Product Description

With nearly 300 drawings and 130 black-and-white illustrations, as well as previously unpublished writings, this book gives a profound new perspective on Sullivan's genius.The great American architect Louis Sullivan believed that art should reveal the creative method of nature. The greatest artist was the poet, whose understanding of nature spurred social change. In his writings, drawings, and architectural designs, Sullivan's poetic genius is apparent, as is his life objective, a rebirth of American democracy through cultural reform. This volume is both a tribute to Sullivan's poetic vision and a catalogue of all his graphic work. The authors, Robert Twombly and Narciso G. Menocal, discuss the social implications of Sullivan's theories of architecture based on nature, with visual proof of his passion in illustrations of his work on paper and in three dimensions. A translation of "Etude sur l'inspiration," Sullivan's seminal and heretofore unpublished credo in verse, is further testimony to the architect's vision. The final section of the book is an illustrated catalogue of all extant Louis Sullivan drawings, some never before published. From his student sketches to intricate studies of ornamentation, the drawings follow Sullivan's evolution as an artist, architect, and social critic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #537684 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
While Sullivan's skyscrapers proclaimed Chicago the biggest and best city, he saw himself as an architect of the people, interpreting the popular will in a distinctly American style. This pathbreaking biography reveals how original Sullivan was, how much his own man. It also probes the tragedy of an innovator who, famous by age 30, nevertheless died poor and neglected in a cheap Chicago hotel in 1924. Sullivan was a compulsively serious man with missionary zeal, an immaculately groomed recluse whose aristocratic demeanor was meant to compensate for his poor Irish roots. His ideas about organic architecture took full shape in the works of his pupil Frank Lloyd Wright. Twombly, who teaches at City University of New York, ponders whether Sullivan's decline was the fault of the Classical Revival, his break with his partner, refusal to compromise his artistic standards or his emerging homosexual proclivities. The answer seems to lie in a mixture of all these factors. Many photographs and drawings are interwoven with the text.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Despite Louis Sullivan's deserved reputation as the dean of American architects, little of substance has been written on his life and works. Twombly corrects this oversight with a superb new biography covering Sullivan's childhood in Boston; his early associations with Frank Furness in Philadelphia; his move to Chicago, where, during his partnership with Dankmar Adler, many of his finest buildings were constructed; and the final years when fame and fortune deserted him. Using contemporary magazines and newspapers, surviving buildings, photographs and drawings of demolished structures, and nonarchitectural archival material, Twombly has done a remarkable job of bringing Sullivan's complex personality and artistic genius to life. Highly recommended for scholars and interested laypersons alike. H. Ward Jandl, National Park Svce., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Robert Twombly teaches architectural history at the City University of New York. He has written biographies of Louis Sullivan and of Frank Lloyd Wright, and has edited Sullivan's public papers. Narciso G. Menocal teaches architectural history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His books include Architecture as Nature: The Transcendentalist Idea of Louis Sullivan.