2. 职称英语
  3. Frank Lloyd Wright is best known as a revolutionary American architect. A ha

Frank Lloyd Wright is best known as a revolutionary American architect. A ha

游客2023-12-05  38
问题     Frank Lloyd Wright is best known as a revolutionary American architect. A hallmark of his work is sensitivity to the natural environment—Fallingwater, the house he built over a waterfall, is a prime example. But Mr. Wright had a second career as a collector of and dealer in Japanese block prints, continuing this business until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. At times, he made more money selling prints than he did from architecture.
    A small but insightful exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, comprising prints, architectural drawings from Mr. Wright’s studio and archival objects, highlights the Japan’s deep influence on his work.
    Mr. Wright was first captivated by Japanese art in 1893, when he saw Japan’s pavilions at the sprawling world fair in Chicago. His interest in Japan’s art and culture blossomed during several trips there starting in 1905. He opened an office in Japan in 1915 and lived there for a few years while building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. "At last I had found one country on earth where simplicity, as nature, is supreme," he wrote.
    He returned from his first trip to Japan with hundreds of ukiyoe prints, planning to sell them in America. Mr. Wright often sold his clients art to hang on the walls he had built, explaining that they complemented his streamlined interiors. Japanese prints, especially traditional bird and flower images, had easily understandable motifs.
    The prints were a commercial hit but Mr. Wright was also personally enthralled by them. "A Japanese artist grasps form always by reaching underneath for its geometry, never losing sight of its spiritual efficacy," he wrote in The Japanese Print, a slim, 35-page book published in 1912. "These simple coloured engravings are indeed a language whose purpose is absolute beauty. "
    According to Janice Katz, associate curator of Japanese art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. Wright favoured prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Japanese artist who emphasized environment over human structures. Prints such as Mr. Hiroshige’s Goyu: Women Stopping Travellers show buildings from a wide perspective. The flattened space and naturalistic detail of prints influenced architectural drawings in Mr. Wright’s studio.
    For instance, a vertical scroll-like drawing called Perspective of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas P. Hardy House, Racine, Wisconsin leaves most of the brown page blank except the top right corner where a house perches precariously. A flowering branch, like those in bird and flower prints, pokes into the blank space. The draft was made by Marion Mahony Griffin, who worked for Mr. Wright. An architect in her own right, Ms Griffin later incorporated elements of Japonism in own work. Another drawing, Perspective View of Marion Mahony Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin’s Rock Crest/Rock Glen, Mason City, Iowa, shows clouds and buildings nestled among lush foliage. It is rendered in gouache on a horizontal slice of pale green satin with two side panels that echo Japanese hand scrolls.
    Mr. Wright was also influential in cultivating American interest in Japanese prints. In 1906 he exhibited his collection of Hiroshige prints at the Art institute. Two years later he loaned several pieces to the institute for what Ellen Roberts, associate curator of American art at the institute, reckons was the largest display of Japanese prints in America at the time. Mr. Wright designed the installation for that exhibition, including sleek furniture and special frames reminiscent of screens.
    It is unfortunate then that the institute’s current show lacks pointed comparisons between Japanese design and actual Wright buildings. Still, it sheds new light on Mr. Wright’s signature works. The long horizontal lines of the Robie House in Chicago’s Hyde Park reflect the flat landscape of America’s mid-west—yet they also evoke Japan’s minimalist sensibility. Closeness to the earth is the stuff of expansive American prairies but also of traditional Japan. As Mr. Wright wrote in his autobiography: "Why are we so busy elaborately trying to get earth to heaven instead of seeing this simple Shinto wisdom of sensibly getting heaven decently to earth?"  [br] According to the passage, the Art Institute of Chicago______.
选项 A、was Frank Lloyd Wright’s major studio in the U. S. A
B、was a major organizer for the 1893 world fair in Chicago
C、was the center for American simplistic art in the early 20th century
D、held some important exhibitions of Frank Lloyd Wright’s works and collections
答案 D
解析 细节题。根据第二段可知，芝加哥艺术学院曾举办过赖特先生的作品展，又根据第八段可知，1906年赖特先生在该学院展出了其收藏的日本版画作品，而那些画作是当时在美国展出的规模最大的日本木版画。综上所述，芝加哥艺术学院曾几次举办赖特先生的重要作品和藏品展，故选[D]。作者仅在第二段提到赖特先生在美国的工作室，但并未指明是在芝加哥艺术学院内，故排除[A]；作者虽在文中多次提及芝加哥艺术学院及其展览，但无法就此推断该学院是1893年芝加哥世博会的主要组织者，故排除[B]；从第二、三段可推断出芝加哥艺术学院是20世纪初美国现代艺术的中心之一，但无法推断它是极简艺术的中心，故排除[C]。
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