Photographs of Taliesin, Hillside, in 1949 on PrairieMod

[SpringGreen]

http://www.prairiemod.com/prairiemod/20 ... -1949.html

The piece includes writing from the contributor, William Blair Scott, Jr., and two interior photographs from the Hillside Home School.

[SDR]

Prairiemod asks for an image of the Hillside Theatre curtain. These two images come from David A Hanks, "The Decorative Designs of FLLW."
I'm not sure if I could post an image on PrairieMod, so I'll put them here.






The below is from a 1933 brochure for the Taliesin Fellowship:

[Roderick Grant]

In "Wright For Wright" by Hugh Howard and Roger Straus III (Rizzoli, 2001) page 74, there is a color photo of the new curtain that replaced the burned one. Although the two appear virtually identical (at least in pattern, since I have never seen a color photo of the original), there are some minor differences as can be seen by comparing documents of the original to the b/w photo in "Selected Houses 2" page 172.

[SDR]

This large photograph appears in Monograph 5; it is labeled "View from balcony (reconstructed: 1952)"

[JimM]

The photo Mr. Grant refers to:

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This photo shows how the applied fabric pieces are sewn at the corners only, so they "accordion" when the curtain opens and closes (Kathryn Smith "Taliesin & Taliesin West"):

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[PrairieMod]

So it was the same design? Based on what I can tell in the photo, the pre-1952 curtain looks like it might be different in both color and motif:



I took the liberty of lightening the photo to make it easier to see...

[Rood]

Never having seen the older curtain, I can't say if the design was the same, or only similar, but obviously top portions of the older curtain were much different.

The present curtain was cleaned and refurbished two years ago, before being put on display at the Guggenheim Museum, where it held court in the large gallery, just off the main ramp, where it could be viewed head-on or from the ramp above

I do remember someone saying (was it Cornelia Brierly?) that parts of the curtain had been soaked in coffee to temper the intensity of the white fabric. If that's true it would be interesting to discover who made that decision. Anyone know?

[SpringGreen]

The designs between the two curtains are different. The earlier curtain was often kept open (apparently) and can't really be seen in photos.

The DVD on Taliesin that came out a few years ago had a drawing of the earlier curtain. A copy of it is here:

[SpringGreen]

According to Frances Nemtin, it was FLW's decision to paint part of the curtain with coffee. She said he asked for a tall ladder, coffee, and a sponge.

[PrairieMod]

SpringGreen,
Thanks for posting the image! It's intriguing to see this earlier design, of which I was not previously aware. I'd love to get a bigger image to study it in closer detail.

[Randolph C. Henning]

Also, note in the upper right of the pre-52 image that there is another (fully open) curtain.

[SpringGreen]

The only place that I have seen it is in the Taliesin DVD, which is available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Wrights-Tal ... 893801217/

[Roderick Grant]

Spring Green, I think that drawing is not what was executed. The drawing posted by SDR is what was made, and that is almost the same as the design of the new curtain with almost trifling differences of detail. John Geiger was there in 1952 (and knew the source of that mysterious fire). According to him, the new curtain was a replica of the old one.

[Randolph C. Henning]

Roderick - please revisit the images. The curtains appear to be quite different.

[Roderick Grant]

The drawing posted by SDR is almost exactly the same as the current curtain. The one photo of the actual first curtain, posted by PrairieMod, doesn't show enough to make a judgement one way or another. The drawing posted by Spring Green, at least according to what Geiger, who made detailed drawings of all aspects of the Hillside building, told me, is not the design that was in place when he arrived at Taliesin in 1948.

Is there an image I've missed?