Change and misfortune have marked one of Richard Neutra’s best American works, the Windshield house, a project which has influenced his activity and design philosophy in an indelible way. Completed in 1938, the vacation house for the Browns in Fisher Island (in New York state) was destroyed by a hurricane a few months later. Rebuilt, it was again destroyed in 1975 by fire.
More than 50 years later, this exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum pays homage for the first time to one of the symbols of architecture of the twentieth century, an exceptional project also for the role played by the client, John Nicholas Brown, attentive and deeply involved. On display, more than 130 pieces including drawings, original sketches, the contract between Neutra and the Browns, snapshots of the newly completed house, models and computer-generated drawings.
Windshield: Richard Neutra’s House for the John Nicholas Brown Family November 10, 2001 through January 27, 2002 Harvard University Art Museums Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge (Massachusetts) http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/
Richard J. Neutra, Windshield, sketch, view from Northeast, August 1932. Courtesy of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
Richard J. Neutra, Windshield, view from Northwest, September 1939. Photography by Harold H. Costain. Courtesy of Special Collections, Young Library, UCLA
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