MoMA tries to wrest the spotlight from the ?world famous architect,? but the player always wins. In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright appeared on the television show What?s My Line" On the show, a panel of once-upon-a-time celebrities ask a mystery guest yes-or-no questions in order to figure out who he is and what he does. We know who Wright is, of course, and there?s anticipatory pleasure even in the decisive way he chalks his name on the show?s blackboard to start: It is less script than graphic, less name than geometry. If Wright was going to be on a game show, he was going to do it properly, though he only admits to having ?watched one of the shows with interest.?
Problem was, Wright had already done his job too thoroughly. Under questioning, he reveals that he is self-employed, that he uses his hands, that clients frequently come to him two at a time. ?Is this service for both men and women"? one panelist asks. ?I like to think so,? says Wright dryly. One lady finally catches on, wondering if he could be in a profession ?such as design, or architecture, such as Frank Lloyd Wright"?
?Wright and architecture had, for many Americans, become synonymous,? writes Barry Bergdoll in the catalog for the Museum of Modern Art?s latest Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition, ?Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive,? which he co-curated with Jennifer Gray. Problem is, for many Americans, Frank Lloyd Wright and architecture still are synonymous. Even the Museum of Mo...