Glass House campus opens for tours

Art and architecture lovers, rejoice: Tour season is about to begin at architect Philip Johnson’s Glass House campus in New Canaan, Conn. From May to November, the public is invited to view 14 Johnson-designed structures and a variety of paintings and sculpture on the 49-acre campus.

This year’s exhibits include E.V. Day’s SNAP!, a reinterpretation of Da Monsta, the last building Johnson completed on the site. Responding to Johnson’s statement that “the building is alive,” Day created a series of massive red nets that envelop the undulating exterior and stake Da Monsta to the ground. Several sculptures by Day will be on display inside the building.

New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach will debut Gnomon/Wave, a sand sculpture that casts a moving shadow along and through the glass table where it rests. (It’s worth noting that the table was designed by Mies van der Rohe and is located inside the Glass House.)

Auerbach made this sculpture for Night (1947-2015), a series that honors the legacy of Alberto Giacometti’s 1947 sculpture Night and the architecture of the Glass House itself. The Giacometti sculpture once stood on that same glass table. Night (1947-2015) is an unfolding exhibition where individual sculptures are displayed for three to six months at a time, then “disappear” to make room for new works. Dare I say it? The fluidity of art forms a counterpoint to the solidity of architecture.