ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR, ALPHONSO IANNELLI, RUG DESIGN, CLARKE RESIDENCE, IOWA '15

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ALFONSO IANNELL, A CHIEF DESIGNER FOR FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ON MANY PROJECTS, WORKED WITH FRANCIS BARRY BYRNE (1888-1967) ON INTERIOR DESIGNS FOR THE JAMES F. CLARK RESIDENCE IN FAIRFIELD, IOWA, 1915-1916. THIS WATERCOLOR, AS NOTED ON THE BACK, WAS A DESIGN FOR A RUG IN THE CLARK HOUSE.THE DRAWING IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH EVIDENCE OF VERY SLIGHT WATER (?) DAMAGE THAT APPEARS TO BE ORIGINAL TO THE PIECE, AS CAN BE SEEN IN THE SCAN.ALL QUESTIONS WELCOMED.IANNELLI BIO: LIFTED FROM BIO BY ArchTech Gallery Beginnings Born to a poor shoemaker in Andretta, Italy, Alfonso Iannelli studied the techniques of the traveling artists who stayed at his parent's small inn. His father, Giuseppe, then set off alone for America to build a new life for the family. And in 1898, Iannelli, his mother and two older brothers finally joined him in Newark, New Jersey, where Alfonso was soon apprenticed to a jeweler and by 1906, to the famous sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. He modeled figures for the new Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan before winning a scholarship to New York's Art Students League. By eighteen, Iannelli had opened his own studio on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and soon had moved west to Cincinnati and a job in a lithography company. Within the same year, he again headed west in search of the American Indians he'd dreamed of since his boyhood in Italy, eventually settling in Los Angeles. to enlarge Alfonso Iannelli in his studio, c.1925 Orpheum Posters 1912 - 1915 European Modernism and advanced advertising graphics first influenced Alfonso Iannelli's vocabulary of illustration. He painted over one hundred lobby showcards for Los Angeles' Orpheum Theater, later abstracting each vaudeville act into geometric bursts of color and shape. At twenty-two years old, Iannelli had already mastered a graphic and sculptural style in his commercial work that had yet to be utilized in other American forms of fine art. Soon Frank Lloyd Wright was aware of his remarkable talent and invited him to Chicago for a collaboration that was to transform Twentieth Century architecture. Orpheum Poster Midway Gardens 1914 Working with Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Iannelli to create sculpture that was totally integrated into a cohesive, organic architectural artwork. Midway Gardens was Wright's masterpiece of public architecture, a three acre compound that integrated music, art and nightlife. Through Iannelli's architecturally expressed concrete figures, Wright saw the young Iannelli as a talented interpreter of his design language and a worthy partner to Richard Bock, his usual sculptor. Wright passed off all the sculpture as his own in the ensuing publicity, crushing Iannelli and depriving him of any credit in what could have been his triumphant Chicago debut. When Wright later asked him to create the sculpture for his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Iannelli refused to ever again work for America's greatest architect. . Sprite for Midway Gardens, Chicago, 1914 1915 -1920 After sculpting for Wright, Iannelli moved permanently to Illinois and began working for architects Purcell and Elmslie, creating monumental sculpture for Sioux City's courthouse, the Prairie School's largest public building. Because he wasn't a licensed architect himself, Iannelli also began a working relationship with his friend, Barry Byrne, a former draftsman in Wright's studio. Their association allowed him to co-design entire buildings and complete interior schemes that propelled Prairie decor into a more modernist direction. Sioux City Courthouse plaster maquette for entrance, 1916 1920 -1930 After establishing a commercial design studio in Park Ridge, Iannelli began teaching industrial design at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was featured in a group show at the Art Institute in late 1921 and early 1922, where he exhibited monumental sculptures, decorative items and drawings of room designs. His modernist lamps and furnishings were so well received t... read more

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