Broken glass : Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

The Resource Broken glass : Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

Label

Broken glass : Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

Title remainder

Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

Statement of responsibility

Alex Beam

Language

eng

Summary

"In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. Edith was a woman ahead of her time--unmarried, she was a distinguished medical researcher, whose discoveries put her in contention for the Nobel Prize, as well as an accomplished violinist, translator, and poet. The two quickly began an intimate relationship, spending weekends together, sharing interests in transcendental philosophy, Catholic mysticism, wine-soaked picnics, and architecture. Their collaboration would produce one of the most important works of architecture of all time, a blindingly original house made up almost entirely of glass and steel. But the minimalist marvel, built in 1951, was plagued by cost over-runs and a sudden chilling of the two friends' mutual affection. Though the building became world-famous, Farnsworth found it impossible to live in the transparent house, and she began a public campaign against him, cheered on by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mies, in turn, sued her for unpaid monies. The ensuing trial covered not just the missing funds and the structural weaknesses of the home, but turned into a trial of modernist art and architecture itself. Interweaving personal drama and cultural history, Alex Beam presents a stylish, enthralling tapestry of a tale, illuminating the fascinating history behind one of the twentieth-century's most beautiful and significant architectural projects"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

720.9773/0904
728.373

Index

index present

LC call number

NA7238.P53

LC item number

B43 2020

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult

Context

Context of Broken glass : Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

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