151: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Important chandelier from the Adelman House, Phoenix < Important Design, 6 June 2013 < Auctions

Important Design

6 June 2013

Important Design

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Frank Lloyd Wright
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Important chandelier from the Adelman House, Phoenix

USA, 1951
mahogany, acrylic glass, fiberglass 39¾ h × 9 w × 9 d in (101 × 23 × 23 cm)

estimate: $30,000–50,000

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Sold with a copy of the invoice for the private sale of this work.
provenance: Benjamin Adelman House, Phoenix | Private collection
literature: The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion, Storrer, pg. 366 illustrates in situ Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph: 1951-1959, Futagawa and Pfieffer, ppg. 14-15 discusses the commission

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Adelman House, Phoenix

The Adelman House in Phoenix is perhaps the most famous of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonion Automatic Homes designed by the architect in the 1950s; the home, published in The Natural House in 1953, was exemplary of Wright’s continued exploration for low-cost housing, a concept that had originated in the 1920s with his early textile building block homes.

This important chandelier comes from the interior of the Adelman home where it resided above the living room table across from a wall-mural designed by Eugene Masselink. Constructed of mahogany, acrylic and fiberglass, the chandelier illustrates Wright’s cutting edge use of modern affordable materials to create unique decorative designs. This work remained in the home until 1989 when it was acquired by the present owner.

Photograph by William Storrer. Interior of the Adelman house featuring this chandelier in situ.

Frank Lloyd Wright 1867–1959

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During his seventy year career as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright created more than 1,100 designs, half of which were realized and a large portion of which came about later in his life. Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin in 1867. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1885 to study civil engineering, completing only two years of the program. After working for Joseph Silsbee on the construction of the Unity Chapel in Oak Park, Illinois Wright decided to pursue a career in architecture and he moved to Chicago where he began an apprenticeship at the famed architectural firm Adler and Sullivan, working directly with Louis Sullivan until 1893.

After parting ways, Wright moved to Oak Park. Working from his home studio, he developed a system of design developed from grid units and rooted in an appreciation of natural materials that would come to be known as the Prairie School of Architecture and would change the landscape of American design forever. Wright devoted himself to teaching and writing during the 1920s and 1930s. 1935 marked the beginning of an immense surge of creativity and productivity as he began work on his most celebrated residential design, Fallingwater. In the 1940s and 1950s Wright focused on his Usonian designs that reflected his belief in democratic architecture, offering middle-class residential options. In 1943, Wright took on his most demanding commission, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The museum, which would open its doors six months after his death in 1959, would be called his most significant work.

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