The Philip Johnson Glass House

Last Friday, I visited the Philip Johnson Glass House with my class at Sotheby’s. Located in New Canaan, CT, the Glass House is an archipelago of art, buildings and installations strategically laid out across the 47-acre historic preservation. The personal collection belonging to the late architect and designer is comprised of sculptures, paintings and personally designed structures drawing inspiration from different centuries of styles—i.e. the windows of the Brick House, which served as a more private bedroom and guesthouse, were taken from the Duomo in Florence, Italy—though the Glass House is hailed as a modern house monument. The majority of works were acquired by the architect himself during his long tenure of design and through the channels of his impressive network of artists and designer acquaintances—though some acquisitions were obtained and curated posthumously. The Glass House proper (which Johnson also shared with his life-partner, David Whitney) sits on the edge of a hill, overlooking a manmade pond and staircase sculpture. Uplighting was installed on the roof to illuminate the surrounding trees at night and the paths connecting the buildings are meticulously calculated, guiding visitors to take in the New England landscape.

Frank Stella’s work in the art gallery

One of the most surprising works in the collection is the freestanding Nicolas Poussin piece in the ‘living room’ of the Glass House, Burial of Phocion, 1648-1649, that cries out as an anachronism in the otherwise majorly modern compound. The juxtaposition of this piece with the temporary, contemporary E.V. Day exhibit in Da Monsta, the building originally intended to serve as the visitor center, draws a stark period contrast.

The furniture (mostly designed by Miles van der Rohe) and the majority of pieces in the collection are permanent. The pieces in the sculpture gallery are also permanent and the works in the art gallery, affixed to manually moving walls, are occasionally rotated, but no new pieces are added. The exhibitions in Da Monsta and the pieces on the coffee table in the Glass House, (an exhibition titled Night after the 1947 Alberto Giacometti piece with the same title that left the house for repairs and never returned); however, rotate and pay homage to the original architecture and works of the preserve.

“The Raft of Medusa” by Frank Stella in the sculpture gallery

The collection seems to be ‘curated’ with minimalist and Mediterranean themes in mind. The sculpture gallery was modeled with Renaissance/Baroque elements of the staircase, reminiscent of a village in the Greek isles. The repetitive geometric patterns throughout the compound—the pool is circular, as are the shapes in the ceiling of the art gallery, the windows of the Brick House and the Donald Judd sculpture at the bottom of the driveway— and the many Frank Stella pieces belonging to the permanent collection, speak to the minimalist qualities of the estate.

Part of E.V. Day’s SNAP! exhibition

While the collection itself is an impressive array of works pulled from the hands and minds of renowned artists, there is a somewhat eerie quality to a compound absent of its original owner, aside from an Andy Warhol screen printed tribute of the architect in his art gallery. Johnson’s original intention in donating the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation was to ensure public access to his estate, thus cementing and immortalizing his legacy and glorifying the self. Since this is the first private collection I have seen, I have no point of comparison, but I would imagine that most collections give off the same peculiar feel—the personal touch and craftsmanship of one brilliant, late man’s life work, purposefully assembled and preserved in order to perpetuate his legendary status and pay tribute to his oeuvre.