Curatorial Supremacy

A publication for Philip Johnson’s 1933 exhibition “Young Architects of the Middle West.” The exhibition was developed during Johnson’s tenure as head of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art.

Johnson, a known Fascist and Nazi sympathizer, selected a group of white male architects to submit their designs of pre-fabricated homes and housing projects. For Johnson, architecture was a conduit for enrichment, for industry, and for perpetuating his white world view and political ideals. It was not intended for social good.

The architects selected for the exhibition were chosen by Johnson for their compliance in upholding the “traditions” of modern architecture. They were not selected for their social empathy or expertise in public policy. Their designs did not aim to relieve the housing crisis of the Depression era. Instead, the designs were lauded for their aesthetics, not for their welfare.

Exclusionary curation is a bedrock of our educational and cultural institutions. And this bedrock is what we’ve built our country on. It is inescapable.

Philip Johnson’s legacy was best described by Nikil Saval who wrote for New Yorker Magazine that, “more than any of his contemporaries, [Johnson] was able to influence the scope and direction of the American built environment. We still live in the shadow of the architecture that Johnson brought into being.”

by Le Whit, in collaboration with Emily R. Pellerin

This Field Notes spurred a commissioned op-ed for ARCHITECT Magazine. Read more here: ‘I Installed the Philip Johnson Sign at MoMA'.