50th Anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum

As a former Master of Architecture apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, I'd like to re-post a Press Release from the Taliesin Preservation Commission and Guggenheim Museum website in celebration of the iconic building's 50th anniversary with a retrospective opening on May 15, 2009:

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION AND GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM CELEBRATE VISIONARY ARCHITECT WITH EXHIBITION TO MARK 50th ANNIVERSARY OF WRIGHT’S MOST ICONIC BUILDING
Exhibition: Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward
Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York
Dates: May 15 – August 23, 2009
Preview: Thursday, May 14, 10AM - 12PM

(NEW YORK, NY – September 11, 2008) – Fifty years after the completion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most iconic work, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will celebrate the golden anniversary of its landmark building with the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, on view from May 15 to August 23, 2009. The exhibition will examine Wright’s vision for harmonious living through inventive spatial constructions designed to stimulate social engagement and integration with the natural world. Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward is co-organized by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which owns and operates the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, the primary source of loans to the exhibition, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Regarded as the most influential American architect of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is best known for his ability to organically unite people, buildings, and nature. His innovative designs are continually referenced in contemporary architecture. Presenting over 50 of Wright’s projects, from privately commissioned homes to unrealized urban mega-structures, the exhibition examines Wright’s oeuvre as an “architecture of democracy” that constructs and encourages social interaction. Furthermore, the exhibition reveals the spirituality and idealism of Wright’s projects, conceived and constructed in harmony and balance with the natural world. This presentation of Wright’s visionary work, culminating with the Guggenheim’s famed rotunda, aims to inspire visitors to contemplate architecture as an extension of daily life.

The exhibition is curated by: Philip Allsopp, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation; Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives; Oskar Muñoz, assistant director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives; and Margo Stipe, curator and registrar of collections of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives; in collaboration with Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward will be presented through a range of media including over 200 original drawings; newly commissioned and historic models; photography, including new, large-scale formats shot for the exhibition and catalogue; and related books, periodicals, correspondence, and ephemera. In addition, video and digital renderings will further acquaint contemporary audiences with Wright’s timeless ideals. Numerous works from the archives of both the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, including newly framed original drawings, will be on view to the public for the first time. An audio tour of the exhibition will incorporate architectural features of the Guggenheim, emphasizing the unique experience of Wright’s masterpiece in relation to his complete body of work.

Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward is organized as an overview of Wright’s work through the seven decades of his career, progressing up the museum’s spiral ramp and extending into its adjacent Tower galleries. Through extensive materials on view, the exhibition will highlight the extraordinary architecture of the Guggenheim and will focus on another eight of Wright’s projects that clearly addressed the quality of social engagement within various community structures: Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois (1905); Taliesin, Wright’s private home and studio, Spring Green, Wisconsin (1911-1925); Gordon Strong Automobile Objective, Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland (1925); S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Administration Building and Research Tower, Racine, Wisconsin (1936, 1944); Herbert Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin (1937); Crystal Heights, Washington, D.C. (1940); Pittsburgh Point Civic Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1947); and Plan for Greater Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq (1957).

Fifty years after Wright's death and the completion of the Guggenheim Museum, the cultural showpiece has just completed a comprehensive condition assessment and restoration in preparation for its 50th anniversary celebration in 2009. The Wright building has been declared a landmark by the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission (1990) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2005). In 2007, the Landmarks Committee of the National Parks System Advisory Board--a body of historians, preservationists, historical architects, archaeologists--recommended to the Secretary of Interior that the Guggenheim be designated a National Historic Landmark. UNESCO World Heritage Center also is considering Wright's legacy: ten of the architect's most relevant buildings, including Taliesin and Taliesin West, his private home and studio in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Guggenheim have recently been included on the United States' tentative World Heritage List, which identifies the most significant cultural and natural treasures worldwide.

Exhibition Tour
Following its presentation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Frank Lloyd Wright will travel to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Catalogue
Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward will be accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue. With forewords by Phil Allsopp and Thomas Krens, the catalogue will include essays by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Margo Stipe and Wright scholars Richard Cleary, Neil Levine, Mina Marefat, and Joseph Siry, exploring Wright's focus on sociability.

Education and Public Programs
A full roster of educational programs will be presented under the auspices of the Sackler Center for Arts Education during the run of the exhibition. For information contact the Box Office at 212-423-3587 or visit www.guggenheim.org/education.
Admission and Museum Hours: $18 adults, $15 students/seniors (65+), children under 12 free. Admission includes an audio guide. Saturday to Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. Closed Thursday. On Friday evenings, beginning at 5:45 p.m., the museum hosts Pay What You Wish. For general information, please call 212 423 3500, or visit www.guggenheim.org.

About the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is a leading global multi-disciplinary center for education, scholarship, debate and research committed to the place of architecture and the arts in enriching the quality and dignity of life. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s mission is to: educate and engage diverse audiences through programs that encourage innovative thinking about the relationships between architecture and design and the natural environment, and inspire a quest for beauty, balance and harmony in the creation of buildings and spaces that enrich daily life; and preserve the works, ideas and innovative spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright for the benefit of all generations. Wright established the Foundation, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1940 to be the repository of his life’s work. The Foundation owns and operates: Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., and Taliesin West in Scottsdale (Wright’s own homes and studios); the professionally accredited Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture; and the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, widely regarded as the largest of its kind devoted to the works of a single artist worldwide. Both Taliesin and Taliesin West are National Historic Properties and are on the United States World Heritage Tentative List. More information about the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is at www.franklloydwright.org.

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and also provides programming and management for two other museums in Europe that bear its name: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. In early 2013 the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a 452,000 square foot museum of modern and contemporary art designed by architect Frank Gehry, is scheduled to open.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mary Gilbert, Public Relations Counsel to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Mark Lynch, Public Relations Counsel to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
A.L. Brourman Associates, Inc.
412-261-6344
Email: fund@brourman.com

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Betsy Ennis, Director, Media and Public Relations
Lauren Van Natten, Senior Publicist
212 423 3840
E-mail: pressoffice@guggenheim.org