READING PHILIP JOHNSON, installation view Neuer Berliner Kunstverein

Houses as repositories of complex and contradictory histories are often the point of departure in the work of Markus Draper (*1969 in Görlitz). His new work is based on the artist’s long-term research into the “Glasshouse” built in Connecticut (USA) in 1949 by Philip Johnson (*1906 †2005). Johnson is considered one of the most important architects of the postwar era, and the house he designed for his own use has been declared an icon of American modernism. The transparent structure consists of a single room dominated by a large dark-red brick cylinder containing a fireplace and bathroom. Johnson first revealed the inspiration for this unusual architectural element in an article published in Architectural Review in 1950: the motif and form of the brick cylinder, he explained, derived from the experience of a burned-out village. In a foreword on Johnson, the architect Peter Eisenman commented on this statement with the question: “Who builds a house as a metaphorical ruin?” Johnson’s work as a war correspondent during the Second World War and his support of fascism go unmentioned. Through an installative adaptation of the iconic building in the two-part work Mitreißendes Spektakel, Studie #1 und #2 (Stirring Spectacle, Study #1 and #2) and the presentation of extensive research material, Draper investigates both the ambivalent history of the house and the contradictory biography of Johnson.
(text: Lidiya Anastasova)
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