This exhibition of over 130 objects investigates the unique set of circumstances that came together in the early part of the twentieth century to establish Buffalo as an important locus for Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural activities. The twenty-two buildings and projects – eleven built works and eleven unrealized projects—that resulted from Wright’s 32-year association with the forward-thinking executives of the once prominent Larkin Soap and mail-order company in Buffalo, will be explicated through a diverse set of materials, including building models, plans, photographic documentation, and perhaps most importantly, numerous letters and other correspondence between Wright and his Buffalo patrons.
Curated by Jack Quinan, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Visual Studies at UB and a leading Wright scholar whose most recent book, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2004, the exhibition will shed new light on Wright’s many unrealized projects related to the Larkin patrons as well as the more well-known built projects such as the Larkin Building, the Darwin D. Martin House, and Graycliff, the Martin summer house.
Scheduled exhibition tours led by Darwin D. Martin House docents are available at 2 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
This exhibition has been made possible by grants from the New York Council for the Humanities and the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund of the UB Office of the Vice President for Research. Additional support was provided by the St. Simon Charitable Foundation, Inc., and the Martin House Restoration Corporation, Buffalo, NY.