Philip Johnson

Some info about Philip Johnson:

Philip Johnson (1906-2005) was an American architect .He studied philosophy at Harvard University and interrupted his education several times to go to Europe. It was there that he discovered architecture: he was commissioned by the creator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), Alfred Hamilton Barr, to find the trends in modern architecture. In 1932, he became head of the department of architecture at MoMa. With Barr and Hitchcock, he created the exhibition Modern Architecture: International Style. The publication of the book by Hitchcock and Johnson The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 followed. These two works were very influential.

He did some politics. He was a great admirer of Mies Van Der Rohe's monumentality, purity and tenuous connections with classicism.

From 1946 to 1951, Johnson had his own office in partnership with Landes Gores.

First famous work: in 1949, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut (http://philipjohnsonglasshouse.org/)

At the beginning he was influenced by architects of the international style but when it had become commonplace in America he turned away from it. He was iconoclast and his position was quite complex. "He promoted then subverted the international stylen did teh smae to Post-modernism, and repeated the feat with Deconstructivism."

1988: curator of the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture at MoMa.

"All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space." Philip Johnson

If you want to know more about him:

https://acces-distant.sciences-po.fr/http/www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t1.e2472&srn=2&ssid=687778195#FIRSTHIT

Some long interviews:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/6090

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh1H3oSpXgY