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Frank Lloyd Wright, designer

Library Table, 1915-1916

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959, American, designer

Title

Library Table

Year

1915-1916

Medium

Walnut, poplar, oak, and brass

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • poplar,
  • laminate,
  • oak,
  • walnut veneer,
  • walnut,
  • brass (alloy),
  • brass (alloy),
  • wood

Dimensions

86.4 x 274.3 x 96.5 cm (34 x 108 x 38 inches) (overall)

Type

  • Decorative Arts,
  • Furniture

Credit

George D. Gannett Fund

Object Number

2004.28

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

This table is an example of the Prairie School style, a uniquely American aesthetic which shared the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement but rejected historical revivalism. The Midwest’s vast, open, and flat topography is celebrated in the Prairie School’s strong horizontal planes, with architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright passionately promoting this balanced relationship between nature and the built environment.

Commissioned for the Sherman Booth House in Glencoe, Illinois, the table mimics the architectural vocabulary of the residence: the cantilevered top over square legs and the intersection of the table top with the center cabinet echo the spatial relationship of the Booth House with its central chimney.

Modern and Contemporary Galleries

This sweeping library table embodies the design vocabulary of architect and theorist Frank Lloyd Wright. Envisioning an American style of architecture distinct from European classical and Renaissance traditions, Wright developed his “organic architecture” to reflect what he saw as man’s innate need for a direct relationship with nature. Intending to reform not only design, but society through better design, Wright introduced an earth-hugging alternative now called “Prairie style” after the wide plains of the Midwest. This table’s top is cantilevered over the center supports with strong horizontal planes, and just as Wright’s houses revolve around a central chimney stack, the table’s integrated parts surround a central cabinet tower. This table’s structural simplicity shows Wright’s philosophical ties to Arts and Crafts Movement reformers, and its straight lines and planes show kinship to geometric abstraction in fine arts of the same period.

Paula and Leonard Granoff Galleries

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Library Table with the accession number of 2004.28. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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