GOFF

INTRODUCTION BY Craig LEE
assistant curator in Architecture and Design, Art INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

Thank you Igo; thank you Britni; and thank you Iker. And thank you to MAS Context, Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and UIC for hosting this evening’s film screening of GOFF, a documentary directed by Britni Harris.

Bruce Goff can seem elusive. An architect for those in the know who seek out his designs, most often as built in suburban, and more often, in rural towns, out of the way across various states in the Midwest and Central US. An architect who in his time was heralded in leading professional and popular magazines—across six decades from the 1920s to 1980s—and connected to a veritable who’s who of architectural luminaries that were his peers. And yet, since his death in 1982, Goff’s incandescence dimmed, becoming known mainly for maybe a few key projects, and representative of a “regional,” outlier approach towards modern American architecture.

Bruce Goff can seem impossible today. I mean so less in terms of his designs, which might look impossible—buildings spun out and layered from shapes like circles, triangles, spirals, and octagons or constructed from repurposed materials like coal, glass cullet, rope, airplane parts, or fish netting, to name a few. But by looking impossible, they belie the fact that they are very much possible—a realization right in front of you and a compact between architect, client, and builders and contractors.

I mean more that the arc of his life and career seem impossible. A child prodigy who began an architectural apprenticeship in 1916 at the age of twelve, only to design, just a decade later at 22, the largest building in Tulsa and young state of Oklahoma, the Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. A chairman of the School of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma, revolutionizing the teaching curriculum, but who did not go to college himself—at the advice, it should be said, of Frank Lloyd Wright. A career in which he produced over 500 architectural designs, and yet was as prolific a painter in abstract compositions. And, for a brief period, he composed music too. Seems impossible to fathom.

And still, Bruce Goff can be closer than he appears. For Britni Harris, who grew up outside Tulsa, Goff was less a known named entity than just part of the fabric of the city. It wasn’t until she was at the University of Oklahoma that she learned Goff’s famous Bavinger House was just a short drive from campus in Norman. And so began a project that spread across several years, thousands of miles logged, capturing hundreds of hours of footage to produce this documentary, part of a resurgent interest in Goff that has spanned exhibitions and publications in Oklahoma, California, Chicago, and elsewhere—along with Goff Fest, founded in 2021 in Tulsa by Britni Harris and Karl Jones to have Goff capture a new generation’s imagination.

Here in Chicago, Goff is not so far away either. Yes, he designed a handful of homes in the area and he is buried in Graceland Cemetery, but I always marvel when I walk past the Tribune Tower, to find that the architectural fragment lodged in the northeast corner just above the sidewalk representing Oklahoma is a piece from Boston Avenue Church with the epigraph, “First with Modern Architecture.”

At the beginning of documentary we hear Goff—in his distinctive, soft-spoken drawl—say: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”

Bruce Goff can seem elusive. Bruce Goff can seem impossible. In Bruce Goff, we can see what we want to see. Hopefully now—with this film, with the Art Institute’s recent exhibition, and the ongoing Goff Fest—we can see a lot more.

FEATURING

Fred Allen Nephew of Bruce Goff
Susan Atkinson City Planner City of Oklahoma City
Joanne & Richard Bennett Original owner of the Bennett house in Bartlesville, OK
Jerri Bonebrake Bruce Goff’s secretary during his years at the University of Oklahoma
Bob Bowlby Bruce Goff’s architecture student who later worked as Goff’s assistant in Bartlesville
Hans Butzer Dean of the architecture school at the University of Oklahoma
Penelope Dean - University of Illinois at Chicago, professor at the School of Architecture
David DeLong Author of Goff’s biography Bruce Goff: Toward Absolute Architecture
Jim Gardner Architecture student of Bruce Goff
Herb Greene Studied architecture with Bruce Goff and taught architecture at OU for six years
Nick Harm Previous professor for the University of Oklahoma Architecture School
Doug Harris Worked alongside Goff for many years
Tom Hart Worked with Goff during that later part of his career
Arn Henderson Professor emeritus of architecture for the University of Oklahoma
Scott Lane Kansas City Real Estate Agent and Bruce Goff follower
Chris Lilly Architect for the restoration of Bruce Goff’s building The Tulsa Club
Dr. Carol Mason Professor of gender & women’s studies at the University of Kentucky
Rod Parks Owner of the Nicol House in Kansas City, MO
Joe Price Former owner of Shin’enKan, one of Bruce Goff’s iconic designs
Bart Prince Worked with Bruce Goff in the later part of career, finished the Japanese Pavilion of Art
Ted Reeds Architect and senior associate at the Macintosh Group
Jody Searing Original owner of the Searing House in Prairie Village, KS
Mark White Chief Curator at Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman, OK
Rev. David Wiggs Senior Pastor at the Boston Avenue Methodist church in Tulsa, OK

Credits

Director & Producer Britni Harris
Producer Michelle Svenson
Editor Claire Edwards
Cinematography by Shane Brown, Britni Harris
Location Sound Royce Sharp
Music Composed by Samuel Regan, Mark Kuykendall
Additional Camera Colette Ghunim, Jeff Jones, Joshua Morris
Music Supervisor Mark Kuykendall
Additional Music By Scott Bell, Amy Cottingham
Sound Editor / Re-recording Mixer Raphael Ajuelos
Production Assistant Sarah Gilpin, Kaitlyn Shelby, Christa Whetstone
Archivist Katie Bush
Colourist Luke Wittmann
Graphics Animator Jason Yang
Legal Counsel Deena Kalai