ARTISTS
Gay Gatherings: Philip Johnson, David Whitney and the Modern Arts
Gay Gatherings: Philip Johnson, David Whitney and the Modern Arts explores interactions at the Philip Johnson-designed Glass House among eight gay men who profoundly shaped 20th-century artistic culture: architect Philip Johnson and his longtime partner, curator/collector David Whitney; composer John Cage; choreographer Merce Cunningham; ballet impresario Lincoln Kirstein; and artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.
Coincident with the 50th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall Uprising in 1969, a watershed in the contemporary gay rights movement, and the 70th anniversary of the completion of the Glass House in 1949, Gay Gatherings underscores an essential element of the site‘s history that has not been fully presented as part of its public interpretation up to this time. “The exhibition highlights the Glass House as an intellectual and artistic gathering place,” says Thomas Mellins, co-curator of the show, “where these men’s work was collected, exhibited, and performed.”
Gay Gatherings will be presented in two buildings on the Glass House site: Da Monsta and the Painting Gallery. The exhibition begins in Da Monsta with a specially created digital presentation. The presentation visually showcases the relationships among the exhibition’s key figures, both at the Glass House and other cultural venues from Harvard University to The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, and the site of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. This presentation is rooted in maps of the estate; works of art; photographs by David McCabe, Christopher Makos, and others; and vintage films, including footage of the opening of the New York State Theater, designed by Johnson for the New York City Ballet that was co-founded by Kirstein, and Cunningham and Cage’s “Country Happening” performance at the Glass House in 1967. The presentation’s maps serve to indicate the locations on the property where interactions took place or artworks are on view, including the Brick House (or Guest House), the Painting Gallery, the Sculpture Gallery, the Pond Pavilion, the meadow, the Lincoln Kirstein Tower, and the Glass House itself.
The presentation in Da Monsta also includes three display cases of magazines and books that trace connections between Johnson, Whitney, and the featured artists. Here, visitors will see Johnson’s own copies of Hound & Horn magazine, which Kirstein established, and Johnson contributed to while they were students at Harvard, and books and exhibition catalogs about Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Johns created by David Whitney.
Gay Gatherings continues within the Painting Gallery. In the building’s foyer, visitors will encounter 42 postcards written by Cunningham, Johns, Warhol, Rauschenberg to David Whitney, and Philip Johnson to David Whitney. Key holdings in the Glass House collections—paintings by Rauschenberg, Johns, and Warhol—will be shown in the Painting Gallery itself, alongside two photographs by David McCabe taken at the Glass House in 1964-65.
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Gay Gatherings: Philip Johnson, David Whitney and the Modern Arts explores interactions at the Philip Johnson-designed Glass House among eight gay men who profoundly shaped 20th-century artistic culture: architect Philip Johnson and his longtime partner, curator/collector David Whitney; composer John Cage; choreographer Merce Cunningham; ballet impresario Lincoln Kirstein; and artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.
Coincident with the 50th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall Uprising in 1969, a watershed in the contemporary gay rights movement, and the 70th anniversary of the completion of the Glass House in 1949, Gay Gatherings underscores an essential element of the site‘s history that has not been fully presented as part of its public interpretation up to this time. “The exhibition highlights the Glass House as an intellectual and artistic gathering place,” says Thomas Mellins, co-curator of the show, “where these men’s work was collected, exhibited, and performed.”
Gay Gatherings will be presented in two buildings on the Glass House site: Da Monsta and the Painting Gallery. The exhibition begins in Da Monsta with a specially created digital presentation. The presentation visually showcases the relationships among the exhibition’s key figures, both at the Glass House and other cultural venues from Harvard University to The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, and the site of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. This presentation is rooted in maps of the estate; works of art; photographs by David McCabe, Christopher Makos, and others; and vintage films, including footage of the opening of the New York State Theater, designed by Johnson for the New York City Ballet that was co-founded by Kirstein, and Cunningham and Cage’s “Country Happening” performance at the Glass House in 1967. The presentation’s maps serve to indicate the locations on the property where interactions took place or artworks are on view, including the Brick House (or Guest House), the Painting Gallery, the Sculpture Gallery, the Pond Pavilion, the meadow, the Lincoln Kirstein Tower, and the Glass House itself.
The presentation in Da Monsta also includes three display cases of magazines and books that trace connections between Johnson, Whitney, and the featured artists. Here, visitors will see Johnson’s own copies of Hound & Horn magazine, which Kirstein established, and Johnson contributed to while they were students at Harvard, and books and exhibition catalogs about Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Johns created by David Whitney.
Gay Gatherings continues within the Painting Gallery. In the building’s foyer, visitors will encounter 42 postcards written by Cunningham, Johns, Warhol, Rauschenberg to David Whitney, and Philip Johnson to David Whitney. Key holdings in the Glass House collections—paintings by Rauschenberg, Johns, and Warhol—will be shown in the Painting Gallery itself, alongside two photographs by David McCabe taken at the Glass House in 1964-65.
