Old Post by anahata.c
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
This is an old sketch of one of the great masterpieces of modern architecture: The Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright. Built in 1909---way ahead of its time!
I don't have a photo (just my sketch), but if you want to see the real thing, google it. It's a masterpiece! (In person, it's so intimate, yet it sweeps! Small and sweeping at the same time.)
I'm posting it again because today was the date I saw it for the first time. It's next to my graduate school (University of Chicago), and I lived one block away
U. of Chicago is a very weighty school---some said that even the squirrels had Ph.D.s---so passing this house every day was one of the great uplifts of my time there.
A few blocks north, there's a monument to the atom bomb. (U. of Chicago was where they built the first Nuclear Reactor, and split the atom.)
The monument looks like a mushroom cloud---but it also looks like a world torn to pieces, as it commemorates the release of the most devastating power humans have ever unleashed.
I always thought it fitting that, a few blocks south, the Robie sat, quietly and unassumingly: one of the most beautiful and intimate works of the modern era, spreading its berauty without a whisper. While, in WWII, some scientists built a nuclear reactor just a few blocks north, in a squash court underneath a stadium. No one had a clue what was going on in there, yet it changed the course of history...
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The image next to it is called: "A Dog Contemplates Frank Lloyd Wright" --- just a silly image of what a dog must feel when seeing the endless low lines of Wright.
Have a fine weekend, all, and thanks for your visits! mark
(sketch: felt pen...cartoon: photoshop. No AI on either)
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Comments (5)
Interesting. I just Googled the house. You’ve done a really excellent sketch of it, and the building has a truly beautiful presence. The whole thing is very elegant.
danke schön, lordi. The sketch was tiny, but i was standing outside with a piece of paper that was blowing like crazy, and a cheap felt pen. Most of my other sketches were a mess!
Wright did lots of houses back then, with long sweeping lines, emulating the flat lines of the American Midwest. And it was so "new" that when the photos of his houses hit Europe, the architects were stunned that America finally created its own unique vision. The Robie, in person, feels like it's going to "take off"...yet it's so compact and "cute," you want to hug it. His other early houses are more spectacular, but the Robie summed them all up. And, the interiors were so intense, they were almost unlivable. Thanks for looking and for your comment about the sketch. Much appreciated.
dang! what a very professional sketch Mark. love the history you mention on this. also enjoy the green line design with your cute dog looking at it. starring at the green lines for awhile make your eyes wander.
thank you so much, Steve. And I'm glad you liked my dumb little cartoon of the dog...Wright's early houses ALL had low sweeping lines. And when I saw some as a kid, I felt like that dog. "What is going on here?" I thought.
And the history---my graduate school was a scary place, to a 22 year old. Lots of people at the top of their fields, tons of foreign accents, a history that felt centuries older than it was. And the famous Physics Department, where they split the atom. I might write about those days, one day. But I'm really glad you enjoyed my little piece of history. I really appreciate your kindness.
Lots of history to that house! Your sketch did it justice, instantly recognizable!
Oh thank you, donnena...you know, I realize I haven't commented on your last several uploads...it's a long time ago, but I intend to go back there and visit some of them again...thank you for your comment, I'm glad my tiny sketch looks like the house. And yes, the history there is unusually deep for a little neighborhood that was formed in the late 1800s. That university gives the feeling that it's been there since the Middle Ages. Thank you again, I much appreciate your visit.
I recall seeing some photos years ago of Lloyd's architecture and I was impressed:-)
Definitely a genius he was.
Thanks max. Yes he was a genius. If you go into the interiors of his early houses, it's like being zapped by radiation: He was rightly criticized for packing his interiors way too intensely...what some have called the "tyrrany of design". He designed the chairs, the carpeting, the windows, the lights, lamps, yada yada...and those rooms are so geometric and so packed, you almost can't move. Several interiors have been redone (the robie, to an extent), but the originals are like museum pieces rather than living spaces. But his exteriors were glorious and jazzy. Thanks so much for stopping by.
Well done on sketches.If there wasn't the real house, we could think you invented a grounded ship
lol---yes, the Robie House looks like a grounded ship! Absolutely...In person, even moreso...thanks for your comment, it's much appreciated