ABSTRACT
Modern Architecture: International Exhibition was the name of the first show on architecture held at the Museum of Modern Art. Alfred Barr credited Frank Lloyd Wright with having been "since 1910 one of the chief inspirations of modern European architecture". Wright was deeply ambivalent about the invitation he received in 1931 to participate in the museum's 1932 exhibition. Taliesin was represented in the 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art by a single photograph. Like Taliesin, the Typical Little Farms Unit, later renamed Unified Farm, sought to combine the pars rustica of a modern farm with the pars urbana of a modern residence. Neither Taliesin nor the House on the Mesa is typically described as a villa, that combination of rustic and urban types developed in ancient and renaissance periods. Perhaps the most striking indication of Taliesin's rural urbanity is the Tea Circle.
