Page 67 - Studio International - May June 1975

Art Museum of South Texas

Corpus Christi, Texas, 1972

Architects: Philip Johnson & John Burgee

`We are too intellectual about architecture,
not intuitive enough. We can't seem to
take in knowledge through our eyes and
trust it. We don't let ourselves feel beauty.
Instead we want to rationalize it, try to
find out how things function. If I defend a
building on functional grounds, I am
already far ahead in the argument. But if
I say, "I 'm sorry, this is beautiful
someone always wants to make sense of it
and ask why".'
`Philip Johnson — The Man Who
Builds Monuments,' Think Magazine,
1965.
Johnson, who is outspoken about his
own work, considers the Art Museum of
South Texas 'The most exciting building
I have ever done.' Further he states
`The Art Museum of South Texas was
the first time in a museum that I tried to
do two things all at once. I wanted to
create a space that in itself, without any
pictures in it, without any reason for
being, would be an exciting space. And
second perhaps, I wanted to make a
building that would have flexibility,
such ease of installation that arts of any
and all periods . .. will be able to be
placed and sympathetically understood ..'
In Barbara Rose's filmed interview on
the building, Johnson continues : 'Light
is of the essence, and light coming from
all sides is especially bathing and
soothing. We have made the building all
out of concrete . .. everything is. white.
The walls are chipped white concrete, the
ceiling is white plaster, the floor is white
concrete. No matter which way you turn,
you are bathed in this white light that
comes in larger or lesser degrees from all
these different sources . .. it is white
because grey concrete is so ugly and
white concrete has a shimmer and a
delightful accent to it, especially in the
strong sun.
`It was exciting for me to do this project
for the simple reason that there wasn't
any specific program. When clients start
tying you down with so many square
feet for pictures, and so many square
feet for sculptures it gets extremely
boring and you want to give up and you
try to fit all these regular different
programs. Its rather like the
Procrustean bed analogy. You can't
design a bed if you know you have to cut
Procrustes feet off to fit him into it. If
you are left free to create a civic
monument, you create a mark
representing ART to a city in South
Texas. That's the most exciting thing
that can happen.'

Text from gallery handsheet.