Anne Mallek, Curator of the Gamble House, Pasadena, California

Towards the end of his life, William Morris proclaimed that "good houses and good books" were "the pleasurable end towards which all societies of human beings ought now to struggle." About this same time, the English Arts & Crafts movement began to find a sympathetic audience in America, primarily through the exchange of design literature and the American quest for a native style and architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was at the heart of this exchange, especially in the early decades of his career, from his relationship with Morris-successor Charles Robert Ashbee to his own search for the "House Beautiful." Ultimately, Wright outdistanced the movement as his architecture evolved beyond this early cross-pollination, achieving a style both distinctly his own and distinctively American.

Taking Wright and the Robie House as its central focus, Frank Lloyd Wright: Origins and Influences explores the international exchange of ideas that shaped the work of progressive designers in Britain, Europe and America at the turn of the twentieth century.

Recorded July 25, 2013