Bruce Goff's exuberant modernism on view at Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting Bruce Goff: Material Worlds, a retrospective drawn from the architect's archive that assembles some 200 drawings, paintings and objects to examine his work.

Goff, born in Kansas in 1904, produced flamboyant, often unconventional buildings and interiors that used materials such as oil pipes, cellophane strips, peacock feathers and cullet. The show highlights projects including Shin’en Kan, the Bavinger House and work related to the Price Tower, and recalls his tenure at the University of Oklahoma, which ended when he resigned amid a McCarthy-era smear campaign.

Organized by Alison Fisher and Craig Lee, the exhibition includes a model of Wright's Price Tower borrowed from MoMA, photographs and drawings of Shin’en Kan, examples of Goff's shirts, music he composed for player pianos, 38 abstract paintings, swatches of shag carpet and samples of recycled glass used to refract light.

bruce goff, art institute of chicago, material worlds, shin’en kan, bavinger house, price tower, university of oklahoma, mccarthy-era smear campaign, alison fisher, craig lee