Isa Melsheimer Nr. 483, 2023

The work is from a series of large-scale gouaches with a marked painterly quality and prominent presence of flames. The depicted architectural structure is based on Frank Lloyd Wright Jr's 1928 Samuel-Novarro House located in the hills above Los Angeles. Lloyd Wright (1890-1978), the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wrightconceived the building in a characteristic neo-Mayan style, evident for example in the oxidized copper detailing.

(The house has a double name: it is named for Louis Samuel, personal secretary of the silent film star Ramon Novarro. And for Novarro himself who commissioned the house for Samuel in 1928, and who, after discovering Samuel had been embezzling his money, took possession himself of the house in exchange for his silence.)