In this video, we have a look at the highlights of the art collection of the Philip Johnson Glass House in Canaan, Connecticut (USA). Irene Shum Allen (Curator and Collections Manager, The Glass House) provides us with an introduction to Philip Johnson as an art patron, and presents three major works on display at The Glass House: an outdoor sculpture by Donald Judd (Untitled, 1971), which is believed to be Judd’s first outdoor site-specific installation; the painting Averroes (1960) by Frank Stella; and Bruce Nauman’s neon sculpture Neon Templates of the Left Half of My Body Taken at Ten Inch Intervals from 1966.
Highlights of The Glass House Art Collection: Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Frank Stella. Presented by Irene Shum Allen (Curator and Collections Manager, The Glass House). The Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan (CT, USA), April 25, 2014.
PS: Watch also our coverage of the current exhibition project at The Glass House, Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture Veil, and an interview with Fujiko Nakaya; as well as an interview with the Director and Chief Curator of the Glass House, Henry Urbach, who provides us with an introduction to Philip Johnson and The Glass House.
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Philip Cortelyou Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1906. He graduated from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1943. Johnson designed some of America’s greatest modern architectural landmarks, including the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at The Museum of Modern Art, New York’s AT&T Building (now Sony Plaza), Houston’s Transco (now Williams) Tower and Pennzoil Place, the Fort Worth Water Garden, and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Before practicing architecture, Johnson was the founding Director of the Department of Architecture at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. His landmark 1932 exhibition, The International Style, introduced modern architecture to the American public. Johnson continued a relationship with MoMA throughout his life as a curator, architect, trustee, and patron. He donated more than 2,000 works of art to the Museum including works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.