Sullivan Wall Relief – Item #827 Caproni Collection

22.5 Inches High x 22.5 Inches Wide x 2.25 Inch Deep

Price is for one panel. This wall panel is a repeatable pattern that can be placed side by side or alone as a single decorative relief.

Louis Henry Sullivan’s only commission in New York City is the Bayard-Condict Building. Located at 65 Bleecker Street, the 12-story building was considered a skyscraper at the time of its completion in 1899. It is a steel-frame building covered in brick walls with a white terracotta façade composed of over 7,000 pieces. In 1976 it was designated as a National Historic Landmark and included in the National Register of Historic Places. This sculpted piece is one of the repeating tiles on the exterior of the building that forms the soffit. The soffit is the underside of the cornice, which is a decorated, horizontal molding at the top of a wall, architectural feature, or piece of furniture. The piece is highly ornate and thoughtfully-designed – the hallmark of Sullivan’s ornamentation. The geometric lines, both raised and incised, counter the curving leaf motif at the corners. Nature strongly influenced his ornamental designs.

Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an architect in the Chicago School of Architecture also known as the Commercial Style. He was highly influential to the modernists who came after him, including his mentee Frank Lloyd Wright. Sullivan coined the famous architectural phrase “form follows function” to describe his philosophy that the exterior of a building should reflect the functions for which the building is used. Sullivan is also remembered for the ornamentation he created for the exteriors and interiors of his projects. Here, too, he modernized and Americanized. He changed the way ornamentation had traditionally been utilized in architecture in order to emphasize the hallmark of many new buildings of the time – their height.
    
Sullivan practiced with a partner as well, Dankmar Adler, at their firm Adler and Sullivan in Chicago in the late 1800s. The pair designed over 250 buildings together, and all but 30 of them have been demolished. Sullivan and Adler pioneered the practice of constructing skyscrapers and other tall buildings with a base, a shaft of identical floors, and a cornice.

Artist: Louis Henry Sullivan

Museum: Unknown

Origin: Bayard-Condict Building, New York City

Time Period: Modern

Sources:

Barron, James. “Making it Work; Angels For All Seasons.” The New York Times, 20 Dec. 1998, https:///agencies/lpc/lp/0882.pdf. “Louis Sullivan and the Bayard-Condict Building,” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, https:///544355/spotlight-louis-sullivan. 

Welton, J. Michael. “The Architecture of Adler & Sullivan.” Dwell, 19 Jan. 2011, https:///article/the-architecture-of-adler-and-sullivan-e67f12f5.