Delaware County District Library

Broken glass, Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece, Alex Beam

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Broken glass

bibliography

1104860779

Alex Beam

Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the fight over a modernist masterpiece

In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. The two began an intimate relationship and their collaboration would produce one of the most important works of architecture of all time, a blindingly original house made up almost entirely of glass and steel. But the minimalist marvel, built in 1951, was plagued by cost over-runs and a sudden chilling of the two friends' mutual affection. Mies sued Farnsworth for unpaid monies and the ensuing trial covered not just the missing funds and the structural weaknesses of the home, but turned into a trial of modernist art and architecture itself

Prologue: "This is Mies, darling" -- "I give you my Mies van der Rohe" -- "She had a very sharp tongue" -- "Let the outside in" -- "The most important house in the world" -- "Compared to the Farnsworth House, it's just a toy" -- "You go back to your nephritis where you belong" -- "A Virgilian dream" -- "The fear of Mies' implacable intentions" -- "You are a goddam liar" -- "I think the house is perfectly constructed, it is perfectly executed" -- "I feel like a prowling animal, always on the alert" -- "Architects should kiss the feet of Mies van der Rohe" -- "I repeat, magic and poetry!" -- "She then abandoned everything for poetry and Italy"

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