Frank Lloyd Wright Spatial Construction

With this paper I desire to build the case that the ukiyo-e form of art itself represented a certain way of seeing the world: non-literal and idealized, simplified, layered and abstracted. This of course appealed to Wright as it did many modern artists in Europe. I will bring in quotes of Wright that clearly indicate how important the print was to him and what types of things he saw in the print. Wright was not a neutral observer of these prints and he came to them with his own way of seeing them that he then took to establish his own world-version. The landscapes of Hiroshige, for instance, were key to him as he said to his apprentices, “Here you get a sense of tremendous, limitless space, instead of something confined within a picture…On what is your attention focused? Nothing.”1

Through what research I have done to this point, there is a personal theory I have that I want to carry further. It has to do with the way the Japanese in this period conveyed space not by conventional western techniques of perspective construction but by a flattened system of layered planes that convey depth and give priority to composition over literal realism. Even in Wright’s words he referred to his new sense of space not as “perspective” but as “depth.” Neil Levine has surmised that the key to understanding Wright’s sense of space is to see how he uses the diagonal in all his architectural compositions. I feel this explanation is inadequate and that a fuller understanding of this sense of space can be had by understanding how the Japanese print influenced how Wright ‘saw’ space. I believe that this sense of space relates to how layers overlap and the compositional relationships of these layers form gestalt patterns that cognitively produce spatial understanding.

I propose to organize this paper around two basic issues; first, what the Japanese were trying to do in their construction of space and secondly, how Wright interpreted it along with its influence on his work. I anticipate drawing upon sources, quotes, and illustrations from both Japanese scholars and artists along with those from Wright and those who wrote about his work.

The Western construction of perspective was not native to Japan’s art and even when it was later imported it was generally considered a curiosity and an oddity compared to their form and way of seeing art. I will explore some of the reasons for this and what methods were used by the artists that Wright admired such as Hokusai and Hiroshige, especially in their landscape prints. As a practicing architect myself with familiarity with Wright’s work and experience in designing in the mode of organic architecture, I hope to be able to see much of what Wright saw in ukiyo-e and describe those insights as well. I wish to test my own theory of flat, layered planes described above. Since Wright wrote a book on the Japanese print, we have a lot of direct information on what he saw and admired about ukiyo-e. I will review this information, along with other writings by Wright and those who have written about this influence such as Kevin Nute and Julia Meech.

I anticipate showing examples from Wright both in his theory of organic architecture and in his own ‘prints’, his renderings that demonstrate this influence. Since his renderings are a strong indication of how he wished spaces to be seen in his actual buildings, they are a good way to see how he perceived space. Ultimately, Wright wrote that his theory of organic architecture was more Eastern (Japanese) in spirit than Western (European). I hope to show how the very crucial conception of space that Wright practiced was indeed more oriental than occidental in nature and how this sheds a new light on the formation of space in organic architecture.