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John Seward Johnson II

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John Seward Johnson II
Born1930 (age 94–95)
New Jersey
Occupation(s)Artist, entrepreneur
Spouse(s)Barbara Kline (m. ?-1965)
Joyce Horton (m. ?-present)
ChildrenJenia Anne "Cookie" Johnson
John Seward Johnson III
Clelia Constance Johnson
Parent(s)John Seward Johnson I (1895-1983)
Ruth Dill
WebsiteOfficial website

John Seward Johnson II (born 1930) also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson).

He is best known for his life-size bronze statues, which actually are castings of living people of all ages depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities. A large staff of technicians perform the fabrication.

Waiting, a statue by Johnson, depicts a businessman reading a newspaper, is installed at Australia Square in central Sydney, Australia

Early life

Johnson was born in New Jersey. His father was John Seward Johnson I, and his mother was Ruth Dill, the sister of actress Diana Dill, therefore making him a first cousin of actor Michael Douglas. Johnson grew up with five siblings: Mary Lea Johnson Richards, Elaine Johnson, Diana Melville Johnson, Jennifer Underwood Johnson, and James Loring "Jimmy" Johnson. His parents divorced around 1937, and his father remarried two years later, producing his only brother Jimmy Johnson, making him an uncle to film director Jamie Johnson.[1] Johnson attended Forman School for dyslexics[2] and University of Maine, where he majored in poultry husbandry, but didn't graduate.[3] Johnson also served four years in the Navy during the Korean War.[4]

Career

File:Awakening by John Seward Johnson Jr 8July2008.jpg
Awakening was placed in a new location and its components were positioned differently after being bought from Johnson

Johnson worked for Johnson & Johnson until he was fired by his uncle Robert Wood Johnson II, in 1962.[5]

His early artistic efforts focused on painting, after which he turned to sculpture in 1968. Examples of his statues include:

  • The Awakening (1980), his largest and most dramatic work, is a 70-foot five-part statue that depicts a giant trying to free himself from underground; it was located at Hains Point in Washington, D.C. for nearly twenty-eight years while still owned by Johnson, it was moved to Prince George's County, Maryland in February 2008 and an attempt was made by the new curator to correct some of the scale distortions of the original by altering some underground connections and placing the parts in different relationships to each other.
File:US Navy 070210-N-7643B-079 The statue ^ldquo,Unconditional Surrender,^rdquo, which represents a famous photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a Sailor kissing a nurse in Time Square, New York City 1945, was dedicated to the city .jpg
A twenty-five-feet-tall version of Unconditional Surrender, which is cited as an unauthorized derivative of the photograph V–J day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt by its copyright holder
  • Unconditional Surrender (a series with several versions begun in 2005), a spokesperson for Johnson has stated that this series is based on a photograph that is in the public-domain, Kissing the War Goodbye, by Victor Jorgensen,[6] however, the Jorgensen photographic image does not extend low enough to include the lower legs and shoes of the subjects, revealed in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph, V–J day in Times Square, that are represented identically in the statue. A spokesperson for Life has called it a copyright infringement of the latter image.[6] Nonetheless, the first version, a bronze statue of life-size, was placed on temporary exhibition during the 2005 anniversary of V-J Day at the Times Square Information Center near where the original photographs were taken in Manhattan.[7] Several slightly differing twenty-five-foot-versions have been constructed in styrofoam and aluminum with little detail, painted, and put on display by Johnson in San Diego, California,[6][8] Key West, Florida, Snug Harbor in New York, and Sarasota, Florida. Their immensity has drawn crowds of viewers at each site although the view of them from nearby is severely limited, essentially allowing a vista of the legs and up the skirt. The statues are described as kitsch by an art critic.[6] A proposal to establish a permanent location for a copy on the Sarasota bay front is generating a heated controversy about the suitability of the statue to the location, suitability as a military service memorial,[9] the permanent placement of any statue on that public property, as well as the particular issues of unoriginality, mechanical construction, and kitschiness of the statue.[10][11] In final agreement documents Johnson committed the purchase price to cover copyright liability damages in order to have the statue placed in a city wary of accepting a gift that would result in a financial loss from a legal battle that evidenced merit according to the city attorney.[12]
  • Double Check (1982), a statue of a man checking his briefcase; it was located in Liberty Plaza Park across from the World Trade Center; photographs of the damaged and dust-covered statue, part of a building developer's required display were among the photographs taken following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001; a restored statue has been returned to the now-renamed Zuccotti Park and the area has been opened to the public.
  • Hitchhiker (1983), a statue along the side of a road leading away from the campus of Hofstra University.
  • Allow Me (1984), a statue of man holding an umbrella, in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon.
  • First Ride (2006), a statue of a father helping his young daughter learn to ride a bike, in Carmel, Indiana.[13]
  • Déjeuner Déjà Vu (1994), at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, a facility founded by Johnson, is a three-dimensional imitation of Edouard Manet's painting, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe.[14]
  • Copyright Infringement (1994), at Grounds for Sculpture, a facility founded by Johnson, is a sculpture named to flaunt his disdain for criticism of his copies of the iconic works of fine art artists with international recognition, representing the fine artist, Manet, whose work he has copied.

