'My Dear Mr. Wright' exhibit explores architect's relationship with lifelong patron

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

The exhibit, "My Dear Mr. Wright," will be curated by Christopher Densmore, acting director of the archives, and will explore the intricate 30-year relationship between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Darwin D. Martin, who was his client, loyal friend and lifelong patron.

It will be presented in connection with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Annual Conference, to be held in Buffalo on Sept. 17-22.

The exhibition, free and open to the public, will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 5 in the Archives, 420 Capen Hall on the North Campus. Brief presentations will be made by Densmore, Archivist Emeritus Shonnie Finnegan, architect Patrick Maloney and Wright scholar Jack Quinan, professor and former chair of the Department of Art History and first vice president of the conservancy. Quinan also is curator of the Darwin Martin House.

Among items to be displayed are invoices and other documents citing the original cost of the land ($23,843.42) on which the Darwin D. Martin house is built, and of the houses, outbuildings, furnishings and other equipment ($149,380.96) that comprise the Martin complex on Jewett Parkway.

Extensive collection

"In 1903 to 1905 prices, it was a very expensive project," said Densmore, noting that the UB collection houses the most extensive plans, correspondence and specific information about the details of construction of any collection related to a work of architecture.

Densmore said that because of his job as executive of the Larkin Co., Martin knew a great deal about construction, finance and getting projects finished.

"It's very interesting here that Martin clearly knew exactly what was going onÑthe financing, the mistakes, the detailsÑhe didn't just stand back and gasp at the inevitable Wright cost overruns," Densmore said.

"The materials we have in the collection prove that he was involved in every single aspect of the construction. It was his nature. He was extraordinarily detail-oriented. By 1926, for instance, Martin had already figured out what kind of finish he wanted on the bathroom tiles at Graycliff, which wasn't built until 1928."

The collection also demonstrates the extensive and intimate nature of the Wright-Martin correspondence. Densmore pointed out that one set of letters involves Wright's explanation to Martin as to why it was acceptable for him (Wright) to leave his wife and several children and spend a scandalous year in Europe with Mamah Cheney, his lover and the wife of his neighbor and client.

"Martin answered this missive with a letter explaining to Wright why some people might disapprove," Densmore said.

The Wright-Cheney relationship came to public attention in 1909 and was publicized further in 1914 when Cheney was murdered by a Jamaican houseman, along with her two children and four other members of the Wright household, while at Taliesin East, the home and studio Wright had built for her in a bucolic Wisconsin setting.

Graycliff letters featured

The Wright-Martin letters regarding Graycliff, a large retreat built on the cliffs above Lake Erie in Derby, also will be part of the exhibit.

Graycliff was designed by Wright for Mrs. Darwin Martin in the 1920s. The point that she, not he, was the client, was one that Martin needed to drive home to Wright. Graycliff is one of several Wright-designed houses in Western New York that will be toured as part of the conference.

Densmore said the exhibit also will include many letters in which clients and architects praise the value of residences of Wright's design to one another in flowery epistolary style. It includes detailed notes by Martin to himself itemizing construction questions in extraordinary detail.