minority", which declared "HITLER IS WINNING THIS WAR WITHOUT A NAVY. We are facing a new kind of warfare that the British Empire, owing to traditional faith in a great navy, cannot learn in time even if we furnished the equipment ... Our frontier is no longer England, nor in any sense, it is European. Our frontier is our own shores."

 

An infuriated Mumford shot back to Wright: "You dishonor all the generous impulses you once ennobled ... Be silent! lest you bring upon yourself some greater shame." To this, Wright retorted: "There is no good Empire, there never was a just war." True to his principles, Wright remained steadfastly opposed to the Second World War, and war in general. Escalating the feud, Mumford published his response to Wright in the interventionist journal, the New Leader. The two did not speak for over a decade.

 

The postwar period saw a thaw in their relationship, and Mumford remained a great admirer of Wright's work, despite their personal and philosophical differences. And Wright, despite Mumford's public shaming of the architect in print, continued sending New Year's greetings, unanswered by Mumford. However, in the spring of 1951, Wright forwarded Mumford a copy of Sixty Years of Living Architecture, inscribed: "In spite of all, your old F. Ll. W." The gesture moved Mumford to respond and the two began the process of reconciliation, and the pair continued to correspond until Wright's death in 1959. (Wright, Mumford, et al., Frank Lloyd Wright & Lewis Mumford: Thirty Years of Correspondence, 2001, 22-26)

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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