He'd hit you up for money, ignore your work and take all the creditIf you ever read Brendan Gill's delicious biography of Frank Lloyd Wright (Many Masks), you'll get a kick out of an interview with John Geiger, a former Wright apprentice at Taliesin, that was recently published in the Racine Journal-Times. The story has several great quotes from the 85-year-old Geiger, including this one: "This was an autocracy, and we as apprentices, gave up a certain degree of autonomy for the privilege of being there."
Geiger describes Wright ignoring him, not appreciating his work, you know, the usual tantrums. There's also great descriptions of Wright's habit of borrowing money from friends and never paying them back. Ever. Says Geiger, “He had absolutely no conscience about that at all. He was a user of people, there’s just no two ways about that.” (Photo by Albert Eisenstaedt)
Posts
2 comments:
So he had plenty of flaws and was
an arrogant guy...this Ken Burns
series presented Wright's gifts
and failings
http://www.pbs.org/flw/
Even though his work was not perfect either, he was still
a genius and his buildings are
remarkable.
I can honestly say that it was Wright's work that got me into the field of architecture. I had the relative joy of growing up in Racine, WI a mile from Wingspread, and my father worked in the Johnson Wax Administration building, and I doubt without those buildings in my everyday life I doubt I would've become an architect. There are tons of stories about how Wright used people, had no respect for his client's wishes and all of that, but his work speaks for itself.
Post a Comment