Wright Chat

Modmom1 · Joined: 03 Dec 2017 Posts: 82

Not being a fan of Philip Johnson, I thought I would skip reading Mark Lamster's"The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson Architect of the Modern Century, thinking it would glorify the man. I came across this review of the book by Kate Wagner (McMansion Hell) in The Nation and it changed my mind:

https://www.thenation.com/article/philip-johnson-man-in-the-glass-house-mark-lamster-review/

Just started it, but it has a good discussion of the tension between Wright and Johnson as well as Schindler (after Neutra's inclusion in the 1932 MOMA show while Schindler was left off as a "stylist". ) Interesting book that I look forward to finishing. Not the glorification I expected.

BTW MOMA has the 1932 Modern architecture : international exhibition, New York, Feb. 10 to March 23, 1932, Museum of Modern Art
catalogue online for those interested:

https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2044_300061855.pdf

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3694 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

A glaring error in the otherwise good article:

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 8993

That's quite a blooper.

What did Johnson do for Trump? Trump Tower was designed by Donald "Der" Scutt, Trump's go-to architect.

The Palazzo della Civilta Italiana looks like Edward Durrell Stone's Perpetual Savings & Loan tower on Wilshire Blvd. and McCarthy Dr. Just add flower boxes with dangling philodendrons to all the windows (nowadays deleted) and you have it.

John Burgee was Johnson's best collaborator. Without a collaborator, Johnson was at sea. The IDS Building in Minneapolis is their outstanding accomplishment.

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3694 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

Paul Goldberger's review of the book goes into a little detail, but names no names/addresses:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/books/review/mark-lamster-philip-johnson-man-in-the-glass-house.html

Modmom1 · Joined: 03 Dec 2017 Posts: 82

Trump is one small part of this biography and was not in office when Lamster began research for his book.

Here is an interview with Mark Lamster (author & arch critic):

-snip

"When you embarked on this years-long research project, did you ever think it would have such contemporary pertinence? From the resurgence of the alt-right, to Johnson’s Trump connection?

Well Trump as president was not something that I had envisioned. And in all seriousness, the relevance of the politics was really important to me. I started writing this in the Obama presidency and it seemed to me the rise of populist proto-fascist right wing political parties in the 1930s was quite analogous to the rise of the sort of alt Tea Party movement in the beginning of the Obama years. And to me, that was very, very similar."

-snip

https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/philip-johnson-biography-mark-lamster-interview/

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 8993

I would still be interested in specific structures that Johnson did for Trump. A lot of Trump's efforts did not meet with fruition.

peterm · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 4:50 pm Post subject:

He’s right, the Tea Party’s white “populism” was the beginning of a proto alt right fascist tendency, and primarily existed as a reactionary response to the election of the first black president. We now are living with the devolved consequences.

People who endorse the current criminal administration are not dissimilar to Johnson in the 30s.

Modmom1 · Joined: 03 Dec 2017 Posts: 82

Was Schindler's exclusion in the 1932 MOMA exhibition due to the fact he was Jewish?

It was noted in the book that at the time of the exhibit not only was Philip Johnson not a paid employee but he funded the exhibit. Money buys access.

peterm · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 5:21 pm Post subject:

Probably more to do with his Socialism and refusal to embrace the one size fits all modernism coming out of Europe. Mainly, I think Johnson simply couldn’t understand Schindler. He was too advanced.

Neutra was Jewish, but Schindler wasn’t (his mother wasn’t Jewish).

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 17198 Location: San Francisco

The Johnson biography of the previous generation, Franz Schulze's "PJ: life and work" of 1994, omits Schindler altogether, interestingly . . .

S

Reidy · Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 1488 Location: Fremont CA

According to people I've heard who knew Schindler (his physician and Esther McCoy), he was indifferent to politics. McCoy allowed that he complained about Roosevelt because he thought the New Deal had made plasterers too expensive (though he planned to vote for him anyway).

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 17198 Location: San Francisco

It wouldn't surprise me that Johnson would find Schindler -- in the 'thirties -- uninteresting, even irrelevant, as his head was in a very different place. I would want to
know, however, if his assessment changed at all as the century wore on. Schindler didn't receive serious attention, as I get it, until Gebhard's book appeared, in 1980 ?

Whether Schindler was "too advanced" for Johnson is a question whose answer would depend on their respective points of view -- and on semantics ?

S

peterm · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:49 pm Post subject:

Reidy- I should have been more precise. The entire scene was radical, artistic, bohemian and leftist, but undoubtedly driven as much by Schindler’s Socialist wife as Schindler himself. At the same time, I have read nothing which gives the indication that RMS was in disagreement with her:

“In the 1920s and early 1930s especially the house was the focus of constant social gatherings; there are reports of people drifting in at all hours. Maurice Browne, a founder of the Chicago Little Theatre, recalled in his autobiography that Pauline, “…brilliant, warmhearted, bitter-tongued…was trying to create a salon amid Hollywood’s cultural slagheap….” Frank Lloyd Wright and his son Lloyd, Edward Weston, John Cage, the progressive dancer John Bovingdon, the poet Sadakichi Hartmann, and Galka Scheyer were among those who passed through. Later, it was largely Mrs. Schindler’s initiative that established the house as a mecca for left-wing political activity in Los Angeles.”
https://makcenter.org/sites/schindler-house/

SDR- Johnson later changed his tune, though arguably it was too little and far too late:

“Years later Mr. Johnson revised his views on Schindler's work, saying that ''the omission was a mistake'' and that Schindler was a more enduring and interesting architect than many of those who once overshadowed him.”

Breezy Modernist Gets His Due; Honor at Last for an Architect Who Made California His Muse NY Times 2001

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 8993

According to Schindler's son, neither of his parents was Jewish. A Jewish docent in the 80s at the Schindler/Chase House asked the son about his Jewish heritage. He said his family was not Jewish, and seemed a bit shocked that she had asked the question.

peterm · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:41 am Post subject:

The Wikipedia entry now states unequivocally that Schindler was Jewish, which was news to me. I wonder where that came from? I’ve read nearly every monograph on the architect and had never seen that before. It also says that the family name was Schlesinger, and it was later changed. Again, news to me.

Conflicting histories:

https://books.google.com/books/about/Silver_Lake_Bohemia_A_History.html?id=QQQZDQAAQBAJ

https://books.google.com/books/about/Design_Dialogue_Jews_Culture_and_Viennes.html?id=qPdwDwAAQBAJ