Artwork Details

Eugene Masselink
American, b. South Africa

1910–1962

Eight-Fold Screen
1956
Medium
Stained walnut with paint and gilt
Dimensions
93 x 149 inches
Location
Not on view
Accession Number
2006.28
Credit
Museum Purchase

About the Artwork

Eugene Masselink lived in Grand Rapids for most of his life and worked alongside Frank Lloyd Wright. This eight-panel screen was produced as part of Wright’s commission to design the bedroom of Elizabeth Gordon — one of the best-known arbiters of modernism in America — and was originally used as closet doors.

Masselink’s screen features the organic geometry that was described as not an imitation of nature, but rather the delights of nature; [with] variations of patterns, subtle rhythms, and the sense of underlying structure.”