The Afterlife of an Exhibition: John Hejduk and the "Education of an Architect"

Abstract

While the status of the architectural exhibition has recently received renewed attention in the museum world as a specific set of practices different from other forms of curation and display, less attention has been paid among architects to the specificities of the exhibition and its related formats as vehicles for reshaping public understanding of architecture. Beyond the exhibition as an opportunity to expose a broader audience to architecture, museums and galleries have been important platforms for the discussion, exploration, and dissemination of fundamental disciplinary ambitions, particularly also through their exponentially growing publications programs. This essay focuses on a small, and often overseen exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Staged by the architect John Hejduk, exhibition number 984 <em>Education of an Architect</em> (1971) showcased student work from the Cooper Union. While the impact of this exhibition consisting of fourteen models and a selection of drawings and collages, was mostly limited to a local audience, the book published in parallel would prove to become a key reference for architectural educators around the world. <em>Education of an Architect: A Point of View</em> (1971) is the origin for a number of publications that focus on pedagogical concepts, and as such, it fueled the discussion and reassessment of how we teach foundational courses in architectural design.