John Hejduk (b. New York, N.Y. 1929; d. New York, N.Y. 3 July 2000), was an architect, artist and educator who spent
much of his life in New York City. Hejduk is noted for his use of attractive and often
difficult-to-construct objects and shapes; also for a profound interest in the fundamental issues of shape, organization,
representation, and reciprocity.
Hejduk studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, the University of Cincinnati, and the Harvard
Graduate School of Design, from which he graduated with a Masters in Architecture in 1953. He worked in several offices in
New York including that of I. M. Pei and Partners and the office of A.M. Kinney and
Associates. He established his own practice in New York in 1965. (1)
Career
Hejduk is associated with several schools, including The New York Five (MOMA
publication "Five Architects" that also included works of the architects Peter Eisenman,
Richard Meier, Michael Graves, and
Charles Gwathmey), and The Texas
Rangers (a group of innovative architects and professors, at the Texas School of Architecture, Austin, responsible for changing architecture education as a discourse. Other well-known participants
include Colin Rowe and Werner Seligmann). Hejduk
was dean of the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture from 1972 to 2000. His arrival
including the cooperation of many other influential Professors (including Raimund
Abraham, Ricardo Scofidio, Peter
Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, Elizabeth
Diller, David Shapiro, and many others) transformed the practice and
critical thought of architecture in ways that might be compared to Ludwig Mies Van Der
Rohe's transformation of the Armor Institute into the Illinois
Institute of Technology.
His early work and curriculum grew from a set of exercises exploring cubes, grids, and frames, through an examination of
square grids placed within diagonal containers set against an occasional curving wall, towards a series of experiments with flat
planes and curved masses in various combinations and colors (1). To aid his research he was awarded a grant from the
Graham Foundation in 1967. Eventually, John
Hejduk's "hard-line" modernist space-making exercises, heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd
Wright and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, moved away from his interests in
favor of free-hand "figure/objects" influenced by mythology and spirituality, clearly expressing the nature of his poetry. The
relationship between Hejduk's shape/objects and their surroundings is a controversial subject, raising questions similar to those
raised by the early houses of Peter Eisenman. The built work of Hejduk began to appear in
the 1980s (Mask of Medusa, Brazil; Kreuzberg Tower, Berlin; House for Two Brothers, Tegel Harbor - Berlin; Security
(Interventions), Berlin; etc...) and continue beyond his death. (Wall House 2, Groningen, NL; and Hejduk Tribute Towers, Galicia
Cultural Center - Santiago de Compastello Peter Eisenman).
Contemporary Theorists/Researchers/Academics publishing work/research by and about John Hejduk include K Michael Hays, Mark Linder, R.E. Somol,
and Renata Hejduk.
A large portion of his work is archived at the Canadian Centre for
Architecture in Montreal.
Important buildings
Bibliography
- Education Of An Architect A Point Of View (1988,1999)
- Pewter Wings Golden Horns Stone Veils: Wedding in a Dark Plum Room (1997)
- Adjusting Foundations (1995)
- Architectures In Love (1995)
- Security (1995)
- Berlin Night (1993)
- Soundings (1993)
- Aesop's Fables with Joseph Jacobs. Illustrations by John Hejduk. (1991)
- Práce (Practice) (1991)
- The Riga Project (1989)
- Vladivostok (1989)
- Bovisa (1987)
- Mask of Medusa (1985)
- Fabrications (1974)
- Three Projects (1969)
References
(1) The Great
Buildings Collection web site profile of John Hejduk
External links
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