"Glass and light - two forms of the same thing!" Frank Lloyd Wright, Architectural Record, July 1928
If you appreciate the glass designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, then you would enjoy a most wonderful book, Frank Lloyd Wright's Stained Glass and Lightscreens, by Thomas Heinz. The book came out last August. I pre-ordered it from Amazon.com in June and it was well worth the wait. The photography is excellent and there are lots of color photographs.
The author is an architect, photographer and one of the foremost scholars on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Some of his other books on Wright's windows are Frank Lloyd Wright: Glass Art (at $120,this one's on my wish list) and Frank Lloyd Wright Stained Glass Portfolio (which you'll apparently have to search for)....making this latest book far and away the most available and affordable reference by Heinz focusing on Wright's glass designs.
Heinz apprenticed for a time at Giannini and Hilgart in Chicago so he could better understand the production of stained glass. In my research I discovered that Giannini and Hilgart was one of the few companies that Wright would use to produce his designs. You can learn more about them in the book Chicago Stained Glass.
Heinz has written a number of other books about Wright's work that would interest you if your interest extends to architecture and furnishings. Just search your favorite on-line bookseller.
As I have been learning about Wright's work, his term "lightscreens" intrigued me. Lightscreens, the author writes, is the term Wright used "when referring to something that would modify the pattern or view of light in an opening, whether the opening be an outside wall, inside wall or ceiling." This concept was not limited to leaded glass panels, but could also be extended to cement and wood as well. The book does show examples of lightscreens done in these other mediums, but it is most definitely focused on those using glass.
Wright's designs are showing up in many places these days and it's been rewarding to be able to identify the origin of certain patterns. For example, Coonley playhouse is one you see quite frequently. Another is the sumac patternfrom the Susan Lawrence Dana House.
With very well done overview information on the history of glass, Chicago as a one-time art glass center, and other designers and manufacturers, this book is one anybody who enjoys glass will love.
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