Frank Lloyd Wright’s pattern of eliminating the role and important contributions of several women to his work in presentations of himself will be examined in a Lawrence University address.
David Sokol, the director of museum studies in the department of art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presents “The Exclusion of Women from the Narrative of Frank Lloyd Wright” Thursday, May 12 at 4:30 p.m. in Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
The talk will focus on Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, Ill., one of the best known and widely admired buildings of the 20th century. Built in 1905 and now a national historic landmark, the church has been analyzed and illustrated in dozens of monographs, hundreds of books on 20th-century architecture and American architectural surveys.
In his autobiography, Wright detailed how the commission for the Unity Temple came about and how he developed its design. While nearly all scholars have accepted that story at face value, Sokol will argue Wright’s presentation is inaccurate in many details and how it overlooks the role and contributions of several women who deserve more credit.
A long-time chairperson of the Historic Preservation Commission of Oak Park, Ill., Sokol is the co-author of a guide to the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District in Oak Park and recently completed a monograph on the Unity Temple.
Sokol has written widely about American painting and architecture and was the first curator of the Terra Museum of American Art. He has taught American art and museology at UIC since 1971, serving as chair of the art history department the past 17 years.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology at Hunter College and a Ph.D. in American and modern art and architecture at New York University.
His appearance is sponsored by the Fine Art Colloquium, Main Hall Forum and the Gender Studies Department.
