2003 Exhibition Year

Beyond the Frame:
Impressionism Revisited - The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.

9/13/2003 to 1/5/2004

Based on celebrated Impressionist-era works by Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh, J. Seward Johnson, Jr. creates life-size, cast metal tableaux visitors may enter and explore. Each of Johnson’s sculptures features a "sweet spot," a particular place from which to view the sculpture so that it closely recreates the subject and the complex spatial relationships of the original, late nineteenth-century painting. Visitors who venture into the tableaux quickly discover that Johnson freely and whimsically imagines what else might have been a part of the original scene, and he invents what the artist missed or chose not to paint. Johnson’s playful interpretations of these celebrated masterpieces are works of art in their own right, but they also encourage us to take a fresh look at some old favorites. The tableaux help us to see why the late nineteenth-century paintings on which Johnson bases his work were initially so startling and controversial.

J. Seward Johnson, Jr. is best known for his life-sized cast bronze figures featured in public and private collections around the world. The former President of the International Sculpture Center of Washington, DC (now located in New York City), Johnson established the Johnson Atelier Foundry and Technical Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. This institute encourages and provides technical training for emerging sculptors. He also founded the Grounds for Sculpture to make art, especially contemporary sculpture, more accessible to the public through its sculpture park and year-round indoor exhibition program in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited, the Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr. is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This exhibition is supported by The President’s Exhibition Fund and by travel sponsor Amtrak®. Amtrak is a registered service mark of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

Curator :: Jacquelyn Days Serwer