Frank Lloyd Wright's Unbuilt Venice Project Explored in Turin Exhibition

A new exhibition at the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin traces Frank Lloyd Wright's relationship with Italy, culminating in his only unrealized Italian project: the Masieri Memorial (1951-55) on Venice's Grand Canal. The show, organized by the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library and the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University, features photographs, catalogs, lithographs, and original drawings. It opens and closes with the same theme: organic architecture in harmony with nature, which Italian architects and critics like Bruno Zevi, Giuseppe Samonà, Giancarlo De Carlo, and Carlo Scarpa associated with democratic ideals of freedom and individuality. Wright first visited Italy in 1909, staying in Florence and Fiesole to complete drawings for his Prairie Houses. His last Italian trip was in June 1951, when he spent weeks in Florence promoting his 'Italian exhibition' at Palazzo Strozzi, displaying nearly 900 drawings and 16 models of his organic architecture as an alternative to European modernism. The Masieri Memorial was commissioned to commemorate Angelo Masieri, a disciple who died in Arizona while on a tour to work with Wright. The design combined modernism with traditional Venetian forms and materials, embodying the cultural exchange between Wright and Italy.