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It Takes Two

There's some debate as to whether Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson were friends or frenemies-and as to whose glass-box residence came first, conceptually...

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 8/1/2010 3:25:00 PM

There's some debate as to whether Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson were friends or frenemies-and as to whose glass-box residence came first, conceptually. But the architects are posthumously teaming up for Modern Views: A Project to Benefit the Farnsworth House and the Glass House. It takes two The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which now manages the properties in Plano, Illinois, and New Canaan, Connecticut, hopes to raise $1 million, via auctions and book sales, to preserve the pair of modernist icons.

The auctions will be of furniture, sculpture, photography, and drawings created or donated by 100 distinguished architects, designers, and artists. Interior Design Hall of Fame member Ron Radziner, for one, has contributed an abstract pastel of the Glass House; artist Ron Krueck's piece is a mixed-media portrait of Edith Farnsworth. On September 16, the Arts Club of Chicago is hosting a live auction of highlighted pieces and screening a new film by artist Sarah Morris. On October 6, Sotheby's in New York auctions the remaining lots and offers advance copies of the hardcover Modern Views, featuring Mies and Johnson drawings never before seen by the public.