It's Frank Lloyd Wright's 149th birthday today, which is why we're excited to alert you to a charming new book about the visionary American architect from writer and critic Ian Volner.
This is Frank Lloyd Wright is many things: an overview of Wright's most iconic buildings and projects, certainly, but also kind of a dollhouse of a book that combines pictorial biography, nonfiction graphic novel, and collage. Bringing everything together are Michael Kirkham's beautiful illustrations that provide readers a literal way into the architect's physical—and psychological—spaces.
Stories range from Wright's early days as a precocious child playing with Froebel Gifts building blocks, to his various marriages, divorces, and love affairs, to the murders at his Wisconsin estate and studio Taliesin, and of course, surveys of Wright's buildings including Fallingwater and his home in Oak Park.
Through Kirkham's refined and elegant illustrations that "rhyme," according to Volner, with Wright's own sensibility, historic photographs, and approachable text, the compact volume provides a fresh context for looking at, admiring, and experiencing architecture, which can often feel austere and devoid of human elements. It's the chance to observe real-life dramas unfold in two-dimensions that make Wright's work come to life in surprising ways.
This is Frank Lloyd Wright is the first architectural title from Laurence King's This is ... illustrated artist monograph series, which includes books about the life and work of Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, and Jackson Pollock. It will be released on August 30 and is available for preorder on Amazon. Take a look inside.