The Tender Detail: Ornament and Sentimentality in the Architecture of Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright

(Paperback)

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The Tender Detail tells a story about repression, sentimentality, sexuality, and ornament in architecture. The protagonists are Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, two of the most important architects and designers in American history. Interweaving close readings of their buildings and writings with wide-ranging discussions across the fields of architecture, sexuality, gender, and philosophy, the book explores how both men worked to solve the problem of ornamentation. It shows how their solutions, while widely different, were both intimately rooted in the tender emotions of sentimentality. Viewing ornament in this way sheds new light on Sullivan and Wrights artistic intentions, and reveals much about the role of affect, the value of beauty in architecture, and the agency and ontology of objects. Illuminated by personal stories from their respective autobiographies, which add a level of human interest unusual in an academic work, The Tender Detail is a readable and rigorous architectural history which sheds fresh light on Sullivan and Wrights relationship, their work, and on the nature of ornament itself.

Reviews

My first thought was that it is impossible to say anything new about Sullivan and Wright. I was wrong: the book is original, creative and a pleasure to read. There is no doubt in my mind that it moves the conversation forward - on a number of major topics - in significant ways. * Alice T. Friedman, Grace Slack McNeil Professor of American Art, Wellesley College, USA *
Snyder writes in such an illuminating, often moving way about, not just Sullivan and Wright, or ornament and architecture, but the human condition A very personal, moving and illuminating book. * Karsten Harries, Professor Emeritus, Yale University, USA *

Author Bio

Daniel Snyder is an independent scholar and Principal in Daniel E. Snyder Architect, P.C.