Architect Louis Sullivan, his glory days both behind him and yet to come – posthumously- was destitute and relying on the help of others when he died in 1924.
A century ago, the famed architect Louis Sullivan died after spending his final years living in the Hotel Warner at 33rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. He was penniless, in rapidly declining health, an alcoholic and isolated.
He came to that conclusion in part via a riff on the Rorschach test, which measures personality by a subject’s verbal response to a series of inkblots. Twombly substituted the florid decorations of Sullivan’s buildings like those to be seen in heroic scale at 4611 N. Lincoln Ave.: At the roof line, a leafy wreath surrounding a K for Krause Music Store, its original occupant, and a floral bouquet between the ground level and the second floor.
It was a precipitous fall for Sullivan, who in an 1896 essay in Lippincott’s magazine first laid out the concept that brought him fame as the prophet of modern architecture: “It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human or superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function,” he proclaimed. “This is the law.
Sullivan stubbornly refused to take assignments he considered below his artistic dignity. He had little talent for selling himself. Or for adjusting his vision to a client’s preferences, as he recognized in a momentary insight: Asked to design a home for a small town banker, his sketches scared his client “to death,” Sullivan recalled.
When Sullivan died in 1924, the Merchants’ National Bank in Grinnell, Iowa, was flooded with phone messages. People stopped by, as if making a condolence call on an old friend’s survivors.“I still have a memory that haunts me down to the core … when I saw him once … touching me for a quarter on Michigan Boulevard,” recalled Oskar Gross, an artist who had painted murals for several of Sullivan’s buildings.
Subsequently Sullivan was utterly dependent upon contributions from other friends and former associates. Then a promising solution to his financial problems coupled with a project to restart his brain presented itself.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
$35 Million Malibu Beach House's Moving Restoration StoryOriginal architect returned to restore incredible beach house 40 years after building it
Read more »
Florida Gators Add Pitcher from Clemson to Kevin O'Sullivan's ArsenalThe Florida Gators have been busy on the recruiting trail since their College World Series run.
Read more »
Update: Expect damaging winds and quarter-sized hail with thunderstorms to hit Lycoming and Sullivan countiesOn Wednesday at 5:11 p.m. an updated severe thunderstorm warning was issued by the National Weather Service valid until 5:30 p.m. for Lycoming and Sullivan counties.
Read more »
Long-time Rangers exec, architect Glen Sather retiresFormer New York Rangers general manager and president of hockey operations, Glen Sather announced on Wednesday that he is retiring from his current role as
Read more »
Bill Sullivan Ph.D.Bill Sullivan, Ph.D., is the author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are and a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Read more »
China's EV architect says investing in Europe is a way forwardWan Gang became China's minister of Science and Technology around 2010 and is known for spearheading the country's early push into electric cars.
Read more »