John Seward Johnson II

John Seward Johnson II
Born 1930 (age 85–86)
New Jersey
Occupation Artist
Spouse(s) Barbara Kline (m. ?-1965)
Joyce Horton (m. ?-present)
Children Jenia Anne "Cookie" Johnson
John Seward Johnson III
Clelia Constance Johnson
Parent(s) John Seward Johnson I (1895–1983)
Ruth Dill
Website www.sewardjohnson.com

John Seward Johnson II (born 16 April 1930), also known as J. Seward Johnson Jr. and Seward Johnson, is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues. He is a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, the co-founder of Johnson & Johnson) and Colonel Thomas Melville Dill of Bermuda.

He creates life-size bronze statues, which are castings of living people, depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities. A large staff of technicians perform the fabrication.

Early life

Waiting, a statue by Johnson, depicts a businessman reading a newspaper, is installed at Australia Square in central Sydney, Australia
Allow Me sculpture in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland, Oregon
Big Sister sculpture in Brisbane, Australia

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, 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 did not graduate.[3] Johnson also served four years in the Navy during the Korean War.[2]

Career

Johnson worked for Johnson & Johnson until he was fired by his uncle Robert Wood Johnson II, in 1962.[4]

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

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 has generated 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 alleged 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. The city was wary of accepting a gift that might result in a financial loss from a possible legal battle that evidenced merit, according to the city attorney.[12]
In October 2014, French feminist group Osez La Feminisme ! petitioned to have a copy of the statue, erected at a World War II memorial in Normandy in September 2014,[13] removed and sent back to the United States, criticizing it as "immortali[zing] a sexual assault"[14]

For statues made recently in a series named, Iconic, by Johnson,[19] 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.[19]

Criticism

Johnson's work was labeled as "kitsch" in a 1984 article 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.[20]

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 work.[21][22]

Philanthropy

Johnson is the chairman and CEO of The Atlantic Foundation, the foundation created by his father John Seward Johnson I in 1963. 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.[19] Educational programs at the Atelier ceased in 2004. The Johnson Atelier now operates as a division of The Sculpture Foundation and Johnson continues to realize his sculpture at the facility but casting is often performed off premisses with some of his larger works being cast 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)[19]

Under Johnson's direction, The Atlantic Foundation purchased the old New Jersey Fairgrounds in Hamilton, New Jersey and in 1992 founded the Grounds For Sculpture to display work completed at the Johnson Atelier and other outdoor exhibitions. In 2000 park operations were transferred to a new Public Charity with the same intent that continues to operate the park.[19]

He is former president of the International Sculpture Center of Hamilton, New Jersey, which publishes a magazine out of offices in Washington, D.C.[19]

Johnson also is the former president of a large oceanographic research institution in Florida founded by his father, the publisher of a science magazine, Johnson and his wife funded the construction of The Joyce and Seward Johnson Theater for the Theater for the New City, an Off-Broadway theater in New York.[19]

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.[23]

Johnson was formerly married to Barbara Kline. She often engaged in extramarital affairs in their home, driving Johnson to attempt suicide.[1][24][25] In 1965, he acknowledged paternity to Jenia Anne "Cookie" Johnson without a DNA test, to speed up the divorce process.[26][27] 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 Cookie.[28]

Johnson later 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.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 McMurran, Kristin. "The Band-Aid Heir Left All He Owned to His Widow, but His Children Claim It Was Just Seward's Folly". People.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  2. 1 2 3 Reed, J. D. (June 30, 2002). "Seward's Follies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Chris Farrell Membership - "Online Success - Made Simple..."". Nantucketindependent.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  4. ↑ "A Matter of Opinion". www.daytondailynews.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  5. ↑ Page on Johnson's site
  6. 1 2 3 4 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. ↑ midnight (2009-11-08). "comparison with other statues placed at San Diego". Signonsandiego.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  9. ↑ "criticism by veteran and former Life magazine editor, Sarasota Herald Tribune, August 22, 2009". Heraldtribune.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  10. ↑ "Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/lib/inc/header.php on line 37 — Gainesville.com Videos Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/lib/inc/header.php on line 38". Heraldtribune.com. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  11. ↑ "Unconditional Surrender Statue". Roadsideamerica.com. 1945-08-14. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  12. ↑ "Ogles, Jacob, ''Unconditional Surrender Deal to Be Finalized Today'', SRQ Daily, June 11, 2010". Srqmagazine.com. 2010-11-06. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  13. ↑ PRESS, ASSOCIATED (23 September 2014). "WWII kissing statue lands in Normandy".
  14. ↑ "Iconic 'kiss' sculpture depicts sexual assault says French feminist group".
  15. ↑ "Arts and Design District Hosts New Holiday Event" (PDF). City of Carmel Newsletter. 2006.
  16. ↑ Orden, Erica; Nicas, Jack (August 8, 2011). "A Statuesque Blonde Bombshell Explodes a City's Sense of Decorum". The Wall Street Journal.
  17. ↑ "Marilyn Monroe Statue Protects Chicagoans in the Rain". London: Dailymail.co.uk. 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  18. ↑ "Business News: Forever Marilyn to Stay in Palm Springs until Mid-November". The Public Record. 37 (32): 3. July 30, 2013. ISSN 0744-205X. OCLC 8101482.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Seward Johnson". Seward Johnson. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ Gopnik, Blake (2012-08-21). "A Bad Impression. At the Corcoran Gallery, Seward Johnson's Travesty in Three Dimensions". Washington Post.
  22. ↑ Clemonson, Lynette (2005-05-28). "Corcoran, After Dispute, Casts About for New Path". Nytimes.com.
  23. ↑ Margolick, David (May 4, 1990). "Mary Lea Johnson Richards, 63, Founder of Production Company". The New York Times.
  24. ↑ Lovenheim, Barbara (June 21, 1987). "Family Fortune: Tangled Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  25. ↑ . Books.google.com. 1987-02-23. p. 129 https://books.google.com/?id=peMCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=mary+lea+johnson+first+baby#v=onepage&q=mary%20lea%20johnson%20first%20baby&f=false. Retrieved 2013-04-09. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ↑ Jackson, Herb. "NJCA in the News". Njcitizenaction.org. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  27. ↑ Page 14. Books.google.com. April 2001. ISBN 9781563437441. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  28. ↑ Pages 14–17. Books.google.com. April 2001. ISBN 9781563437441. Retrieved 2013-04-09.

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