Design 
24 March 2016
Design 
428

Philip Johnson

six outdoor lights from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

USA, 1961
enameled bronze 31 h × 9 dia in (79 × 23 cm)
estimate: $8,000–10,000
result: $15,000
follow artist
own a similar item?
free evaluation

This set of outdoor lamps comes from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas designed by Philip Johnson in 1961. The museum building underwent a series of additions and renovations over the years (all under Johnson’s supervision), and was most recently vastly expanded in 2001, the 50,000 plus square-foot addition spearheaded by Johnson himself. Approximately twenty-five of these lamps were installed on the museum campus in 1961. They were removed from the exterior during the 1980s and recently deaccessioned by the museum in 2015.
provenance: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth | Private Collection

print

Philip Johnson 1906–2005

follow artist

Philip Johnson is one of the most prolific and ingenious architects of the modern era. Johnson attended Harvard University in 1923 to study Greek. Upon his graduation in 1927, Johnson toured Europe and explored emerging architectural movements such as the Bauhaus school in Germany. In 1930, Johnson became the director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and in 1932 he collaborated with the architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock for an exhibition on International Style. In 1942, Johnson returned the Harvard Graduate School of Architecture, where his thesis project and home – the Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1949 – established Johnson as leader of the modernist style. A clear homage to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the influence of Bauhaus, the Glass House makes use of industrial materials with glass walls and steel beams. In the 1950s, Johnson had the chance to work with his idol, as he joined Mies van der Rohe in designing the Seagram Building, planning its interiors and designing the iconic Four Seasons Restaurant. During the 1960s, Johnson moved away from Modernism and began to create designs in styles ranging from Romanesque to Neo-Classical, as evidenced by his orthodox Amon Center Museum at Dallas Fort Worth. Later, Johnson moved into his Post-Modern period, creating buildings like the Williams Tower in Houston and the 550 Madison Avenue Building in New York. Johnson died in 2005 leaving behind a legacy of notable structures including the Lipstick Building in New York, the David Koch Theater in New York, and the Booth House in New Bedford, among many others.

428