The Seven Ages of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Creative Process

Rating:
Summary: Wright Design
Review: A good, revelatory, and brief book, but not as your First Book of Wright. Hoppen focuses on architecture with very little mention of the allied arts (glass, furniture, etc.) for which Wright was also famous. It is the only book organized by the geometric primes or principles at play in Wright's buildings. Although based on a chronological, sequential insight into Wright's development that Englishman Hoppen had while one of Wright's last apprentice-students, the text consists of short vignettes that actually skip back and forth in a way that could confuse (contrast "Years with Frank Lloyd Wright" by another disciple, Edward Tafel). This book might better be called The Seven Principles..., since Hoppen shows that each "Age" (roughly a decade) is aligned with a design principle and each of those has earlier antecedents, extending and layering onto earlier aspects of Wright's work.

The good side of his serendipity is that Hoppen can trace lines of development or renewed inspiration stemming from far earlier projects Wright once drafted. It is written as a paean to human creativity. Hoppen presents many revealing episodes in Wright's life and relates them to his bursts of creativity and innovation. While they ring true, most episodes are unattributed. A tall but thin book with generous margins filled with black-and-white illustrations. Plans are often too small for legibility.