SECRET IMAGESSECRET IMAGES

a weekly blog about works of art and architecture that contain hidden messages, mysteries, and surprises

Manuscript Tomb Mural (1962) by Josef Albers and King-lui Wu

September 7, 2019 secretimages Leave a Comment

To most passersby, this looks like a white brick wall, but it is actually a whisper of a mural designed by an influential modernist architect and a renowned painter. Observant viewers see a subtle “O” emerging from the white granite blocks, a significant shape for the elite secret society housed within.


Albers O
Manuscript Tomb Mural (1962) by Josef Albers and King-Lui Wu
Photo by Mark Morosse

Yale University has dozens of “secret societies” for small groups of seniors. The wealthiest of these groups meet in their own windowless clubhouses, known as “tombs,” which feature hidden entrances and soundproof walls. Most of these designs are grand and conspicuous.

Scroll & Key Tomb
Book & Snake Tomb
Skull & Bones Tomb

Manuscript has been traditionally known as the most arts-oriented of Yale’s major secret societies. When Manuscript’s leaders were planning the group’s Elm Street headquarters in the late 1950s, they turned to Yale School of Architecture professor King-lui Wu. Wu was already known for his simple, unadorned structures; his clients knew that he would produce quiet modernist sanctuaries, not showy monuments.

King-lui Wu (right) at the Yale School of Architecture

King-lui Wu’s Rouse House (1952), North Haven, CT

Although Manuscript’s clubhouse is unremarkable from the street, it’s not as modest as it appears. Beyond the thick walls are a hidden courtyard and several subterranean floors; a 2008 Yale student reported that  the building is “elegant, modern and sleek inside with a Japanese water garden and a good deal of fine art.”1

Although Wu disliked ornament, he wanted to add a design element to the wall facing Elm Street.

As the Yale Alumni Magazine reported in 2011, Wu “felt the wall was too austere, so he turned to his good friend and Yale colleague Josef Albers for ideas. Albers—the former Bauhaus teacher best known for his series of Homage to the Square paintings—thought a circle would be a fitting symbol of the bond uniting members of the society.” Manuscript’s members also attach importance to the Enlightenment and the sun, which made a rounded shape even more appropriate.

Albers “proposed chipping out some of the mortar between the bricks, allowing the shadows to subtly define the figure. As it turned out, the gesture was too subtle: the circle was visible only in direct sunlight, a rare condition on a north-facing wall in New Haven. So Wu created an artificial shadow by painting the recessed areas of mortar brown.”2

Josef Albers and King-lui Wu, preliminary drawing of the mural for Yale Manuscript Society House, c.1961, pencil on paper, 50 x 89 cm.
Courtesy: Kung-lui Wu papers (MS 1842), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, New Haven

    Manuscript Tomb Mural
    Artist:
    Josef Albers (1888-1976)

    Albers grew up in Germany, and studied and worked at the Bauhaus until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He and his wife Anni then fled to the U.S., where he taught painting at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. From 1950 to 1958, Albers was chairman of the Department of Design at the Yale University School of Art, and worked as a guest teacher at art schools throughout the world. He is also known for this writing, his Homage to the Square series, and other paintings and prints.

    Architect: King-Lui Wu (1918-2002)
    Wu was born in Guangzhou, China. He studied architecture at Harvard, then taught at the Yale School of Architecture from 1945 to 1988. Wu’s emphasis on the importance of natural light; simple, unadorned forms; and the warmth of organic materials influenced many prominent architects, and he designed several significant modernist buildings.

    Date: 1962
    Material: White rock-faced granite blocks with tinted mortar
    Size: Height of circle is about 4 meters (13.3 feet)
    Location: 344 Elm Street, New Haven, Connecticut

    Online Information:
    “Picture Piece: Secret Symbol” by George Pendle, Frieze, Feb. 15, 2017
    Connecticut Historical Commission Historic Resources Inventory Form: Manuscsript, 344 Elm Street.
    “Homage to the Circle,” Yale Alumni Magazine, Sept/Oct 2011.

    Other Information / Sources:
    An Ingenious Use of a Narrow Site, Architectural Record, November 1965, v. 138, n. 5, p. 161-164.

     

    Share this:

    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Tumblr
    • More
    • Reddit
    • Pocket
    • Telegram
    • WhatsApp
    1. “Yale’s Secret Social Fabric,” Yale Daily News, Dec 5, 2008.
    2. “Homage to the Circle,” Yale Alumni Magazine, Sept/Oct 2011.

    Additional Secret Images

    Filed Under: American Architecture, Architectural Detail Tagged With: Albers, Brick, Manuscript, Secret Society, Wu, Yale

    SUBSCRIBE

    Get a new Secret Images post every week!

    I'll never share your address; unsubscribe at any time.

    « Holy Mountain Series
    (1944-45) by Horace Pippin
    Monument to Nelson Mandela, Union Buildings (2013) by Andre Prinsloo & Ruhan Janse van Vuuren »

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    SECRET * IMAGES

    Connect with Us

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

    Information

    • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

    SUBSCRIBE

    Get a new Secret Images post every week!

    I'll never share your address; unsubscribe at any time.

    Copyright © 2023 · Secret Images · Log in