Adele Tutter's psychoanalytic monograph interprets Philip Johnson's Glass House through a single Poussin painting
In her 2016 book, 'Dream House: An Intimate Portrait of the Philip Johnson Glass House,' published by University of Virginia Press, Adele Tutter provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of the modernist building located in New Canaan, Connecticut. Tutter explores the significance of Johnson's choice to display Nicolas Poussin's 'Burial of Phocion' (1648) as the only old master painting, suggesting a parallel between Johnson's life and the fate of the unjustly accused Phocion, which reflects his contentious history with National Socialism. Designed by Johnson as a weekend getaway beginning in 1949, the Glass House features all-glass walls and distinct structures. Tutter also links Johnson's architectural vision to his classical education and his rivalry with Mies van der Rohe, portraying the house as a representation of his internal struggles and memories.
Key facts
- Adele Tutter's monograph 'Dream House' was published in 2016 by University of Virginia Press
- The book analyzes Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, built starting in 1949
- Tutter focuses on Johnson's display of a copy of Nicolas Poussin's 'Burial of Phocion' (1648) as the only old master work in the house
- She interprets the painting's alignment with the hearth as symbolizing Johnson's identification with the wrongly executed Athenian general Phocion
- Johnson (1906-2005) had a controversial association with National Socialism in the 1930s before becoming influential in American modernism
- The Glass House features all-glass walls and underground painting and sculpture galleries on Johnson's Connecticut estate
- Tutter connects the design to Johnson's rivalry with Mies van der Rohe and his later shift to postmodern architecture
- The analysis draws parallels between Johnson's architectural creation and Tutter's father's recreation of a lost Bohemian landscape in upstate New York
Entities
Artists
- Adele Tutter
- Philip Johnson
- Sigmund Freud
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Michelangelo
- Nicolas Poussin
- Mies van der Rohe
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Jacques Lacan
Institutions
- University of Virginia Press
- Museum of Modern Art
- Harvard
- artcritical
Locations
- New Canaan
- Connecticut
- United States
- Cleveland
- Manhattan
- New York
- Lincoln Center
- Pittsburgh
- Athens
- Greece
- Paris
- France
- Czechoslovakia
- Bohemia
- Charlottesville
- London
- England
- Mycenaean Citadel