I am very lucky that I have visited Barcelona and have seen a lot of Gaudi's wonderful architecture. I haven't seen any of Franck Lloyd Wright's buildings in the USA, although I have seen his work before and my uncle, an architect was a huge fan of Wrights and designed in a similar albeit, smaller style
Images and drawings of Gaudi's work - Antoni Gaudi, born 1852, died 1926, Spain
I have chosen few examples of the extensive work of Gaudi from both the city and Guell Park on the edge of the city.
The bottom image is an internal shot of the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which is an astonishing way of looking at this iconic building and would be a great images to stitch or quilt, but not for this exercise.
From the selection above, I chose the five to draw that might be inspirations for developing with stitch and different techniques.
The left hand image to be developed numbered 1
The shape, which I think is a chimney, defines the quirkiness of this organic building. Saudi clearly does not like straight lines and apart from the windows, all is curvy. The building is the Casa Battlo in Barcelona. It is a bit Disneyesque and does make we wonder if as well as using Neuschwanstein Castles for the Disney Castle inspiration, Walt Disney did not also get some of his influences from the flowing lines of Gaudi's work. This shape is likely to be used as a free standing sample of his work, stiffened to maintain its shape.
Image to be developed - bottom triangular shapes - number 2 cropped away!
These shapes are almost like the scales of an Armadillo and given the influence that McQueen has had on my thinking, I see these regular, repetitive elements from the roof tiles used widely in Gaudi's work, reflecting both his and McQueen's love of nature. Layers of these tiles might be used to create a small reptile-like sample, perhaps a bag.
Images to be developed - numbered 3&4
The left-hand image is interesting, taken from the eccentric flowing window shapes of the Casa Battlo. They are quite beautiful and the floral elements contained within the glass, remind me of Charle Rennie McIntosh both he and Gaudi using the arts around their times, Arts and Crafts and Art Deco/Noveau - possible influences on their work.
The right hand image is of little protuberances held within a ceramic mosaic which makes me think of the seaside, shells and limpets, but the delicacy of this work might inspire felting with colour splashes and the protuberances made by encasing marbles or floral glass beads to create the fabric distortion.
Right hand image to be developed - numbered 5
The right hand images from the Casa Mila are almost reflective of Asian or North African monuments and may have had a influence on Gaudi. The right hand of the two in the right hand photograph has geometric hollows and creates lovely shadows which would change with the sun's direction. Almost religious in nature, the image in the bottom right drawing will be made with one of the supportive mouldable fabrics. I think that the roundness of Gaudi's piece asks for soft shapes in fabric.
Frank Lloyd Wright - Born 1867, died 19659, USA
Images of Wright's work
Guggenheim Museum, NY
Guggenheim Museum, NY
Falling Water, Stewart Township, Pennsylvania
Florida Southern College
C-T house, Houston, Texas
Kraus House, Kirkwood, Missouri
Wright describes himself as someone who designs structures in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called 'organic structure'. He designed more than 1000 structures, 532 of which were built.
I find Wright's building apart from the Guggenheim too angular too angular to be harmonic with nature, much preferring the work of Gaudi. Living later than Gaudi into the 20th century, Wright must have been more open to influence of the Art Deco movement and he has incorporated many windows in that style into his buildings.
From these images, I have chosen to develop five into fabric and stitch.
The right hand image is more organic than the majority of Wright's work and numbered 1 will be my first sample as a vessel
Both of these images will be worked in light and dark, probably using Sinamy
The Kraus House is interesting and whilst it is not to my liking, I recognise the skill of making it 'different'. The angularity of the windows will be used to make a sample based on my small sketch. As yet, I have not yet determined what it will be made from, but probably 2D
The final sample of Wright's work will be 3D using the top element of the Art Deco window design to make 'glass' elements from stiffened reflective fabrics, joined together to create a free standing piece.
I look forward to making the samples for this chapter. Whilst I do not find Wright's architecture nearly as pleasing, I can appreciate how he broke boundaries in design at his time. He in fact refused a sabbatical to Paris and Rome as he said that they lacked creativity.
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