Recently hit the Philadelphia Museum of Art for Zoe Strauss’s Ten Years (check it!) and Van Gogh: Up Close — the latter of which delivered a spectacular gallery devoted to paintings of grass (duuuude) and a gift shop that is part Whole Foods import aisle/part Marseille Provence Airport. In fact, I haven’t seen art merch this sublimely ridiculous since the Frida Kahlo extravaganza at SFMOMA a few years back.

And the pièce de résistance…

…the Starry Night tank dress!!!! Complete with beaded handbag.

I finally made it to Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., to investigate one of modernism’s more revealing architectural marvels. Ordinarily, I’d be posting all kinds of great pictures from my visit. Except that my visit wasn’t so great, because there was conservation work going on — meaning that half the house was covered in plastic tarps. This woulda been nice to know before we plunked down $90 (plus $2.50 for parking) to go see the damn thing.

Thankfully, I made up for the aggravation by defiling a badly-made Donald Judd sculpture with frivolity and then hitting the gift shop, where I discovered the above treasure: Philip Johnson-esque eyewear, described in the adjacent marketing material as “upscale fashion forward reading glasses.” Otherwise known as the kind of lookers worn by Harry Potter.

Eyeglass prices started at $125. (Seriously.) You can find the old coot in his signature specs here. See photos of our eyeglass fashion shoot after the jump.

Me, all cross-eyed, from having to hear all about “the architecture of negative space,” which in Johnson’s case was really a very nice way of saying “deforestation.”

He’s thinking about voids. For reals.

Find more pictures from our visit on Flickr.

What I Learned Today: Star Cigarettes, a division of Philip Morris, sold a limited edition pack in Europe in the early ’90s that celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall. Shown on the package is a piece of graffiti-covered slab being removed from the wall. It’s bubbly letters read STAR. An ad from the period shows a man’s hand clutching the commemorative pack.

Conceptual artist Martin Kippenberger used this image to create the wallpaper shown above in 1991. (It’s now on view at Luhring Augustine through 6/18). It is so many levels of conceptual: A cigarette company using a political act and someone’s tag to sell cigarettes which are then turned into art that is itself commodified. In other words: the art merch becomes the art. Like, whoa.

Find a bunch of Star Cigarettes special edition packs here. (Scroll to the bottom.)

George Condo playing cards at the MCASD La Jolla gift shop. Want.

Photos from the Cynthia Rowley party at Gagosian Bookstore. (All pix by C-M & El Celso.)