An Inscribed Copy
PHILIP JOHNSON
Makers of Contemporary Architecture Series
John M. Jacobus, Jr.
John M. Jacobus, Jr.: PHILIP JOHNSON [Makers of Contemporary Architecture Series] . New York: George Braziller, 1962. First Printing. INSCRIBED by Philip Johnson on front free endpaper: "For John Nicholas Brown / friend & patron of the arts / especially architecture / Thanks / Philip Johnson 1962 " A poor hardcover book with front hinge splitting, shelfworn boards in a supplied, fine example of the Elaine Lustig and Reich dust jacket. Gifted bookplate from John Nicholas Brown to Brown University on front endpaper. A nice association copy that has seen better days.7.5 x 10.25 hardcover book with 128 pages and 90 b/w photographs and 30 drawings (includes plans and elevations).
“[Architecture] is also the most difficult of all the arts. How often I have envied my colleagues who write, paint, or compose music. They live where they like, they work when they want — no recalcitrant materials, no leaky roofs, no stopped-up sewers. They tear up their mistakes.” – Philip Johnson
Contents
- Text
- Notes to the Text
- Chronology
- Plates
- Selected Writings of Philip Johnson
- Bibliography
- Index
- Illustration Credits
Buildings include The Johnson House, Cambridge, MA; Eugene Farney House, Long Island, NY; The Glass House, New Canaan, CT; Rockefeller Guest House, New York; George Oneto House, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY; Richard Hodgson House, New Canaan, CT; Schlumberger Administration Building; Alice Ball Houses, New Canaan, CT; Robert Wiley House, New Canaan, CT; Sculpture Court, MOMA NY; Richard Davis House, Wayzata, Minnesota; House for Wiley Development Company, New Canaan, CT; Robert Leonhardt House, Long Island, NY; Projects for William Burden House; Eric Boissanas House, New Canaan, CT; Kneses Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Port Chester, NY; MOMA Annex, New York; University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX; Sheldon Art Gallery (under construction), University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska; Lincoln Center (under construction), New York; New York State Theater; Four Seasons Restaurant, Seagram Building, New York; Asia House, New York; Philip Johnson Pavilion, New Canaan, CT; Roofless Church for Robert Lee Blaffer Trust, New Harmony, Indiana; Nuclear Reactor, Rehovot, Israel; Computing Laboratory, Brown University, Providence, RI; Klein Science Tower, Yale University; Sarah Lawrence College Dormitories, Bronxville, NY; and, Eric Boissonnas House, Cap Bénat, France.
From Wikipedia: "John Nicholas Brown II (February 21, 1900 - October 10, 1979) was the United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) from 1946 to 1949. He was a member of the Brown family that had been active in American life since before the American Revolution and who were the major early benefactors of Brown University.
"During World War II, Brown worked for the United States Army, and after the war, he traveled to Europe to supervise the return of art treasures stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners. In 1946, President of the United States Harry S. Truman nominated Brown as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) and Brown held this office from January 12, 1946 until March 8, 1949.
"Brown settled in Providence, Rhode Island as a senior fellow of Brown University. He served the university in a number of capacities for 49 years, including a stint as chairman of the university's building and planning committee, in which capacity he oversaw the building of a number of Brown University's buildings. He was also a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1975 was awarded the Smithsonian's Joseph Henry Medal for his cultural leadership."
Terence Riley noted that the early taste makers at MoMA understood their job was to separate "the wheat from the chaff." Few people rose to that challenge with more vigor than Philip Johnson, the young head of the Department of Architecture and Design. Alfred Barr's insistence on including Architecture and Design as a fully functioning department within MoMA was a radical curatorial departure, which seems only obvious today.
Philip Johnson's 1928 visit to the Bauhaus Dessau sparked his imagination and solidified his role as a proselytizer for the European Avant-Garde architecture. "We were proud to be avant-gardists; we wore our enthusiasm as a badge of honor that distinguished us as culturally superior to those around us." Johnson said. From this plateau, Johnson and his MoMA collaborators Barr and Hitchcock eventually labeled this architecture "The International Style."
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
out of stock