For statues made recently in a series named, Iconic, by Johnson,[15] many of which are very large, a computer program is employed that translates two-dimensional images into statues that are constructed by a machine driven by the program. Often, these subjects are images that already are well known as the works of others, generating heated ethical controversies regarding copyright infringement and derivative works due to substantial similarity issues.

Johnson's works were selected by the United States Information Agency to represent the freedoms of the United States in a public and private partnership enterprise representation sponsored by General Motors and many other U.S. corporations at the World EXPO celebration in Seville, Spain during 1992.[15]

Criticism

As early as 1984 Johnson's work was labeled as "kitsch" by an art professor and critic at Princeton University, who explained its rejection as he was commenting on a controversy raging about the work in New Haven, Connecticut,[16] and the label has dogged him throughout his career.

His cast statues and imitations of famous creations by others have not been well received in professional art circles. Some of them include the use of computer-driven designs from images of original artworks by others that are being presented as Johnson's original artwork.

Software such as Maya are capable of producing such designs and greatly enlarging them mechanically, without artistic modeling. They can be cut into styrofoam, plastic, and other materials. Inexpensive metals such as aluminum now are being used in Asia for second-generation copies of works he first had executed in bronze from casts of living people and later statues that are computer generated.[citation needed]

Robert Hughes, the art critic of the New York Times, [17] and numerous other art critics claim that his work is not art.

His 2003 show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, "Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited," which presented his statues imitating famous Impressionist paintings, was a success with audiences, but was panned by professional art critics of national stature and drew strong criticism from curators at other museums about a prominent museum of fine art presenting an exhibit of his kitschy work.[18][19]

Philanthropy

Johnson is a very wealthy man who has made contributions to the appreciation of art by way of providing venues for art [20] and supporting technical facilities that could help other artists learn techniques he applied to build some of his own statues. The foundry he established provides professional service to others as well as for his own works. Although they are pointedly self-serving, most have become identified as nonprofit facilities, organizations, and foundations. Frequently he funds completely the exhibits of his work. He often donates his statues to contribute to fund raising efforts by worthy charities.

Johnson created the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture, an educational, nonprofit casting and fabrication facility in 1974 as a means of fostering young sculptors' talents, while creating a foundry designed to construct his statues that is so well-equipped and staffed that it is chosen by many renowned sculptors.[15] Johnson has stopped using it, however, having his own large statues made in China.

