Philip Johnson

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an influential American architect. The founder of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) in 1946, and later a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1978 and the first Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979. He was a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Influence

Through his long career Johnson was more influential for his criticism and intellectual guidance of the profession than the buildings directly credited to him. Financially independent as a result of his father's gift of Alcoa stock, he was the founder of the influential Department of Architecture and Design at MOMA. As co-author (with Henry-Russell Hitchcock Jr.) of the MOMA exhibition catalog "The International Style: Architecture Since 1922" (1932), Johnson is credited with introducing European modernism to America. As mentor of the New York Five, power-broker, socialite, and MOMA trustee, Johnson held an ideal position to promote his stance that architecture is an aesthetic pursuit equal to other fine arts. The most recognizable figure in American architecture for decades, part icon, part oracle, part stand-up comic, Johnson was a reliable source of wit and provocation.

Johnson's greatest influence, however, came with his innovative glass buildings. Johnson was among the first to experiment with all-glass facades, and by the 1980s such buildings had become commonplace the world over. He eventually rejected much of the metallic appearance of earlier International Style buildings, and began designing spectacular, crystalline structures uniformly sheathed in glass. Many of these became instant icons, such as PPG Place in Pittsburgh and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

Johnson was survived by his long time partner, David Whitney, who subsequently passed away on Sunday, June 12, 2005 of lung and bone cancer at the age of 66. According to Whitney's obituary (found at http://www.warholstars.org/news/june2005b.html)he was "an art collector, curator, and the long-time companion of architect Philip Johnson who died earlier this year (January 2005). Whitney was also a friend and confidante of Andy Warhol and often joked about marrying him. "

Early Life

Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 8, 1906. He attended Harvard an undergraduate, where he studied history and philosophy, particularly attracted to the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Johnson interrupted his education with several extended trips to Europe. These trips became the pivotal moment of his education; he visited Chartres, the Parthenon, and many other ancient monuments, becoming increasingly fascinated with architecture.

The 1930's

Soon after graduating from Harvard, Johnson toured Europe with his friends Alfred H Barr Jr and Henry-Russell Hitchcock to examine firsthand recent trends in architecture. Their discoveries were assembled as the landmark show "The International Style" at the Museum of Modern Art, 1932. The show was profoundly influential and is seen as the introduction of modern architecture to the American public. It introduced such pivotal architects as Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe -- but notably Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his entries in pique that he was not more prominently featured.

As critic Pater Blake has stated, the importance of this show in shaping American architecture in the century "cannot be overstated." The show argued that the new modern style maintained three formal principles: 1. an emphasis on architectural volume over mass (planes rather than solidity) 2. a rejection of symmetry and 3. rejection of applied decoration. The definition of the movement as a "style" with distinct formal characteristics has been seen by some critics as downplaying the social and political bent that many of the European practitioners shared.

One controversial aspect of Johnson's career was his active political involvement with right wing populism for six years beginning in 1934. Johnson walked away from the success of his MOMA exhibition and, in a move described by the contemporary newspapers as 'surreal', attempted to join forces with Louisiana governor Huey Long. After Long's 1935 assassination, Johnson wrote a series of articles for the Detroit broadcaster Father Coughlin, ran for public office in Ohio. As a journalist, he traveled to Nuremberg for Adolf Hitler's 1938 rally, and with the press corps to Poland after Germany invaded it in 1939.

Johnson returned the United States in 1940, at the outbreak of World War II, abandoned his fledgeling journalist career, and enlisted in the United States Army. After two and a half years in uniform, he returned to Harvard to complete his studies in architecture.

His swerve away from politics accompanied a renunciation of his anti-semitic articles; subsequently he actively promoted the work of Jewish architects and artists, designed several synagogues (one built, in New York), and worked closely with the new Isreali government on high profile projects (the national airport at Tel Aviv, unbuilt, and the Rehovat nuclear research facility).

