Philip Johnson: A Complicated, Reprehensible History
This interview was originally published on Common Edge as "Mark Lamster on His New Biography of Philip Johnson."
© Richard Barnes
This interview was originally published on Common Edge as "Mark Lamster on His New Biography of Philip Johnson."Philip Johnson lived a long and extraordinarily eventful life. He was an architect, a museum curator, a tastemaker, a kingmaker, a schemer, an exceptionally vivid cultural presence. Mark Lamster, architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News and Harvard Loeb Fellowship recipient, has now written a thoroughly engaging biography of him entitled, Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century: The Man in the Glass House. I talked to Lamster two weeks ago about the book and the bundle of contradictions that was Philip Johnson.Martin C Pedersen: I have always been perversely interested in Johnson as a historical figure. I had read and enjoyed the first biography of him. So I was looking forward to reading this. And it didn?t disappoint. Tell me the genesis of your book.Mark Lamster: Initially I had rejected the whole idea of doing it. I was coming off another book and sitting with my agent, discussing what sort of book I should write next. Someone suggested a biography of Philip Johnson. He?d been dead for a few years and there hadn?t been a posthumous biography. He was a major cultural figure. And it was right in my swing zone. But I said no. I didn?t want Johnson floating around in my head for the three...
© Richard Barnes
This interview was originally published on Common Edge as "Mark Lamster on His New Biography of Philip Johnson."Philip Johnson lived a long and extraordinarily eventful life. He was an architect, a museum curator, a tastemaker, a kingmaker, a schemer, an exceptionally vivid cultural presence. Mark Lamster, architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News and Harvard Loeb Fellowship recipient, has now written a thoroughly engaging biography of him entitled, Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century: The Man in the Glass House. I talked to Lamster two weeks ago about the book and the bundle of contradictions that was Philip Johnson.Martin C Pedersen: I have always been perversely interested in Johnson as a historical figure. I had read and enjoyed the first biography of him. So I was looking forward to reading this. And it didn?t disappoint. Tell me the genesis of your book.Mark Lamster: Initially I had rejected the whole idea of doing it. I was coming off another book and sitting with my agent, discussing what sort of book I should write next. Someone suggested a biography of Philip Johnson. He?d been dead for a few years and there hadn?t been a posthumous biography. He was a major cultural figure. And it was right in my swing zone. But I said no. I didn?t want Johnson floating around in my head for the three...
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