He also founded an organization called The Sculpture Foundation, to promote his works. In 1987, he published Celebrating the Familiar: The Sculpture of J. Seward Johnson, Jr. (ISBN 0-912383-57-7) [15]

Johnson purchased the old New Jersey Fairgrounds in Hamilton, New Jersey and in 1992 founded the Grounds for Sculpture to display his works and to provide a venue for outdoor displays. In 2000 it was converted to a nonprofit organization with the same intent.[15]

He is former president of the International Sculpture Center of Hamilton, New Jersey, which publishes a magazine out of offices in Washington, D.C.[15]

Johnson also is the former president of a large oceanographic research institution in Florida founded by his father, the publisher of a science magazine, and the founder of an off-Broadway theater in New York.[15]

Personal life

Johnson was excluded from his father's will, which left the bulk of his fortune to Barbara Piasecka Johnson, his father's wife and former chambermaid. He and his siblings sued on grounds that their father wasn't mentally competent at the time he signed the will. It was settled out of court, and the children were granted about 12% of the fortune.[21]

Johnson was formerly married to Barbara Kline. She often engaged in extramarital affairs in their home, driving Johnson to attempt suicide.[1][22][23] In 1965, he acknowledged paternity to Jenia Anne "Cookie" Johnson without a DNA test, to speed up the divorce process.[24][25] Years later, Johnson's family had a legal battle regarding Cookie Johnson's eligibility for a share in the Johnson & Johnson fortune. The court ruled in favor of the latter.[26]

Johnson married Joyce Horton, a novelist. They have two children: John Seward Johnson III and actress Clelia Constance Johnson who goes by the name India Blake.[4]

See also

  • Rogers v. Koons
  • Johnson v. Johnson (1988, ISBN 0-440-20041-5)
  • Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (1993, ISBN 0-688-06425-6)

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20093724,00.html
  2. ^ Reed, J. D. (June 30, 2002). "Seward's Follies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  3. ^ http://www.nantucketindependent.com/news/2008-08-27/Other_News/A_poolside_chat_with_sculptor_J_Seward_Johnson.html
  4. ^ a b Reed, J. D. (June 30, 2002). "Seward's Follies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  5. ^ http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/opinion/entries/2009/08/22/scott_elliott_sculptors_life_a.html
  6. ^ a b c d Robert L. Pincus, "Port surrenders in the battle against kitsch", San Diego Union-Tribune, March 11, 2007.
  7. ^ "V-J Day Is Replayed, but the Lip-Lock's Tamer This Time", New York Times, August 15, 2005.
  8. ^ comparison with other statues placed at San Diego
  9. ^ http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090822/LETTERS/908219932/2163/OPINION?Title=Reject-copycat-sailor-statue criticism by veteran and former Life magazine editor, Sarasota Herald Tribune, August 22, 2009
  10. ^ http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090713/VIDEO/907132002&template=video
  11. ^ Unconditional Surrender Statue
  12. ^ http://www.srqmagazine.com/JMailer/showMassMail.cfm?masID=1967 Ogles, Jacob, Unconditional Surrender Deal to Be Finalized Today, SRQ Daily, June 11, 2010
  13. ^ City of Carmel Newsletter, Vol. 1, 2006. "Arts and Design District Hosts New Holiday Event" [1]
  14. ^ Page on Johnson's site
  15. ^ a b c d e f g http://www.sewardjohnson.com/site/index.html biographical information on web site of the subject
  16. ^ Neuhaus, Cable (1984-03-26). "Cast in Bronze and Controversy, Sculptor J. Seward Johnson's Works Find No Haven in New Haven". People.com. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  17. ^ http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Robert+Hughes+-+seward+Johnson&aq=f&oq=Robert+Hughes+-+chocolate+box+of+rubbish&aqi=&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=O7FXPb8FcKE chocolate box of rubbish
  18. ^ Blake Gopnik, Washington Post. "A Bad Impression. At the Corcoran Gallery, Seward Johnson's Travesty in Three Dimensions" [2]
  19. ^ Lynette Clemonson, "Corcoran, After Dispute, Casts About for New Path"
  20. ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-21840.html
  21. ^ Margolick, David (May 4, 1990). "Mary Lea Johnson Richards, 63, Founder of Production Company". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  22. ^ Lovenheim, Barbara (June 21, 1987). "Family Fortune: Tangled Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  23. ^ [3] Pp. 129.
  24. ^ http://www.njcitizenaction.org/news/cfr035.html
  25. ^ [4] Pp. 14.
  26. ^ [5] Pp. 14-17.
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