Years ago a fellow artist noted that the co-owner of the Art Gallery we both exhibited our work at lived in a spacious luxury home on King Edward which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Rosemary Poll was a very classy lady who always acted in the epitome of good taste, so I was inclined to check out Wright's architectural designs since I was unfamiliar with them.
Once I got a gander at his body of work, I was hooked!
Needless to say, when I stepped into the downtown Library in Dallas last week and stumbled across a Music Stand he designed, I was delighted.
While Mr. Wright's creative focus was mostly on his unique architectural designs, he often crafted one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture, that soon became sought after items for discerning collectors far-and-wide.
His love for music also prompted the visionary artist to create a music stand which is currently on exhibit in the Fine Arts Division of the main library.
A good friend of Wright - John Rosenfield (long time critic for the Dallas Morning News) - explained how the creation of the music stand came about in one of his columns on May 6th (my birthday) in 1956:
"Very little that happens to Wright fails to stir the builder in him. String quartets, for example, are welcome guests at Taliesin estate and spend several days between tour dates. The spidery wire music stands around which a string quartet deploys itself never has failed to irritate the host. Sooner or later Mr. Wright had to do something about it."
In fact, he rose to the occasion well.
He designed a one piece music stand, complete with four musical racks, a lighted canopy, and even a space for a plant in the top.
Wright fashioned the music accessory out of cypress - which was an eternal wood - according to its maker.
Because of his keen attraction to organic shapes that drew inspiration from nature, it was crafted to give the appearance of an abstracted plant form, which is sculptural in many respects.
Rosenfield opined that amateur musicians playing with the stand sounded better because they looked better.
The influential writer was so impressed with the novel idea that he cajoled Mr. Wright into crafting one for him.
Requests for additional copies from ardent admirers followed; in fact, there are six other copies known-to-be in existence as of this date.
One was lovingly pieced together after Wright's death at the direction of his widow as a gift for Lady Bird Johnson and now stands on display in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas.
