While most critics have focused on the Nazi connection, one of my favorite chapters in the new biography 'The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century' by Mark Lamster (published by Little, Brown, and Company) tells the story of the seminal exhibition 'Modern Architecture: International Exhibit of 1932, which Johnson curated at MoMA at 25. It cemented him as the powerful architecture curator, strengthened his connection with MoMA, but also illuminated his troubled and arrogant personality and style of communication.
This exhibition was meant to introduce the Modern Movement in America, and included work by such stars, as Le Corbusier, Mies, Gropius, Oud, as well as a couple of American architects. Johnson, we learn, turned away both Rudolph Schindler, for the lack of unity, and Buckminster Fuller, whom he considered 'techno-charlatan.' But no other episode in the creation of this exhibition is as dramatic as the story of Frank Lloyd Wright, on whom Johnson said that he has 'nothing to say' about modern architecture. Yet, considering Wright's position in American architecture, he reluctantly included him in the show, but the famed architect was so irritated that at the end, he demanded to remove any mention of his name from the show.
At first, Johnson promised to visit Wright at his home in Spring Green WI, which he failed to do; then he requested submission of images and bio, ignoring the accomplishments of the 65-year-old architect. Johnson selected Wright's House on the Mesa project for its flat roof and planer construction, but neglected to include him in the book he co-authored with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, entitled 'The International Style: Architecture Since 1922.' A month before the show, Wright withdrew from the show, noting that his 'way has been too long and too lonely to make a belated bow to my peoples as a modern architect in company with a self-advertising amateur (referring to Johnson) and a high powered salesman (referring to Hitchcock). For the remaining exchange of letters between the two, I highly recommend this excellent book.
This exhibition was meant to introduce the Modern Movement in America, and included work by such stars, as Le Corbusier, Mies, Gropius, Oud, as well as a couple of American architects. Johnson, we learn, turned away both Rudolph Schindler, for the lack of unity, and Buckminster Fuller, whom he considered 'techno-charlatan.' But no other episode in the creation of this exhibition is as dramatic as the story of Frank Lloyd Wright, on whom Johnson said that he has 'nothing to say' about modern architecture. Yet, considering Wright's position in American architecture, he reluctantly included him in the show, but the famed architect was so irritated that at the end, he demanded to remove any mention of his name from the show.
At first, Johnson promised to visit Wright at his home in Spring Green WI, which he failed to do; then he requested submission of images and bio, ignoring the accomplishments of the 65-year-old architect. Johnson selected Wright's House on the Mesa project for its flat roof and planer construction, but neglected to include him in the book he co-authored with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, entitled 'The International Style: Architecture Since 1922.' A month before the show, Wright withdrew from the show, noting that his 'way has been too long and too lonely to make a belated bow to my peoples as a modern architect in company with a self-advertising amateur (referring to Johnson) and a high powered salesman (referring to Hitchcock). For the remaining exchange of letters between the two, I highly recommend this excellent book.
Villa Tugendhat, by Mies van der Rohe.
House on the Mesa, by Frank Lloyd Wright
Double House in Weissenhofsiedlung, by Le Corbusier.
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