One of-a-kind: ArchiTech Gallery of Architectural Art closes in December; but last exhibition - Burnham, Sullivan and Wright - closes Saturday

 A city's character is built out of the unique things that raise it above the generic underpinnings common to all.  As of the end of December, Chicago will lose one of its unique things with the closing, after sixteen years, of the ArchiTech Gallery of Architectural Art.  You only have through this Saturday, November 28th, to see the gallery's final show, Burnham, Sullivan and Wright, featuring "drawings, blueprints, photographs and objects" drawn from three of the architects associated with Chicago throughout the world.

The show is typical of those put on by the gallery since its opening in December of 1998, initially drawing on the collection of the short-lived Kelmscott Gallery, which specialized in works of Frank Lloyd Wright and was located in the former Krause Music Store,  whose ornamented facade was the last major design of Wright's Leiber-Meister ("beloved master"), Louis Sullivan.  ArchiTech owner David Jameson was manager at the Kelmscott, and for nine years ran the vintage shop Gallery Kitsch, "known for its outrageous fashion and decor".

Krause Music Store, former home to Kelmscott Gallery

Not long after opening ArchiTech, Jameson acquired the archives of sculptor, architect and designer Alfonso Iannelli, ultimately resulting in the 2013 book, Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design, one of
the essential volumes on Chicago's cultural history.  Lavishly illustrated, it covers, often in never-before-revealed detail, the life and work of both Iannelli and his equally talented wife Margaret.  Central figures in their time but then largely forgotten, Jameson's book does major service in restoring them to their rightful position in the timeline of Chicago artists and advocates.

The exhibition archive section of the ArchiTech website is a treasure trove both of amazing images and highly personal and informative essays on a wide range of topics, from Frank Lloyd Wright, to Bertrand Goldberg, iconic photographers Hedrich Blessing, Napoleon's engravings of the monuments of ancient Egypt, lesser-known architects and designers such as Alfred Browning Parker and Henry Glass, and even architectural toys.

I actually had a smaller version of the white plastic Skyline set when I was a kid.

I'm hoping the website will survive even after the gallery closes, but I'm making myself a pdf just to be safe.

As I'll be writing more on next week when I take on the controversy over the Lucas Museum, Chicago's pretensions to being a world-class supporter of architecture are often punctured by its real-life actions, and the way the ArchiTech Gallery has often had to struggle speaks to this fact.

I've never been astute enough financially to acquire enough capital to become a collector, but if you love architecture in general and Chicago architecture in particular, and would some of its history for yourself, there are wonderful things to be found at ArchiTech, and you'll find it well worth your while to stop by and have David walk you through his collection.  December 31st is the gallery's published "final closing", but the last show, Burnham, Sullivan and Wright, is up only through today, Friday, November 27th and Saturday, November 28th, noon to 5:00 p.m.

The ArchiTech Gallery is something quite special.  We shall not see its like again.

ArchiTech Gallery of Architectural Art

730 North Franklin, Suite 200

Artist Rediscovered: Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design

click images for larger view

Sculptor and designer Alfonso Iannelli is "known" without being "well known", but that's all about to change.

Born in Italy in 1888, Iannelli's came to Chicago in 1914 to work with Frank Lloyd Wright on Midway Gardens, and he continued to be a major presence in the city for half a century, right through one of his final, and most seen, commissions - the relief of the Rock of Gibraltar on the side of the Prudential Building, completed in 1955.

Iannelli kept trying to make the relief stand out from the building, and in one of his drawings, surrounded The Rock with blue sky.

 That drawing is part of a fascinating small exhibition, Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design, which you can see at the Architech Gallery only through December 22nd.  (730 North Franklin, Suite 200 - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, noon to 5:00 p.m.)

Next year, Iannelli may finally be getting his time in the spotlight.  Sometime in the spring of 2013, gallery owner and Iannelli scholar David Jameson, who acquired most of Iannelli's archive a few years back, is scheduled to publish a new book, also called Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design, an exhaustive, lavishly illustrated account of Iannelli's life and work.

Sitting across a desk and looking at a computer screen, I got a preview of the book, and its a stunner.  We've already written about the striking, abstracted posters Iannelli and his wife Margaret created for the vaudeville acts at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.

Jameson has images of nearly all of them, and many more will make their way into the book.  Margaret Iannelli was a talented artist in her own right, and a major collaborator with his husband to the point where its sometimes unclear where one hand left off and the other began.  Committed to a sanatorium after a mental breakdown, she continued to create illustrations and art for her husband's clients.  That story will also be covered in Jameson's book, as will Iannelli's troubled relationship with Wright, which soured after  FLW claimed all the credit for Iannelli's Midway Garden sprites.

There's also a section on the spectacular sculptures Iannelli created for Purcell and Elmslie's Woodbury County Courthouse in Sioux City, Iowa.  There's the Pickwick in Park Ridge, and his work with Barry Byrne, including the Kenna Apartments in South Shore.

I think you get the picture.  Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design looks to be one of the must-have books of 2013.  When he hear of an official release date, we'll be sure to let you.  For now, check out the show at Architech, only through this weekend, closing December 22nd.