Buildings

Johnson's most famous work is the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, a transparent open-plan frame structure which was his own residence. The Glass House is heavily influenced by Mies' Farnsworth House, among other buildings -- Johnson often discussed the influences of the building from many historical models, even the Acropolis. The New Canaan estate continued to grow and now boasts a number of unique designs, including a building made out of chain-link fencing, a sculpture gallery with a glass ceiling, a house of brick mirroring his glass house, and a building with no conventionally shaped walls (having only two corners).

Johnson's architectural work is a balancing act between two dominant trends in post-war American art: the more "serious" movement of Minimalism, and the more populist movement of Pop art. His best work has aspects of both movements. Johnson's personal collections reflected this dichotomy, as he introduced artists such as Rothko to the Museum of Modern Art as well as Warhol. Straddling between these two camps, his work was seen by purists of either side as always too contaminated or influenced by the other.

From 1967 to 1991 Johnson collaborated with John Burgee, his most productive period certainly by the measure of scale -- he became known at this time as builder of iconic office towers.

The AT&T Building in Manhattan, now the Sony Building, was completed in 1984 and was immediately controversial for its neo-Georgian pediment (Chippendale top). At the time, it was seen as provocation on a grand scale: crowning a Manhattan skyscraper with a shape echoing a historical wardobe top defied every precept of the modernist aesthetic: historical pattern had been effectively outlawed among architects for years. In retrospect other critics have seen the AT&T Building as the first Postmodernist statement, necessary in the context of modernism's aesthetic cul-de-sac.

Johnson's other notable works include:

John de Menil House, Houston (1950)
Four Seasons Restaurant in Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, New York City (1959),
New York State Theater (home of the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet) at Lincoln Center (with Richard Foster; 1964),
the Kreeger Museum in Washington D.C. (with Richard Foster; 1967),
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library of New York University (1967-1972)
the IDS Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1972)
South Texas Art Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas (1972)
Boston Public Library (1973)
Evangelist Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California (1980)
The Transco Tower, now rebranded Williams Tower, Houston, (1983)
the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase College,
Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas, Texas,
the main campus mall at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas
the Republic Bank Center in Houston, Texas 1981-1984, now rebranded Nationsbank Center
the Cleveland Playhouse in Cleveland, Ohio
the Museum of Art at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York.
190 South LaSalle in Chicago John Burgee Architects, Philip Johnson Consultant
191 Peachtree Tower, Atlanta, Georgia John Burgee Architects, Philip Johnson Consultant
One Atlantic Center (formerly called the IBM Tower). Atlanta, Georgia John Burgee Architects, Philip Johnson Consultant
Puerta de Europa, Madrid, Spain (1991-1995) John Burgee Architects, Philip Johnson Consultant
Fort Worth Water Gardens
101 California Street, San Francisco
PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1984)
Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas

Quotes

"I would rather stay in Chartres Cathedral with the nearest john two blocks away, than spend a single night in a Harvard dorm."
"Architecture is surely not the design of space, certainly not the massing or organization of volumes. These are ancillary to the main point, which is the organization of procession. Architecture exists in time."
"The job of the architect today is to create beautiful buildings. That's all." 1965.
On architects being known for long life spans: "Of course they live long -- they have a chance to act out all their aggressions."

Johnson wrote (Heyer, 1966):

The painters have every advantage over us today...Besides being able to tear up their failures—we never can seem to grow ivy fast enough—their materials cost them nothing. They have no committees of laymen telling them what to do. They have no deadlines, no budgets. We are all sickeningly familiar with the final cuts to our plans at the last moment. Why not take out the landscaping, the retaining walls, the colonnades? The building would be just as useful and much cheaper. True, an architect leads a hard life—for an artist.

...Comfort is not a function of beauty... purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful...sooner or later we will fit our buildings so that they can be used...where form comes from I don't know, but it has nothing at all to do with the functional or sociological aspects of our architecture.

References

Mentioned in the song Thru These Architect's Eyes on the album 1.outside by David Bowie.