Philip Johnson's Brick House or Guest
House.
Spicer Art Conservation, LLC is examining and proposing
treatments for the textiles in Philip Johnson's Brick House
adjacent to his private home,
The Glass House.
This is part of a house wide
preservation project
for the
National Trust for Historic
Preservation.
The Glass House complex is a registered National
Historic Landmark, considered one of the most
significant architectural resources of the Modernist
period. A video of the Brick House and the site can be
seen on
YouTube.
The Brick house is divided into two rooms, a large guest
room with walls covered in
Fortuny Fabric
and a study or reading room. The fabric is a cotton twill
that is dyed, printed and highlighted with printed gild
work. The interior design of the bedroom lead Johnson to
use similar architectural elements in later projects. The
same pink and gold Fortuny Fabric he placed in the woman's
bathroom of the
Four Season Restaurant
only few years later. Johnson also placed Fortuny fabric on
the walls of the dining room of the
Beck house
designed in Dallas TX.
Gwen Spicer gave a talk
"Decoding the History of the Fortuny Fabric at Philip
Johnson's Brick House Interior"
at the
New England Conservation
Association
held at the Shelburne Museum in September. A summary of the
talk can be read in the blog
Inside the Conservator's
Studio.
View of the Brick House from the inside of the Glass House.
Front of Brick House with Art Gallery in the distance.
Gwen Spicer examining the bed spreads for the Guest room
and the unusual Felted Chairs by Pesce Gaetano for the
study.