Glen and Luetta Harder House, Mountain Lake, Minnesota, 1980
Bruce Goff
Photograph by Julius Shulman © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2004.R.10
This major retrospective celebrates the unbounded creative practice of American architect Bruce Goff (1904–1982). Best known for his groundbreaking, idiosyncratic single-family homes in suburban and rural areas across the United States, Goff charted an alternative narrative for a modern architecture imbued with individuality, materiality, and fantastical invention.
The first major show of the architect’s work in over 30 years, Bruce Goff: Material Worlds is drawn primarily from the Art Institute’s vast Bruce Goff collection and archive. The project features over 200 works, including spellbinding architectural drawings, elaborate architectural models, and a selection of Goff’s ambitious, little-known abstract paintings.
Join exhibition co-curator Alison Fisher for an exclusive look into the exhibition.
I’ve been controversial ever since I started. I can’t help it. I’m neither ashamed nor proud of it. That’s just what happened.
—Bruce Goff, 1979/80
About the Speaker
Alison Fisher is the Harold and Margot Schiff Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. She specializes in alternative histories of modern architecture, design, and urbanism and has curated many exhibitions in these areas. Her current work includes a long-term project on the Chicago Institute of Design, research on graphic and furniture design from the 1990s, and a multimedia retrospective on American architect Bruce Goff, opening at the Art Institute in 2025.
If you have any questions about programming, please reach out to [email protected].
Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email [email protected].
